Theory Archives - John Riddell https://johnriddell.com/category/marxism/theory/ MARXIST ESSAYS AND COMMENTARY Fri, 12 Nov 2021 15:32:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.10 https://i0.wp.com/johnriddell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/cropped-John-Riddell-Icon-Final-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Theory Archives - John Riddell https://johnriddell.com/category/marxism/theory/ 32 32 22825446 Reform or Revolution? The Lessons of Chile https://johnriddell.com/2021/11/12/reform-or-revolution-the-lessons-of-chile/ https://johnriddell.com/2021/11/12/reform-or-revolution-the-lessons-of-chile/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2021 15:32:09 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=7523 The following article first appeared on World-Outlook.com, a website for online political analysis and interpretation of events. It is a contribution to a debate on the lessons of previous revolutions that was begun with articles by Eric Blanc and Mike Taber. Both earlier articles appeared on this website and were reprinted on World-Outlook.com in two parts: see part 1 and part 2. By Geoff […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2021/11/12/reform-or-revolution-the-lessons-of-chile/feed/ 2 7523 Kautsky, Lenin, and the transition to socialism: A reply to Eric Blanc by Mike Taber https://johnriddell.com/2019/04/06/kautsky-lenin-and-the-transition-to-socialism-by-mike-taber/ https://johnriddell.com/2019/04/06/kautsky-lenin-and-the-transition-to-socialism-by-mike-taber/#comments Sun, 07 Apr 2019 02:39:04 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=5279 Mike Taber’s article below responds to Eric Blanc’s text “Why Kautsky was right and why you should care.”  Eric Blanc is a talented Marxist historian and activist, with a reputation for questioning accepted wisdom. While one may not always agree with all of his conclusions, Eric’s works generally have a refreshing quality that can only […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2019/04/06/kautsky-lenin-and-the-transition-to-socialism-by-mike-taber/feed/ 6 5279 Rosa Luxemburg and the revolutionary party revisited https://johnriddell.com/2018/02/13/rosa-luxemburg-and-the-revolutionary-party-revisited/ https://johnriddell.com/2018/02/13/rosa-luxemburg-and-the-revolutionary-party-revisited/#respond Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:01:30 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=4986 Part 2 of ‘Rosa Luxemburg and Polish socialism (1893-1919)’ By Eric Blanc. The following text is an edited excerpt from ‘The Rosa Luxemburg Myth: A Critique of Luxemburg’s Politics in Poland (1893–1919)’, published in Historical Materialism (2018, 26, 1: 1-34.) Click here for subscriptions to Historical Materialism. See also “Part 1: Rosa Luxemburg’s Bloc with the […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2018/02/13/rosa-luxemburg-and-the-revolutionary-party-revisited/feed/ 0 4986 Did Trotsky retreat from viewing USSR as a workers’ state? https://johnriddell.com/2017/11/15/did-trotsky-retreat-from-viewing-ussr-as-a-workers-state/ https://johnriddell.com/2017/11/15/did-trotsky-retreat-from-viewing-ussr-as-a-workers-state/#comments Wed, 15 Nov 2017 19:56:37 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=4830 Reassessing Trotsky’s biography of Stalin – Part 2 See also Part 1: Did Bolshevism lead to Stalinism?  The new edition of Trotsky’s biography of Stalin, edited by Alan Woods, enables us to test a second hypothesis suggested by the 1946 Malamuth edition of this book: that Trotsky, in his final months, was retreating from his […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2017/11/15/did-trotsky-retreat-from-viewing-ussr-as-a-workers-state/feed/ 4 4830 Tactics, strategy, and the ‘united front’ https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/24/tactics-strategy-and-the-united-front/ https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/24/tactics-strategy-and-the-united-front/#comments Mon, 24 Jul 2017 19:36:16 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=4423 A response to Mario C. Plaza’s “How Lenin uses the term “tactics,” plus his subsequent comment. By John Riddell. In his stimulating contribution, “How Lenin uses the term “tactics,” Mario C. Plaza arrives at the conclusion: Lenin normally uses the term “tactics” (not strategy) in a broad sense that includes what we now normally call […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/24/tactics-strategy-and-the-united-front/feed/ 1 4423 How Lenin uses the term ‘tactics’ https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/18/how-lenin-uses-the-term-tactics/ https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/18/how-lenin-uses-the-term-tactics/#respond Tue, 18 Jul 2017 17:14:09 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=4277 A terminological issue with political implications By Mario C. Plaza. Although Lenin is considered one of the main strategists of the Russian Revolution, the term “strategy” is hardly used is his works. The word does appear sometimes in his writings of the 1920s, but not always in a political sense; sometimes he’s talking about military […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2017/07/18/how-lenin-uses-the-term-tactics/feed/ 0 4277 A revolutionary line of march: ‘Old Bolshevism’ in early 1917 re-examined https://johnriddell.com/2017/04/02/a-revolutionary-line-of-march-old-bolshevism-in-early-1917-re-examined/ https://johnriddell.com/2017/04/02/a-revolutionary-line-of-march-old-bolshevism-in-early-1917-re-examined/#comments Sun, 02 Apr 2017 19:19:59 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=3667 By Eric Blanc. The following article continues a series initiated by Eric Blanc’s “Before Lenin: Bolshevik Theory and Practice in February 1917 Revisited.” See also comment by Gaston Gutierrez (in Spanish). Introduction In the hundred years since the overthrow of Tsarism, there has been a near consensus among socialists and scholars that Bolshevism underwent a strategic […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2017/04/02/a-revolutionary-line-of-march-old-bolshevism-in-early-1917-re-examined/feed/ 1 3667 The roots of 1917: Kautsky, the state, and revolution in Imperial Russia https://johnriddell.com/2016/10/13/the-roots-of-1917-kautsky-the-state-and-revolution-in-imperial-russia/ https://johnriddell.com/2016/10/13/the-roots-of-1917-kautsky-the-state-and-revolution-in-imperial-russia/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2016 15:42:24 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=2944 By Eric Blanc. Abstract: This article reexamines the perspectives on the state and revolution advocated by the early Karl Kautsky and revolutionary social democrats across the Tsarist Empire. Contrary to a common misconception, these “orthodox” Marxists rejected the possibility of a peaceful and gradualist utilization of the capitalist state for socialist transformation. I show that […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2016/10/13/the-roots-of-1917-kautsky-the-state-and-revolution-in-imperial-russia/feed/ 8 2944 Michael Lebowitz Dissects the Failure of Soviet ‘Socialism’ https://johnriddell.com/2015/05/19/dissecting-the-failure-of-soviet-socialism/ https://johnriddell.com/2015/05/19/dissecting-the-failure-of-soviet-socialism/#comments Tue, 19 May 2015 16:18:24 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=2307 Review by John Riddell of The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”: The Conductor and the Conducted, by Michael A. Lebowitz, New York: Monthly Review 2012. In current discussions of twenty-first century socialism, the work of Michael Lebowitz has a unique merit: it is rooted in the experience of Cuba and Venezuela, where efforts in recent decades […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2015/05/19/dissecting-the-failure-of-soviet-socialism/feed/ 5 2307 Trotsky on the role of workers’ democracy and markets in socialist planning https://johnriddell.com/2015/05/18/trotsky-on-the-role-of-workers-democracy-and-markets-in-socialist-planning/ https://johnriddell.com/2015/05/18/trotsky-on-the-role-of-workers-democracy-and-markets-in-socialist-planning/#comments Mon, 18 May 2015 16:21:29 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=2313 Introductory note by John Riddell: The following two excerpts from articles by Leon Trotsky present his thoughts on the state of the Soviet economy in 1932–3, at the close of a five-year campaign of forced-pace industrialization. Trotsky’s remarks on planning, markets, bureaucracy, and rank-and-file democracy are highly relevant to all twenty-first century efforts to launch […]

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