Returns of Marxism to be published

Thanks to generous help from friends of the IIRE, we have secured the €1,000 necessary to be able to publish Returns of Marxism, a major compilation of contemporary challenges to Marxism.  

‘Returns of Marxism’ was the title of a seminar series at the IIRE. It was intended to highlight the return of discussion of Marxist themes. In recent years we have witnessed a renewed interest in Marx’s thought, as a younger generation of scholars and activists has rediscovered Marx as a crucial source for the critique of the neo-liberal face of capitalism. In times of crisis like ours, there’s a need for radical critiques of exploitation, inequality and alienation. Marx’s thought is an immensely rich resource for such critiques.

Returns of Marxism brings together revised texts of papers originally presented at the seminar series. The contributions, from scholars and activists from different traditions and generations,  comprise an urgent renewal of radical critique. Contributors include Guglielmo Carchedi, Chiara Bonfiglioli, Jeffery Webber, Katja Diefenbach, Marcel Van Der Linden and Peter D. Thomas. The book is edited by Sara R. Farris. Have a look at the complete table of contents below.

A warm thanks to those listed below, each of whom donated at least €20, and to everybody else who helped ensure funding for this publication:

-       Daniel Dufaux, Belgium

-       Anders Ekeland, Norway

-       Shane Hopkinson, Australia

-       Arnold Jeppsson, Sweden

-       Bob Jessop, United Kingdom

-       Mark Leier, Canada

-       Marlon Lieber, Germany

-       Jonathan Morton, United Kingdom.

We expect the book to be on sale in the next few months.

Table of contents:

Introduction – Sara R. Farris

Reading Capital

  1. Guglielmo Carchedi – The Crisis and Marx's Theory of Knowledge.

  2. Riccardo BellofioreChrysalis and Butterfly, Ghost and Vampire.Marx’s Capital as the ‘Gothic’ Critical Political Economy of Zombie Capitalism.

  3. Michael Heinrich – History of the Theory of Marx's Critique of the Economy.

  4. Geert Reuten How Money Constitutes Value: From ‘Abstract Labour’ to Money.

  5. Frieder Otto WolfWhat ‘capitalism’ is, what it means to be against it, and what it takes to end it.

Re-Reading Marx

  1. Tom Rockmore – Is Marx a Fichtean?

  2. Wei XiaopingDid Marx Have a Principle of Distributive Justice?

  3. Joost Kircz1Elements of an Essay on Human Change.

Marxism and International Politics

  1. Jan Drahokoupil, Bastiaan Van Apeldoorn, Laura HornTowards a Critical Political Economy of European Governance.

  2. Gal Kirn – Against Reconciliation: Thinking the Partisans in Yugoslavia.

  3. Jeffery Webber ‘The Last Day of Oppression, and the First Day of the Same’: Popular Forces Regroup against Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Historicising Historical Materialism

  1. Bertel Nygaard – Reconsidering Bourgeois Revolution.

  2. Marcel Van Der Linden – Conceptualising the World Working Class.

  3. Peter D. Thomas Gramsci’s Reading of the Base/Superstructure Metaphor.

Feminist and Queer Marxisms

  1. Chiara Bonfiglioli – ‘Workers of the World, Who Washes Your Socks?’ Second Wave Feminist Critiques of Marxism in Italy, France and Yugoslavia.

  2. Peter Drucker – Socialist Feminist Questions about Queer Activism.

Many Marxisms

  1. Katja Diefenbach – The Coming Communism. On the Post-Workerist Reading of Marx.

  2. Steve WrightOperaismo and its Actuality Today.

  3. Roland Boer – A Difficult Love Affair? On the Relation Between Marxism and Theology.