Introduction Every working person is keenly aware that prices are up. Nasty surprises and disbelief keep turning up at the register. People are being forced to forgo even the most minor and seemingly harmless comfort purchases, adding to the accumulation of the...
Marx’s writings on Asia: A sober assessment
Introduction Throughout most of recorded history, Asia has been the wealthiest region in the world. The riches of Asia attracted people from around the Old World, as exemplified by the travels of figures like the Venetian Marco Polo or the North African Ibn Battuta,...
Studying society for the working class: Marx’s first preface to “Capital”
Introduction In the preface to the first edition of volume one of Capital, dated July 25, 1867, Marx introduces the book’s “ultimate aim": “to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society” [1]. Looking back 155 years later, it’s clear the book not only...
The root causes of the attacks on reproductive rights: A Marxist analysis
Editor's introduction: Women’s History Month is a time to recommit ourselves to the unfinished struggle for women’s liberation, and this year it is even more crucial than ever. The conservative leaning Supreme Court is considering gutting or even overturning Roe v....
Clarifying the struggle for socialism: Webinar on Marx’s “Capital”
Editor's introduction: The following webinar, originally held on March 26, 2022, features several Liberation School comrades who were involved with our Reading Capital with Comrades podcast and other activities. The webinar was organized by the International Manifesto...
Understanding and fighting gentrification: A revolutionary orientation
Introduction Cities across the U.S. are rapidly transforming. “Gentrification-style” luxury developments are replacing neighborhood landmarks and low-income housing. Sky-high rents are pushing poor residents increasingly further from city centers. These trends are...
Clarifying and inspiring revolution for 130 years: Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Programme”
Karl Marx never intended to spell out what the communist future would look like or how we would get there. His writing that comes closest to doing this is a short letter he wrote in 1875, given the title Critique of the Gotha Programme. Published 130 years ago—in...
Beyond the sprouts of capitalism: China’s early capitalist development and contemporary socialist project
This article was originally published at Monthly Review Online on March 03, 2021, and has been lightly revised with approval from the author. Introduction The contemporary political economy of the People’s Republic of China, the nature of the Chinese system, has been...
Relative surplus value: The class struggle intensifies
Introduction Toward the end of our earlier introduction to surplus value, the heart and motor of the class struggle, we wrote that: “The rate of surplus value for the capitalist is the rate of exploitation for the worker. By merely prolonging the working day, the...