Subject: Politics & Society

A system of production based on private ownership of capital, wage labour and production for profit.

A profound change in power relations and the social order. Its form and outcome depend on historical conditions.

In the Marxist tradition, the organisation of the economy through common ownership and democratic control to meet social needs.

Councils representing workers, soldiers or peasants that emerged in the Russian revolutions. Their form and composition changed with circumstances.

People who depend primarily on selling their labour-power to live, rather than on income from owning capital.

An administrative layer; in debates on the Soviet Union, also a privileged layer that concentrated power.

A relationship in which workers sell their labour-power to an employer for a period of time in return for wages.

A political orientation emphasising workers’ shared interests and solidarity across national borders.

Value used in production and exchange to generate more value; a social relationship, rather than simply machinery or money.

An approach to demands connecting immediate needs with questions of working-class economic and political power.