Language: English
The Rise of Stalinism
Reading from a Trotskyist perspective on bureaucracy and the transformation of the Soviet regime. Assess its interpretation alongside other historical sources.
Manifesto of the Communist Party
A programmatic text first published in February 1848. The linked edition identifies its translators and publication history.
Surplus value and exploitation
Marx distinguishes the labour-power workers sell from the value they can create while working. Surplus value is the portion of new value exceeding the value of labour-power that is appropriated by owners of capital.
The capitalist state
The state comprises administrative, legal and coercive institutions. Marxist analysis examines how these institutions relate to class structures and the maintenance of property relations.
Reform or revolution?
Reforms can improve lives and extend rights. The reform-or-revolution debate asks whether gradual reforms can overcome capitalist relations, or whether a change in class power is necessary.
Imperialism and war
War should be studied through state interests, capital and international relationships, alongside specific political causes. Class analysis asks who makes decisions, who benefits and who bears the destruction.
Permanent revolution
Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution examines the relationship between democratic tasks, working-class power and international revolutionary development in societies marked by uneven development.
Public University Campus Elections and the Student Movement
An archival article from 2017 on campus elections and the student movement. Read it as a political assessment of its time, then compare it with today’s campus organisations, rights and rules.
What is capitalism?
Capitalism is a social system in which production is largely controlled as private property and organised for profit. Many people earn their income by selling their labour-power, while owners of capital control investment decisions.
What is socialism?
In the Marxist tradition, socialism means organising the economy to meet social needs through common ownership and workers’ democratic control. It involves changing power relations in society, rather than simply increasing assistance for poor people.