Karl Kautsky was, for three decades before the First World War, the main authority on the intellectual heritage of Marx and Engels, the founding fathers of Marxism. His interpretation of Marx's Capital and the basic laws and contradictions of capitalism was the standard reference point for both the foes and allies of Social Democracy. Jukka Gronow's On the Formation of Marxism analyses Kautsky's impact on the self-understanding of the European labour movement from his dispute over Revisionism with Eduard Bernstein to his polemics with V.I. Lenin over Imperialism and the Russian...

In Marx and the Common, Luca Basso provides a detailed reconstruction of the late Marx's connection of the collective dimension of communism and the element of individual realisation. Through an original analysis of a vast range of Marx's writings - from Capital to his political texts and scientific notes - the author brings out an articulated historical-theoretical landscape in which the notion of 'individual' is intertwined with the ideas of 'class', 'society' and 'community'. Rooting his analysis in the revolutionary power of the workers' 'acting in common', Basso brings to the fore...

For the first time, this book presents to Western readers a current in the late Soviet philosophy of the 1960s and 1970s known as the 'activity approach'. It had to some degree a counterpart in so-called cultural-historical psychology, but whilst the work of Vygotsky and Leontyev was received in the West decades ago, its sibling in philosophy has remained virtually unnoticed. Started by Evald Ilyenkov and other young Moscow philosophers in the early 1960s, the activity approach soon became an intellectual mode, leading to several different interpretations of human activity and challenging...

'Delivery from slavery' these words, taken from a Dutch labour movement song, perfectly map onto the Bible's central concern. They are also similar to the Torah's key phrase: 'I am YHWH, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage' (Ex 20:2). The words are invoked here to serve as an axiom to be introduced into the modern period. The watchword 'delivery from slavery' translates the biblical message of the exodus from slavery into the theory and practice of a modern liberation movement. The present work argues that biblical theology is the attempt to 'update' the...

In The Thatcherite Offensive, Alexander Gallas provides a class-centred political analysis of Thatcherism. Drawing upon Greek state theorist Nicos Poulantzas, he challenges both mainstream and critical accounts of British politics in the 1980s and 90s. He shows that Thatcherism's sucess and novelty, indeed its unity as a political project, lay in the fact that the Thatcher governments profoundly shifted class relations in Britain in favour of capital and restructured the institutions underpinning class domination. According to Gallas, it was an integral part of the Thatcherite project...

In this work, Marcos Del Roio analyses Gramsci's pre-prison political-theoretical activity in light of a radical thesis: that throughout Gramsci's life we see a total continuity between his political praxis and his philosophical reflection. That is not to ignore the changes, turns, and even fractures in the Sardinian communist's thinking across his brief but rich existence. On the contrary. Reading Gramsci, we find key ideas that set the rhythm of all of his thought, at least from the time of the Turin factory councils up till the writing of his final notebooks. These ideas also...

In Trotsky's Challenge: The 'Literary Discussion' of 1924 and the Fight for the Bolshevik Revolution, Frederick C. Corney examines the political polemic surrounding the publication of Trotsky's The Lessons of October. Trotsky's analysis ran counter to the efforts of Bolshevik leaders to fashion the narrative of October as a foundation event in which the Bolshevik Party, under the clear-sighted leadership of Lenin, played a major role in bringing about a radical socialist revolution in Russia. Corney has translated into English the major contributions to this polemic, annotated...

The Politics of Transindividuality re-examines social relations and subjectivity through the concept of transindividuality. Transindividuality is understood as the mutual constitution of individuality and collectivity, and as such it intersects with politics and economics, philosophical speculation and political practice. While the term transindividuality is drawn from the work of Gilbert Simondon, this book views it broadly, examining such canonical figures as Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx, as well as contemporary debates involving Etienne Balibar, Bernard Stiegler, and Paolo Virno....

Bryan Palmer tells the compelling story of how a handful of revolutionary Trotskyists, working in the largely non-union trucking sector, led the drive to organise the unorganised, to build an industrial union. What emerges is a compelling narrative of class struggle, a reminder of what can be accomplished, even in the worst of circumstances, with a principled and far-seeing leadership.

Criticism of Earth thoroughly reassesses Marx and Engels's engagement with theology, analyzing their collected works for discussions of spiritual matters and the persistence of biblical allusions. What emerges is a continued interest that is maintained throughout their lives, from Marx's Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, until the very end with Engels's treatise on the revolutionary origins of early christianity.