WeeklyWorker

29.08.2013

Marxism online: Reappropriating basic principles

On August 13, the centenary of August Bebel’s death, a new website was launched - MarxistCenter.com seeks to revive a genuinely partyist Marxism for the 21st century. Geary Middleton introduces this new political and journalistic project

First of all an explanation is owed as to who we are. This project flows from the Orthodox Marxist group, which is itself a fraction of the Revolutionary Marxists group on the web forum, Revleft.com.1 We in RM are commonly reproached with terms such as ‘Kautskyite’ and, while we reject the reformist and counterrevolutionary implications of the term, it does contain a kernel of truth, as we place ourselves among those who seek to re-evaluate the legacy of Second International Marxism - a new current, if you will, which was marked with Lars T Lih’s scholarly work Lenin rediscovered - ‘What is to be done?’ in context. We draw our inspiration from this scholarly and political current, and groups that undertake similar work, like the CPGB.

However, we felt that we had come up against a barrier. Some of us have a background in diverse Marxist groups and a need arose to claim a space for ourselves to develop politically and organisationally, lacking that space in our respective organisations.

In other words, we are an independent group of young comrades from around the globe seeking answers. And in our quest to join up the dots, of which this website will surely be a reflection, we strive to give a more up-to-date content to the Second International Marxism to which Lenin and the Bolsheviks belonged, as part of the project to merge the ideas of Marxism with the contemporary workers’ movement once more.

We are a loose writers’ collective with a common set of principles. We do not have a ‘party line’ and the articles will, certainly in the beginning, be more of a result of the individual writer’s own findings than anything else. We are also open to contributions from others and if you would like to submit something you can reach us at editors@marxistcenter.com.

Political basis

So how loose is ‘loose’? Don’t we have anything in common? Well, we do, obviously. The following is a short overview of the views we share:

We call ourselves the Marxist Center for two reasons:

1. As we base ourselves on a re-evaluation of the revolutionary traditions of the Second International, we fight for a long-term strategy of ‘revolutionary patience’. This means an active opposition to ‘short cuts’ on both rightwing notions that want to enter coalitions in the name of ‘relevancy’ and ‘realism’ and leftwing notions that seek to reach working class power through mass strikist strategies.

2. We seek to be a centre of debate and analysis based on these traditions. While our contribution will inevitably start humble, we aspire to grow and have an impact on the working class community.

Our tasks

For these reasons we aim for the following:

As Lenin put it, “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement”.2 Anyone that is up for this task is invited to join the ranks of this project.

Initial articles

We have already put up some articles (and more are on the way):

Notes

1. Revleft is, incidentally, the biggest online community of revolutionary leftists globally.

2. Can be found in What is to be done?

3. http://marxistcenter.com/2013/08/13/the-tower-of-bebel.

4. http://marxistcenter.com/2013/08/13/programme-a-compass-to-liberation.

5. http://marxistcenter.com/2013/08/13/where-is-the-class-struggle-in-egypt.

6. http://marxistcenter.com/2013/08/13/to-win-the-battle-of-democracy.