Hillel Ticktin
Hillel Ticktin was born in South Africa in 1937, and left the country to avoid arrest for political activism. He wrote his PhD thesis whilst living in the Soviet Union. Due to his critical approach towards the official Communist parties of the time, his work was rejected. In 1965 he began teaching at the University of Glasgow, and in 1973 he co-founded Critique, a Journal of Socialist Theory, an independent, refereed, scholarly Marxist journal.
In 2000, he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Marxist Studies at the University of Glasgow and he was also appointed as Chairman of the Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movement.
Now retired from his emeritus post, he continues to lecture and also to write for Critique and other publications.
Latest articles by Hillel Ticktin
Where is America going?
Has there been a social democratic turn following Joe Biden’s victory? Now, after all, his administration promises not only to tax the rich, but help the poor. Then there is China, the EU and the so-called third world. This is an edited version of the talk Hillel Ticktin gave to the May 27 Online Communist Forum
Perception, pretence and reality
The old system did not collapse, argues Hillel Ticktin: the elite decided to kill it off
A convenient enemy
Hillel Ticktin delves beneath the propaganda to reveal what is really driving the friction between Russia and the west
Process of decomposition
How can the ruling class extricate itself from the current impasse? Hillel Ticktin reviews the state of global capital
A Marxist philosopher
Hillel Ticktin remembers István Mészáros, December 19 1930 - October 1 2017
The ruling class turns?
Following the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, Hillel Ticktin analyses capital’s perspectives
Integration and disintegration
Hillel Ticktin outlines the political and economic forces at play in the European Union
Confused reformism
Hillel Ticktin lambasts the shadow chancellor’s economic timidity
The period of transition
What does it mean to say that capitalism is in decline? Hillel Ticktin analyses the characteristics of the final stage
Society of abundance
What is our vision of socialism? Hillel Ticktin outlines the basic features
Going nowhere fast
The present period is one of transition, argues Hillel Ticktin. But how can we escape from the current impasse?
Stay as money, face death as capital
How can capital extricate itself from crisis? Hillel Ticktin argues that it has no solution
You can’t just sit and wait
Critique editor Hillel Ticktin takes issue with the line of the Weekly Worker. He spoke to Mark Fischer
What is the capitalist strategy?
Hillel Ticktin looks beneath the hype about ‘recovery’ to expose the bankruptcy of the ruling class
Failed transition and crisis
The international working class must reassert itself to prevent a descent into barbarism, writes Hillel Ticktin
Political economy of chaos
On the eve of the Critique conference Hillel Ticktin points to questions that need to be tackled
Economic crisis: Only our class can force change
After exploring the possibilities of capitalism ending the depression, Hillel Ticktin stresses the necessity of working class organisation
Mandela: He was a bourgeois hero
South African Marxist Hillel Ticktin discusses the role of Nelson Mandela with Peter Manson
Austerity: His side is winning the class struggle
Hillel Ticktin examines the balance of forces and the quandary of the ruling class
Capital’s labour of Sisyphus
What next after the failure of plan A? There is little prospect of real growth, argues Hillel Ticktin
Capitalism: Declining forms, failing system
What does austerity tell us about capitalism itself? Hillel Ticktin discusses three key features
Eurozone: Road to nowhere
Why does the European bourgeoisie insist on austerity despite the virtual certainty that it cannot succeed? Hillel Ticktin digs beneath the official claims
World economy: Unforseen consequences
The market has failed and cannot but fail. Yet there are small intimations of fundamental change, argues Critique editor Hillel Ticktin
From finance capital to austerity muddle
While economic growth is proving elusive, there are clear signs of stagnation and disintegration, argues Critique editor Hillel Ticktin
Austerity: The madness of a dying system
The ruling class has no alternative to austerity and the drive to create a pristine capitalism. Not only is that impossible, but, as shown by South Africa, the working class is beginning to revolt. This is an edited version a speech by Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, on November 17
Economics of the madhouse
Hillel Ticktin reviews: Paul Krugman' End this depression now!', Norton, New York, 2012, pp272, £14.99
New declaration of class war
Hillel Ticktin analyses the importance of Marikana
The decline of money
If we are to understand the present crisis we need to grasp the decaying relationship between money, production and value. Hillel Ticktin discusses the growth of fictitious capital and impossibility of getting money to make money
Marx's spectre haunts the wealthy and powerful
The ruling class has no workable strategy for rescuing the system, argues Hillel Ticktin
The theory of capitalist disintegration
More and more people are saying, 'Marx was right'. But can the present crisis of capitalism be explained by the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, famously discussed by Marx? Profits are high and there is a massive overaccumulation of capital. This is edited version of the speech by Hillel Ticktin to Communist University 2011
The tragedy of Sylvia Pankhurst
Sectarianism led to putting individual projects before party
Propaganda of the deed
Harley Filben reviews Sean Birchall's 'Beating the fascists: The untold story of Anti-Fascist Action' Freedom Press, London 2010, pp413, £15
No alternative within capitalism
What does the bail-out of Greece mean for international capital? Hillel Ticktin spoke to Yassamine Mather
In defence of Leon Trotsky
Hillel Ticktin demolishes Robert Service's much hyped Trotsky: a biography (Harvard University Press, 2009, pp600, £25)
Anglo-American solutions and imposing discipline
Peter Manson spoke to Hillel Ticktin about the economic crisis
Capitalist crisis and the tasks of Marxists
Campaign for a Marxist Party will shortly publish a manifesto, which is currently being prepared. This section on the political economy of the current period is authored by Hillel Ticktin
What next for Campaign for a Marxist Party?
Following the election of a new committee of which he is a member, Hillel Ticktin gives his thoughts on the tasks of the Campaign for a Marxist Party
More dangerous than ever
Hillel Ticktin concludes his series on the relevance of Marxist categories with an examination of the theory of capitalist crisis and its application to the current global situation
Potential for working class struggle
Hillel Ticktin identifies abstract labour as the key to collectivity in Marx's labour theory of value
For realism, for humanity
What is the Marxist method? Hillel Ticktin looks at the main features. This is the first of three articles
Toothless motions and hysterical attacks
The proposed UCU boycott of Israeli universities is an ineffective weapon, argues Hillel Ticktin.1 This is the first in a series of articles on the issue which will feature various writers
Marxism and democracy
Hillel Ticktin' was the speaker at the fringe meeting hosted jointly by Campaign for a Marxist Party and the CPGB. Nick Rogers reports
Don't revive absurd slogans
Lenin's pre-April 1917 'democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry' was unworkable, writes Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique
No more historical abortions
Hillel Ticktin highlights the bogus nature of planning in the Soviet Union and locates the central importance of Europe for the transition to socialism
Seeds of the new society
Within the symptoms of decline, Hillel Ticktin argues, there are anticipations of the future
The transition to socialism
Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, examines some of the central elements of Marx's theory about the future society
The call for a party
Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, explains the thinking behind the November 4 conference to establish a Campaign for a New Marxist Party
Decline and the transition to socialism
Hillel Ticktin concludes his discussion on the theory of decline by examining its forms as capitalism makes way for a higher society
The theory of decline and capital
In the first of two articles, Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, looks at the rise and fall of different modes of production and the problems of transition and non-transition
Political economy of aid
What lies behind the establishment's 'campaign for Africa'? Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, looks beneath the hype
Declining capitalism
On the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto: Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique
Capitalism and its decline
Many in the workers’ movement now accept what are erroneously called market values. So is capitalism set to dominate the 21st century? Did Marxism get it wrong about the decadence or decline of capitalism? Hillel Ticktin addressed the CPGB’s Communist University earlier this year on these and other questions.
After the USSR: Impossible utopia
Hillel Ticktin addressed the CPGB’s Communist University ’98 on market socialism
Russia in transition
This article is based on a speech given by Hillel Ticktin at Communist University ‘97