what CURRENT person alive right now gives the BEST Marxist analysist?

[R_P_A_S]

Hey guys. What Economist, Philosopher, Revolutionary gives current reports and analysis on the world's current events via a blog, website or any type of media/publication?

Can you guys provide some links, etc? be nice! thanks!

[Die Neue Zeit]

This isn't one person, but it counts: http://www.cpgb.org.uk/

[R_P_A_S]

This isn't one person, but it counts: http://www.cpgb.org.uk/


it sure does man! thank you!

[Rafiq]

It is a matter of preference, but Zizek is good (not all the time, though).

David Harvey is also good.

But DNZ's link is most likely the best bet.

[The Man]

This isn't one person, but it counts: http://www.cpgb.org.uk/

The "C"PGB considers China and North Korea to be a socialist state. Is that how you want your Marxist analysis's to be like? I wouldn't.

[R_P_A_S]

The "C"PGB considers China and North Korea to be a socialist state. Is that how you want your Marxist analysis's to be like? I wouldn't.

I tend to over look that kind of stuff. I try to look for the "real" revolutionary/working class perspective. Not some stalinist or pseudo-communism like China

[The Man]

I tend to over look that kind of stuff. I try to look for the "real" revolutionary/working class perspective. Not some stalinist or pseudo-communism like China

Well, as a Marxist-Leninist (or as you would say, "Stalinist") myself I will say that there are a lot of M-Ls that are complete dimwits. I knew a guy who consider himself a "Marxist-Engelsist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist-Dengist" and believed that Iran was a Socialist state. So yeah, I would look to places other than the CPGB-"ML" who were probably crying over the death of Kim-Jong Il. Look at the "Hands off China" leaflet where they say 21st century China is still Socialist :laugh:

Anyways, Here is them saying that North Korea was socialist:

http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=statements&subName=display&statementId=48

Not to mention they consider Post-Stalin USSR, Serb-Nationalist and Titoite Yugoslavia to be socialist.

A website I usually go to for a Marxist perspective things on economics, imperialism, culture in general, and "socialist" nations is Theredphoenixapl.org

[R_P_A_S]

Well, as a Marxist-Leninist (or as you would say, "Stalinist") myself I will say that there are a lot of M-Ls that are complete dimwits. I knew a guy who consider himself a "Marxist-Engelsist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist-Dengist" and believed that Iran was a Socialist state. So yeah, I would look to places other than the CPGB-"ML" who were probably crying over the death of Kim-Jong Il. Look at the "Hands off China" leaflet where they say 21st century China is still Socialist :laugh:

Anyways, Here is them saying that North Korea was socialist:

http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=statements&subName=display&statementId=48

Not to mention they consider Post-Stalin USSR, Serb-Nationalist and Titoite Yugoslavia to be socialist.

A website I usually go to for a Marxist perspective things on economics, imperialism, culture in general, and "socialist" nations is Theredphoenixapl.org (http://Theredphoenixapl.org)


I honestly didn't think that Stalinist or Leninist was the same thing. OK.. but lets please not get into that debate now.. For anyone else reading this.. there's plenty of threads out there about THAT discussion.

Basically what I meant to say was that I just like to read about current analysis from a non liberal/democrat view.. i want something revolutionary

[The Man]

I honestly didn't think that Stalinist or Leninist was the same thing. OK.. but lets please not get into that debate now.. For anyone else reading this.. there's plenty of threads out there about THAT discussion.

Basically what I meant to say was that I just like to read about current analysis from a non liberal/democrat view.. i want something revolutionary

Theredphoenixapl.org is a Marxist revolutionary news analysis

[Die Neue Zeit]

The "C"PGB considers China and North Korea to be a socialist state. Is that how you want your Marxist analysis's to be like? I wouldn't.

You're confusing the Weekly Worker comrades with the CPGB-ML, a totally separate organization. That link is to the former.

The CPGB-PCC is an post-Trotskyist, post-Maoist, Orthodox Marxist organization.

[R_P_A_S]

Theredphoenixapl.org is a Marxist revolutionary news analysis


wow. i really dig this site.. thanks man!

[tom1992]

Carlos Perez Soto, a Chilean professor (he did not even finish his career, but he could own anybody with a PHD), he teaches at my UNI. Known as "the last consequent one". They have told me that in the other UNI he does class he with others sang Marx's birthday "happy birth day karl marx", lol. Although his books are in spanish, I really recommend the books, they are great. Very, very easy to understand him, even if you are new to spanish.

[Paul Cockshott]

You're confusing the Weekly Worker comrades with the CPGB-ML, a totally separate organization. That link is to the former.

The CPGB-PCC is an post-Trotskyist, post-Maoist, Orthodox Marxist organization.
They are a mixture of classical social democracy and Trotskism ant vehemently ani soviet and anti maoist china.

[Ocean Seal]

There is no view which can complete a Marxist analysis. Try reading from multiple sources. Paul Mattick and Michael Parenti are necessary for a Marxist analysis. Also you should make sure to read from the reaction, as often their attitudes shine light on the current stage of class conflict. It also helps you know of popular ways that the bourgeoisie subjects the proletariat to its hegemony. Knowing your types of reactionary by heart is pretty important.

[Die Neue Zeit]

They are a mixture of classical social democracy and Trotskyism ant vehemently anti soviet and anti maoist china.

Comrade, I would have listed you first if you maintained a blog.

The CPGB-PCC had its origins in a post-Maoist formation, and both past and present weren't/aren't anti-Soviet in the sense of SWP opportunism.

[R_P_A_S]

Carlos Perez Soto, a Chilean professor (he did not even finish his career, but he could own anybody with a PHD), he teaches at my UNI. Known as "the last consequent one". They have told me that in the other UNI he does class he with others sang Marx's birthday "happy birth day karl marx", lol. Although his books are in spanish, I really recommend the books, they are great. Very, very easy to understand him, even if you are new to spanish.

i speak spanish

thank you!

[Leo]

http://en.internationalism.org/

http://es.internationalism.org/

[The Idler]

Seconded Mattick.

[Luís Henrique]

what CURRENT person alive right now gives the BEST Marxist analysist?

So that we can start his/her personallity cult asap? :tt2:

No individuals can give a coherent Marxist analysis of reality; only organisations can do that.

Beware of organisations that function like stillclocks (ie, always maintain the same conjunctural pseudo-analysis, so that eventually they get it right, but only by accident). Beware of organisations that invent new "phases" or "stages" of capitalist development, especially if such new phases or stages somehow coincide with the rise of a new development of Marxist theory, by coincidence fostered by their own leader. Beware of organisations that revolve around an individual leader. Beware of organisations that represent themselves as the only revolutionary current in the country/world. Beware of easy formulas, simple solutions, and anything that resembles "if only people would listen to us, all problems would be solved".

Luís Henrique

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Although I have some disagreements with them, two people come to mind:

Loren Goldner and Paul Mattick Jr.

There are others, but these two produce a regular & ongoing analysis of capitalism that is widely available online. Spend a few minutes searching and you can find all sorts of writings, interviews, videos, etc.

[Zanthorus]

No individuals can give a coherent Marxist analysis of reality; only organisations can do that.

So on this understanding, Marx himself was incapable of giving a coherent Marxist analysis of reality?

[workersadvocate]

Since we're dropping useful links:

Workers Party in Americahttp://www.workers-party.com

[The Idler]

No-one's mentioned Bob Avakian and his New Synthesis.;)

[tom1992]

i speak spanish

thank you!

Carlos Perez Soto.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlos-Perez-Soto/28822112789?ref=ts
Some books of Carlos Perez:
-Para una Crítica del Poder Burocrático. Comunistas otra vez
-Sobre un concepto histórico de ciencia. De la epistemología actual a la dialéctica
-La Condición Social de la Psicología
-Sobre Hegel

[Paul Cockshott]

Comrade, I would have listed you first if you maintained a blog.

The CPGB-PCC had its origins in a post-Maoist formation, and both past and present weren't/aren't anti-Soviet in the sense of SWP opportunism.

I did not know that I thought that they were a Leninist tendancy in the old cpgb that became increasingly influenced by theorists like Ticktin who is as vehemently anti-soviet as the SWP, Ticktin things Robert Conquest is slightly soft of Stalin.

[RadioRaheem84]

Auto didact Brendan M Cooney is excellent.

http://kapitalism101.wordpress.com/

I also like David Harvey, the Monthly Review guys, and think Michael Parenti offers the best social analysis out there.

[the last donut of the night]

moi

[Drowzy_Shooter]

I've taken to a liking of maoistrebelnews2's channel on youtube. He gives the facts without to much opinion, and interjects a communist opinion. Not necessarily a maoist one. Which I enjoy.

[Rafiq]

I've taken to a liking of maoistrebelnews2's channel on youtube. He gives the facts without to much opinion, and interjects a communist opinion. Not necessarily a maoist one. Which I enjoy.

Please no.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I did not know that I thought that they were a Leninist tendancy in the old cpgb that became increasingly influenced by theorists like Ticktin who is as vehemently anti-soviet as the SWP, Ticktin things Robert Conquest is slightly soft of Stalin.

Ticktin's theoretical influence amongst CPGB comrades is questionable. His influence didn't start until the aborted Campaign for a Marxist Party project:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_a_Marxist_Party

At that time, he didn't join the CPGB, but headed Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory. His unsurprising beef with the CPGB during the project was the latter's minimum program vs. his Trotskyist take on a "transitional program."

Today, AFAIK, he isn't a CPGB member.

[Ravachol]

Gilles Dauve (http://libcom.org/tags/gilles-dauve)
Endnotes (http://endnotes.org.uk/)
The SIC collective (http://communisation.net/) (Comrades from Riff-Raff, Blaumachen, Troploin, Theorie Communiste, etc.)

[eyeheartlenin]

If tendencies are allowed in this thread, I would recommend looking at http://www.ft-ci.org/ of the Fracción Trotskista, an international current that has sections in several Latin American countries.

Some of the material from the Fracción Trotskista is available in English at http://www.ft-ci.org/?lang=en

¡Buena suerte!

[Frank Zapatista]

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/index.html
Workers Vanguard

[StalinFanboy]

Gilles Dauve

[StalinFanboy]

Gilles Dauve (http://libcom.org/tags/gilles-dauve)
Endnotes (http://endnotes.org.uk/)
The SIC collective (http://communisation.net/) (Comrades from Riff-Raff, Blaumachen, Troploin, Theorie Communiste, etc.)
I love Mr Dauve

I consider Endnotes and the TC crowd to be allies, but I really dislike the way they critique tiqqun.

[Sixiang]

Please no.

Yeah. I'm a Maoist and that guy is annoying as hell.

Anyways, the only currently living Marxist ideologues who I am familiar with are Slavoj Zizek, David Harvey, and Brendan Cooney. I recommend all three and many more. It's good to read more than one person's views.

[Luís Henrique]

So on this understanding, Marx himself was incapable of giving a coherent Marxist analysis of reality?

Either that, or he was probably a member of some organisation...

Luís Henrique

[Ravachol]

I love Mr Dauve

I consider Endnotes and the TC crowd to be allies, but I really dislike the way they critique tiqqun.

Yeah I agree. I'd list Tiqqun and the whole "Insurrectionary Communist" milieu if this thread was about personal inspirations but they can't be considered Marxists at all.

[Commissar Rykov]

No-one's mentioned Bob Avakian and his New Synthesis.;)
He asked only for the best not the greatest.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

I really wish Chris Harman hadn't died 2 years ago.
But so much has happened in just the last few years :( Always try looking for his stuff when you can. I'm sure he wrote about the capitalist crisis in it's beginning years before he passed.

[The Idler]

Chris Harman wrote Zombie Capitalism.

[Sendo]

Auto didact Brendan M Cooney is excellent.

http://kapitalism101.wordpress.com/

I also like David Harvey, the Monthly Review guys, and think Michael Parenti offers the best social analysis out there.

Hells yeah on Cooney. Very classical though and he doesn't hold your hand all the way. He breaks down Kapital in a digestible way, but you have to do some leg-work in connecting to the present day.

That is where Parenti shines. He takes Marxism-Leninism and applies to present day conflicts like Yugoslavia, Reaganism, environmental catastrophe, military-industrial complexes, etc. He's also a great source for re-learning figures like Caesar from an honest perspective. Admittedly, it's all in his voice with no guise of neutrality, but that's why it's so great. He explains himself, cites his sources, and exposes academic dishonesty. I always think of him as "applied Marxism" as opposed to "theoretical Marxism." He uses materialist framework to analyze the world, not to create new theories as such.

[A Marxist Historian]

Hells yeah on Cooney. Very classical though and he doesn't hold your hand all the way. He breaks down Kapital in a digestible way, but you have to do some leg-work in connecting to the present day.

That is where Parenti shines. He takes Marxism-Leninism and applies to present day conflicts like Yugoslavia, Reaganism, environmental catastrophe, military-industrial complexes, etc. He's also a great source for re-learning figures like Caesar from an honest perspective. Admittedly, it's all in his voice with no guise of neutrality, but that's why it's so great. He explains himself, cites his sources, and exposes academic dishonesty. I always think of him as "applied Marxism" as opposed to "theoretical Marxism." He uses materialist framework to analyze the world, not to create new theories as such.

I'd vote for Joseph Seymour, the best Marxist economist around, and one of the best historians too.

Unfortunately, he hasn't written any full books, though quite a number of pamphlets. His signed articles in Workers Vanguard and Spartacist are not to be missed, and the recent ones at least can easily be found on the Spartacist website, just search using his name.

I'll give two examples:

His brilliant analysis of the political-ideological situation in the world resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union, which I think is seminal.

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/949/postsoviet.html

And a speech of his from a few years ago on how the economics of a workers state should actually work nowadays.

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/989/ysp-transition.html

-M.H.-

[Die Neue Zeit]

Hells yeah on Cooney. Very classical though and he doesn't hold your hand all the way. He breaks down Kapital in a digestible way, but you have to do some leg-work in connecting to the present day.

That is where Parenti shines. He takes Marxism-Leninism and applies to present day conflicts like Yugoslavia, Reaganism, environmental catastrophe, military-industrial complexes, etc. He's also a great source for re-learning figures like Caesar from an honest perspective. Admittedly, it's all in his voice with no guise of neutrality, but that's why it's so great. He explains himself, cites his sources, and exposes academic dishonesty. I always think of him as "applied Marxism" as opposed to "theoretical Marxism." He uses materialist framework to analyze the world, not to create new theories as such.

Actually, I think you're using the wrong terms. It's the other way around.

"Theoretical Marxism" and "Academic Marxism" are materialist frameworks merely to analyze the world. "Applied Marxism," on the other hand (inclusive of "Programmatic Marxism"), is consistent with Marx's adage on philosophy and changing the world.

[SHORAS]

How many of these people are completely divorced from any practical activity?

On a separate note, workers themselves (you) need to be thinking and studying in a Marxist sense. The divorcing of theory and analysis by specialists from action and the class is a problem not something to accept or encourage.

Parenti, Zizek...fucksake.

[Kowalsky]

So on this understanding, Marx himself was incapable of giving a coherent Marxist analysis of reality?

it is noteworthy that he worked for long in couple with a guy called Engels...

[newdayrising]

Well, since this topic is about individuals, I won't say that I read the ICC and ICT press and consider both to be very good. Oops, already did...

Ok, as far as individuals go, I learn a lot from Loren Goldner.
Also, even if I disagree with him on almost every important political thing, I find Zizek very entertaining and thought-stimulating. I find his work interesting as it shows one can have a (n often - in Zizek's case) marxist analysis of subjects usually only covered by post modern or liberal thinkers, even though I'm critical of the actual positions derived from it.

[Minima]

1) Immanuel Wallerstein and his "gang of four" from Colombia SU

2) Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, and their critical theory cohorts.

3) Minqi Li for Marxist World Systems Analysis (in china)

[A Marxist Historian]

Well, since this topic is about individuals, I won't say that I read the ICC and ICT press and consider both to be very good. Oops, already did...

Ok, as far as individuals go, I learn a lot from Loren Goldner.
Also, even if I disagree with him on almost every important political thing, I find Zizek very entertaining and thought-stimulating. I find his work interesting as it shows one can have a (n often - in Zizek's case) marxist analysis of subjects usually only covered by post modern or liberal thinkers, even though I'm critical of the actual positions derived from it.

Didn't Zizek call for voting for Obama?

In my book, that makes everything he ever wrote worthless.

-M.H.-

[black magick hustla]

goldner is really good. as well as TC,TPTG, and Endnotes.

[the last donut of the night]

goldner is really good. as well as TC,TPTG, and Endnotes.

you mean zizek right

[Mulciber]

Alan Woods for the win! I think he provides the best Marxist analysis of current events bar none (Hugo Chavez seems to agree). Rob Sewell and Fred Weston, also of the IMT, are damn good as well.

Other than that, recently I've started watching David Harvey's online lectures on Capital and the guy knows his stuff.

[GoddessCleoLover]

David Harvey knows his stuff.

[Sir Comradical]

I'd say David Harvey, just ignore the crap he says about how he wants to stabilise capitalism, in any case his economic analysis is still top notch. As for party websites, I go to WSWS and the ICL for my news, Ortho-Trot stuff.

[Sir Comradical]

Alan Woods for the win! I think he provides the best Marxist analysis of current events bar none (Hugo Chavez seems to agree). Rob Sewell and Fred Weston, also of the IMT, are damn good as well.

Other than that, recently I've started watching David Harvey's online lectures on Capital and the guy knows his stuff.

Well it's a mutual admiration society I suppose...

Hehehe. Woods is alright...

[Raó i força]

I'm just getin sick from all that new-age post-marxist, post-estructuralist, post-modernist, post-everything petit-bourgeois intellectuals. They're boring, repetitive, meaning-less, they think they're telling something different when usually just repeting old anarchist or left-populist dogmas.

I use to like anybody else. :D Nestor Kohan, from latin-america, is the kinda guy you'd like to have coffee with after some demonstration, pure leninist hardliner :thumbup1:

(excuse my english folks ;) )

[Risperdal]

Can I second Chris Harman?

While he died recently, his body of work is all insightful, and covers a large number of topics.

Books to check out:
The Fire Last Time (about the upturn of struggle in the late '60s)
People's History of the World (ambitious re-telling of human history, focusing on the developments of various class societies up to the 20th century)
The Lost Revolution (about the failed revolution in Germany, shortly after the Russian Revolution)
Zombie Capitalism (his last book, re-written shortly after GFC about the world economy and the latest crisis)

There are many others that are worth reading.

He also wrote a small 100 page book called "How Marxism Works", which outlines basic Marxist ideas in a very accessible way.

[Comrade Auldnik]

The D.P.R.K. and P.R.C. may not be properly socialist states, but they are being led by communists, misguided though they may be. They are still comrades and we do ourselves and communism no service by mocking them.

That said, I have an absolute boy-crush on Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling.

[Lucretia]

The D.P.R.K. and P.R.C. may not be properly socialist states, but they are being led by communists, misguided though they may be. They are still comrades and we do ourselves and communism no service by mocking them.

That said, I have an absolute boy-crush on Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling.

What, exactly, makes those rulers communist? The fact that their parties have the word "communist" in them?

[Comrade Auldnik]

What, exactly, makes those rulers communist? The fact that their parties have the word "communist" in them?

We're gonna play that sophomoric game, are we?

They are communist in that their ideologies are related to Marxism and have some basis in Marxism. I may be an anti-revisionist, but even anarchists are my comrades. We do no service to communism by isolating and alienating elements that could be improved. My interest is in building accurate theory, not drawing arbitrary lines in the sand against potential aid.

[Comrade Auldnik]

What, exactly, makes those rulers communist? The fact that their parties have the word "communist" in them?

We're gonna play that sophomoric little game, are we? :rolleyes: It's an issue of semantics whether they're "true communist" or not, but the fact of the matter is that even revisionist ideologies that ape Marxism are better than those ideologies that unashamedly embrace bourgeois exploitation and oppression. I may be a Stalinist, but I'd take Trotsky over Pinochet any day.

[Homo Songun]

Auto didact Brendan M Cooney is excellent.
Interesting, I had that guy pegged as just another grad student. His stock just went up in my book.