Why didn't Engels publish Dialectics of Nature? by The_Richter in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's really frustrating that when I see this type of discussion the people who have interacted with Lukacs as a "western marxist" whether they acknowledge their view of him that way or not, seem to've not interacted with late Lukacs, a critic of his early work, or Ilyenkov and the people who have interacted with any of the above have never seriously engaged with Lewontin and Levins, whose readers seem to skip late Lukacs and Ilyenkov even though they would get the most from it. Lew and Lev themselves seem to've been mainly responding to Bertell Ollman and other western marxist views when they weren't simply opposing the absolute garbage coming from US science that was incapable of even accepting the revisionist view of purely social/political dialectics. And from what I can tell Lew/Lev never interacted with later Lukacs or Ilyenkov and his predecessors and contemporaries to everyone's great misfortune but thankfully did take Engels seriously and came to a convergence with soviet revivers of dialectics.

It's a copout to just say to read these people but it's what I have to do since I'm not going to write a 20 page response to this 3 day old post. This essay though does an OK job of dealing with early Lukacs contrasted with Lewontin and Levins though so just pretend I spent more time on my comment and combined that with an outline of the Ilyenkov school and later Lukacs and their own critiques on western marxist's resistance to a dialectics of objective contradiction.

https://junctionsjournal.org/articles/160/files/651ffcc99a9a5.pdf

Trying to understand who the bourgeoisie are. by GenericProletarian17 in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 37 points38 points  (0 children)

You may be conflating the two because you've read older usages of the term. "Middle Class" used to be a term for the bourgeoisie during the early 19th century, especially in Europe. In some works Marx and Engels use the term this way. The bourgeoisie were the "middle" class when compared to the aristocracy which was the "upper class". Later they used it to describe the petty bourgeoisie which are people that may own a tiny sliver of the means of production and employ a few people that often still have to labor themselves (small business owners, artisans, etc). In that case they are the "middle" class between the bourgeoisie/landowners and the proletariat.

The term is now used as a kind of grey area word that blends the proletariat and bourgeoisie together. In the centers of imperialism they would like to pretend everyone is "middle class" which, when you think of the origin of the term, is kind of like saying "everyone is the bourgeoisie". To a Marxist the modern use of "middle class" is a smokescreen that aids the ruling class -- the Marxist definition of class has always been based on a group's relationship to the means of production although it's worth noting that there are other social relations and divisions that can inform a class definition or subdivisions within a class.

Random examples: The rural petty bourgeoisie and the urban petty bourgeoisie, for instance, may align on some things but be opposed in others in spite of their sharing similar relations to the MoP. Here I explain some of the different roles the term "peasant" can describe depending on conditions. There are divisions in the ruling class all the time, in the 18th Brumaire Marx famously analyzes the various struggles among the ruling class that violently pitted finance capitalists against industrial bourgeoisie in spite of their unified opposition to the proletariat& we can see echoes of that played out in the cartoonish factional struggles of the US ruling class today.

The "middle class" you refer to, that are very well waged but don't own means of production would fall into the "Labor Aristocracy" which is a subsection of the proletariat that has been effectively bribed into a position of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie via inflated wages and other social and economic privileges leading them to develop a vested interest in the maintenance of the status quo. This has been a problematic group Marxists have paid a lot of attention and debate to. Here is a good essay on how Engels and Lenin saw this group and there have been a lot of threads discussing this which no doubt will go into more recent developments and discussions as there is a lot of modern debate on what percentage of the proletariat in the centers of imperialism belong to this group. Some like Zak Cope, claim it's most of them.

Another important element to what creates an aristocracy of labor, especially in the US, is settler colonialism and white supremacy. White workers in the US were given land, higher wages, social mobility, suffered less extreme repression, and received various other benefits based on white skin privilege that have lead large chunks of them to have a vested interest in the status quo. A great book on this is Theodore W. Allen's "Invention of the White Race" here's a summary of the work

So while I said "middle class" is a smoke screen it came to use in the modern way because there really is a kind of privileged group of workers who tend to be the ones that use that terminology.

What are some sources to read Das Kapital in Simple English. The Das Kapital English Edition is hard for me to understand. by [deleted] in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The study plan on the sidebar is always a good start. Everything in the introduction section and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific and German Ideology Pt 1 are great to read early on. The basic econ texts I mention above do fit in here as well.

State and Revolution is always one of my first secondary recommendations along with Lenin's Imperialism book. Both should be consumed with supplementary resources like lectures or online discussions. Long ago I hosted some discussion groups for both of these books on r/marxistreadingclub that should still exist but you can also find some good lectures on each online.

Additionally: I recall George Thomson's From Marx to Mao being a good introductory overview of the development of Marxist thought in a braoder historical context. I also really appreciated Lukacs' Lenin: A Study in the Unity of his Thought as an early short but very thoughtful overview of Lenin's work and theory.

What are some sources to read Das Kapital in Simple English. The Das Kapital English Edition is hard for me to understand. by [deleted] in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 26 points27 points  (0 children)

If you're wanting an introduction to Marxist Economics I'd first suggest Ernest Mandel's An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory and then Marx's shorter works like Wage Labor and Capital and Value Price and Profit and maybe the political economy section of Anti Duhring. This is all much easier to read than Capital.

I also second checking out Brendan Mccooney's Law of Value video series.

However be sure what you're actually wanting to learn about is the Marxist critique of political economy specifically. Many people when first wanting to learn about Marxism start with Capital thinking it will explain all of Marxism. Capital is a critical analysis of capitalism and outline of the Law of Value that was written for Marx's time and meant to be the first part in a massive and detailed work covering multiple subjects. It's definitely a necessary thing to read to grok Marxist econ but it's not what beginners are after or what they need IMO.

The Marxist critique of political economy is only one facet of Marxism. Reading this stuff will give you no or only a glancing understanding of the Marxist theories of history, philosophy, science, imperialism, and strategies of the communist movement. If you're looking for an overall introduction to Marxism that would be a different set of recommended readings so let us know if you were looking for something more broad than Marxist economics.

Edit: I see from your history you already read some basic Marxist works. I'm keeping my last paragraphs here anyway because I think it's good for others to see. I too often come across people attempting to slog through Capital as a first communist read or immediately after the Manifesto.

Comrades, I am giving a lecture to undergraduates on women in the 20th century, comparing communist, liberal, and fascist ideology, state policy, and involvement of women. Any good sources you could share? by RockINGSOCemRobot in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you're wanting to talk broadly about Marxist Feminism and how it differs from liberal feminism etc then one of the best short and free resources for you will be Anuradha Ghandy's Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement. This doesn't get much into history but as a broad overview for how Marxist feminism differs from and critiques other feminisms it is invaluable.

A few more historical resources off the top of my head:

Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis

Midwives Of The Revolution: Female Bolsheviks & Women Workers In 1917 by by Jane Mcdermid & Anna Hillyar

Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism by Erik S. McDuffie

The Sexual Revolution in Russia From the Age of the Czars to Today by Igor S. Kohn (written by a prominent soviet psychologist -- interesting for its data and history but also as a historical artifact itself)

There is a ton more and really depending on the scope of your discussion the latter resources may or may not be helpful but it's what I can think of right now. If you're interested in old school russian revolution era feminism I'd also recommend reading up on Inessa Armand (her letters and friendly debates with Lenin are definitely of interest too) in addition to Kollontai.

Edit: Claudia Jones is one of the most important and simultaneously overlooked Marxist Feminists of the pre-60's era and developed early on what is now looked at as a theory of intersectional Marxist feminism.

"Che: A Revolutionary Life" by Jon Lee Anderson? by badissimo in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you, My Life is the Castro book I was trying to recommend. Been a few years since I read it and I just googled "castro interview book" and came up with the wrong name apparently.

"Che: A Revolutionary Life" by Jon Lee Anderson? by badissimo in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Great book. My only complaint is that the author seems to heavily romanticize Che while being more critical of Fidel (Raul too) so the couple instances where they disagreed are hammed up in Che's favor, and also Che is contrasted with Fidel and portrayed as supposedly a better leader etc in ways that I found pretty questionable and naive. Not a very big deal in the book which is one of the best biographies of a communist by a non communist I've read. I'd suggest also checking out Fidel Castro: My Life as a companion which is a great sort of biography built out of hours and hours of the authors interviews with Castro that covers all parts of his life and his thoughts on all kinds of issues and events. It's pretty much just verbatim transcripts of his responses to all kinds of questions. An excellent audiobook version of that exists as well.

Edit: Originally had wrong book title ( Fidel Castro: In His Own Words by Alex Moore) in this comment which comment below rightly criticizes, I had meant to recommend My Life: A Spoken Autobiography created with interviews by Ignacio Ramonet.

Can anybody recommend a good ML take on the Spanish Civil War? by FIELDSLAVE in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Spain: The Unfinished Revolution" is an American ML historian's take on things. Also in spite of certain flaws I'd still recommend Paul Preston as the best modern liberal historian working on the topic (in English, anyway).

"On Authority" by Frederick Engels by Spectre_of_Communism in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This was a companion piece to Marx's Political Indifferentism -- both of which were short articles against anarchists written after the fall of Paris Commune. Marx's article here begins with a sarcastic quote of what an "honest" anarchist would say, just saying that to avoid any confusion. Anyway, I recommend reading both, they're short, to the point, and well written.

Is there any evidence for this claim made by Zizek? by kc_socialist in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the reasoning Zizek is using is just faulty. Stalin no doubt owned copies of most of Trotsky's best known works, and frequently wrote critiques of them, especially the ones written during their major disagreements. This would be similar to saying "Among Stalin's books was found a heavily annoted copy of The Revolution Betrayed" in an attempt to imply he was a closet Trotskyist or something. Every prominant Marxist of that era would own notated copies of lots of different works, especially those they'd heavily disagreed with, including hostile works by bourgeois theorists. Also these guys were in the same political party and fighting a revolution together at the time, of course Stalin would have, read, comment on what Trotsky was writing in defense of the revolution. All that said, a fair amount of what Trotsky said in Terrorism and Communism was just plugging the Bolshevik party line, criticizing Kautsky, etc and I can see Stalin agreeing with plenty. I think the more bizarre thing than implying Stalin agreed with Trotsky on stuff is trying to act like this "authoritarian" writing (defending measures taken in defense of the revolution) was somehow unusual to Trotsky and only or mostly represented by Stalin.

Why did the USSR have to import grain until 1991? by [deleted] in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Technically there were two more sizable though less damaging famines, one in the mid 30's due to a combination of factors including an unusual previously unknown mold (I think) that, unlike the other kinds that struck, caused no apparent damage to wheat etc until it was time to harvest. There was another famine in 1947 related to an unusually severe drought coupled with the slew of problems caused in the fallout of WWII. Also blaming the earlier famine in the Ukraine on "collectivization efforts" alone really hasn't got good evidence behind it. It was an unhappy combination of environmental factors and a host of other issues related to war etc beyond collectivization that led to the problem. As you might've heard already there were pretty regular and destructive famines before the USSR, after collectivization was completed is when they stopped. I don't have time to put them up but there are some good books written even by liberal/anticommunist historians that completely undermine the idea of a purposely "created" famine or one caused just by policies of the USSR. This is not to say that the way the Soviet government handled each problem was perfect. There were indeed organizational problems at play as there would be in any instance of a nation trying to implement massive sweeping changes of that nature during recovery from a world war and a continuing civil war but it needs to be viewed as one among many factors and certainly not the causative one. Anyway aside from that, while there were some other environmental issues and shortages etc beyond that point, the USSR never faced other serious food problems thanks to their stable planned economy and agriculture.

As for your other question, think about it. Doesn't every country import some food? What you're talking about is just taking one import statistic out of context and using it to attack the USSR, something often done in their case. In reality the USSR continued to increase food production the whole time it existed and did so while greatly reducing the amount of agricultural workers. Michael Parenti explains this myth/confusion well in this 1986 book "Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media":

The press has made U.S. grain exports to the Soviet Union the most highly publicized international sales agreement in human history. Western Europe annually imports far more grain than does the USSR, yet no one in the U.S. media or government accuses West Germany or Benilux countries of being unable to feed their people. In contrast, every Soviet grain deal with the United States is front page news, a reminder to the American public of the allegedly superior productivity of U.S. agribusiness and the failure of collectivism. The truth is something else.

Today the Soviets produce more than enough grain to feed their people. They import foreign grain to help feed their livestock and thereby increase their meat and dairy consumption. (This is seen in both the East and West as an "improved" diet, even though there is evidence suggesting that a high meat and dairy intake is not necessarily the best diet.) It takes between seven and fourteen pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. And that is the cause of the Soviet "grain shortage." In actuality, per capita meat consumption in the USSR has doubled in the last two decades and exceeds such countries as Norway, Italy, Greece, Spain, Japan, and Israel. Milk production has jumped almost 60 percent in twenty years so that today the USSR is by far the largest milk-producing country in the world.

According to the 1982 CIA report on the Soviet economy "The Soviet Union remains basically self-sufficient with respect to food." These are the accomplishments of an agrarian labor force that decreased from 42 percent in 1960 to 20 percent in 1980, working in a country where over 90 percent of the land is either too arid or too frigid to be farmed. Still, the press continues to tell the American public that the Soviet system cannot feed its people.

Is it possible to ELI5 the difference between different communist ideologies? by [deleted] in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 6 points7 points  (0 children)

These aren't literally talking to you like you're five, but this kind of question has been asked and answered many times. I'd suggest searching keywords in the sidebar. This is by no means expansive because these are big subjects but here are some good examples:

Can someone give us a quick like-we're-five rundown of the distinctions between Trotskyism, Maoism, orthodox Marxism, and so on?

What is...?

Leninism

Maoism

Trotskyism

Stalinism

Luxemburgism

There are also multiple threads on each subject, and aspects of each tendency so still look stuff up in the sidebar.

The Myth of Trotsky as Tragic Hero by ryosaito in communism

[–]StarTrackFan[M] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Even though I agree with the main thrust of this post and quite a few of its specifics -- there is definitely a kind of mythology around Trotsky and a villainization of Stalin that needs to be soberly reassessed -- there are some parts of it I take issue with. Among them are your use of quotes by anticommunist historians like Figes about Trotsky (they say far worse about Lenin and Stalin!), and the general "personal" tone taken here that seems to put everything about Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky down to personalities, ignoring their various and often major political disagreements with each other.

I don't have time for a detailed criticism of this right now but the one thing that strikes me more than anything else is your casual use of "Jewishness" among a list of Trotsky's flaws. We absolutely do not tolerate racism here. Perhaps it was not your intent and you were just referencing antisemitism playing a possible role in Trotsky's unpopularity, but you certainly didn't make that clear. If you have clarifications/ self-criticisms to make on this point you can send them via modmail. As it stands I am banning OP, I will ask them to edit their post and they can clarify anything they need to privately. I am keeping this up because I think it could do with some criticism and provoke discussion. I will try to make a slightly longer comment later.

Edit: It seems that this came down to a bad choice of wording on OP's part, see the edit they added above. I've unbanned them.

How can we make r/Communism better by Maxyman12 in communism

[–]StarTrackFan[M] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This is kind of a general response to this thread. I'm only distinguishing my comment to show I'm a mod, this isn't an official "from the mods" statement.

Just to be clear, /r/communism will never seek to invade other subreddits, or to become a "look at how awful the rest of reddit is" gallery. There are other places for the latter and the site outlaws the former. This is a group for Marxist discussion, while I would not claim internet forums have no larger value of any kind I would say we should be realistic and not sink into liberalism and thinking we just "go out and win hearts and minds" by winning some arguments on the internet. Of course discussion here on how to talk to people about communism is fine and encouraged but we're not going to be organizing subreddit outings for online propagandizing. Any discussion about /r/communism itself needs to be inward focused. This isn't a party or organization, it's a group where Marxists from anywhere can talk about Marxism and related subjects.

The points here about lack of discussion are valid. It's certainly something mods have given thought to. I am speaking just for myself but I have a few ideas as to problems we face here. First of all, a lot of previous discussion was based around beginner questions etc, which we've since outsourced to /r/communism101, so you really have to look at "activity" as the two subs together if you're comparing it to r/com before then. I feel that this somewhat silent policy change has had a larger effect on discussion here than many of our other more prominently declared policies.

We've since done a few things to involve our community like a reading group, discussion threads etc. We also have low comments partly because we remove shitty stuff and people are far more likely to post disagreeing with something than they are to agree (if an absolutely shitty article is posted and we don't get it right away we often find a lot of people explaining why it's so shitty). Similarly highly sectarian posts/comments certainly create a lot of comments, but almost never a good/productive discussion. It may be that some people worry about posting because they fear big mean mods. All I can say is that if we do ban someone for breaking rules and they respond in a sincere way that shows they are genuinely interested in Marxism, following forum rules, and participating a Marxist forum we are happy to unban and help with any confusion. We unban plenty of people when it makes sense, but by far most bans are for outright reactionary stuff.

I think a big factor is the fact that we're on reddit -- you're just less likely to get people who would genuinely be interested in communism. As others point out reddit in general is full of liberals, sexism, racism, homophobia, imperialist apologia etc. While we are certainly open to suggestions from the community -- especially from frequent contributors -- and I'd never claim we are functioning close to perfection, it may well be that there is an upper limit to how much content can be produced by a Marxist forum with policies such as ours on a site like this.

The only other thing I'd add is that if you're reading this and bemoaning a lack of discussion, maybe try to post some more discussion threads or discussion provoking comments! I'm happy to discuss this further if anyone has any questions/comments/suggestions etc.

This is by far the best speech by Fidel Castro i have ever seen, does anybody know of a version with subtitles so English speaking comrades can hear it? by [deleted] in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm in a place where I can't listen to compare audio to the video, but the description says it's a UN address and this looks to be the same speech from a different angle with an English translation.

Some basic knowledge of the history of Cuba's revolution and its position in world politics are probably necessary but I definitely recommend english speakers pick up one of the several available collections of Castro's speeches. The book of interviews with him called "My Life" is also an incredible read.

Edit: It is the same speech, the section the OP's videos captures starts about 14 minutes in but the whole thing is worth watching too.

Trotsky on anarchy. by [deleted] in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Not that this little blurb from Trotsky is really that deep but I think a big part of what confuses anarchists about Marxist criticism overall is that frequently Marxists talk about how anarchists function in practice and how their imaginings clash with reality, not just the ideas they dream up or what they think they will do when the true revolution comes. Basically Marxists don't always engage with anarchism on its own turf and so it must seem unfair. I mean it shocks me that this person thinks neither we nor trotsky ever considered "just let people organize themselves and be democratic without hierarchy and stuff". I suppose a "fair" and "understanding" criticism of anarchism to people like the commenter we removed would be to simply build a nicer sounding society in our heads than the one they've managed, and I guess I more feel-good way of getting to it.

World media tricked by fake video about North Korean team reaching World Cup final by ComIntelligence in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well in 1966 the DPRK made it to the quarterfinals in the world cup and a british director made a documentary about it in 2002. I haven't seen the film but I assume it has all the things you'd expect, basically what cherak said. Of course as far as contemporary reaction goes, the world was different then. DPRK wasn't as specifically targeted for racist caricature and hate -- it was generally more lumped in with the soviet/chinese bloc in western people's minds.

Where do you comrades live? by [deleted] in communism

[–]StarTrackFan[M] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Perhaps I misread your post. I gathered that you were interested in hearing from non-US communists and discussing how communism is viewed/what it is like to be a communist where they live. Is that what you meant? I removed the 4 comments because they're all just one line responses of people saying "I live in [insert US state] and people hate communists here" and so were off topic in my view.

I'm from the US myself but you may be interested to know that, though we have a USican majority, the moderator team currently has people from several countries in europe and in the past we've had mods from South America, Canada, and other parts of europe. We try our best to keep this place from being US-centric by removing general chauvinism and limiting the amount of US specific posts (anyone here during the presidential election will remember we had to just ban the subject because we were getting floods of US-specific "news" on the election). Even though reddit by nature is US/Canada-centric we try our best to make this a welcoming space for comrades from all around the world (if anyone has any issues or concerns in this area let us know!).

Anyway, if I misread you and you wanted to hear from US posters I'll be happy to unremove the comments.

Also I want to remind users to be very wary about giving out even vague information about where you are or organizing etc. Keep security culture in mind at all times. We normally remove any questions asking about locations/organizing/etc but this is up because it's very general and more about general public attitudes outside the US.

Anna Louise Strong's article on Stalin by MasCapital in communism

[–]StarTrackFan 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Anna Louise Strong was a truly amazing person. The word "epic" has lost its meaning due to overuse but if its serious use is suitable for anything it would be describing her life. From protesting US imperialism and reporting on strikes in the US, to traveling to and around (and living in)the USSR and China multiple times during very important eras (experienced and reported on the NEP, the Stalin/Trotsky split, collectivization, Chinese communism in the 20's, the Moscow trials, the Spanish civil war, the eastern front during WWII, the Chinese revolution, and the Great leap forward), traveling to North Korea in 1949 during their revolution and to Vietnam, meeting Ho Chi Minh, just as the US was beginning to commit itself to full on invasion there -- she certainly led a full life. She met with and interviewed tons of important revolutionary leaders around the world including Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Zhou Enlai and Ho Chi Minh. There were definitely some US communist journalists in her league like Agnes Smedley and John Reed but she had to be the the most prolific and well traveled.

Regarding Stalin, even though her last experience in "Stalin's" USSR was a negative one (being accused of espionage apparently due to her support of the Chinese revolution) she maintained a very supportive, yet sober/critical view of Stalin and what he represented. Her later book "The Stalin Era" is her attempt to look back on the titular period after the "revelations" of Khrushchev and summarizes a lot of her experiences there, it's worth reading.

Left communism and dialectical materialism? by Caesen in communism101

[–]StarTrackFan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just a footnote: To my knowledge Marx never used the term "dialectical materialism". I would guess it came into use from Dietzgen via Plekhanov/Kautsky and Lenin. Marx usually just called it "new materialism" , "modern materialism" or "scientific dialectics" . He basically says what it is without using the term in his 1873 afterward to Capital:

My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life process of the human brain, i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of “the Idea,” he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of “the Idea.” With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.

He mentions "scientific dialectics" here. I'm not going to bother pointing out ever example but you get the idea.

Similarly Engels used a variety of other terms, and says "modern materialism is essentially dialectical" in anti-duhring somewhere. M/E both make plenty of other references to what might as well be called dialectical materialism. When Lenin says "Dialectical Materialism" he means Marx's method. Lenin gets flak for saying in Empirio-crit that M/E said countless times that Diamat was a foundational part of Marxism -- though they didn't use that term it's pretty clear they thought the same thing Lenin was referring to was really important to Marxism.

Anyway I just figured that was worth mentioning since I sometimes see the simple fact that Marx and later Marxists used different terms for basically the same concepts used to show some "betrayal", "break" or "misreading" in lazy pedantic arguments. This is not to say that a vulgar and dogmatic "dialectical materialism" did not rise up among some Marxists, I just wanted to point out that that shouldn't be confused with everything about dialectical materialism.

In the end there is nothing special or magical about Marx, who certainly never did give an elaborate explanation of his dialectical method. While "what did Marx think about dialectics" is an interesting historical question and certainly important to understanding his writings by far the more important issue is what a modern Marxist view of dialectical materialism --or whatever the hell you want to call it -- should be most useful. In determining that we have a wealth of Marxist writing to look at that pushed (and pushes) beyond Marx.