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...
The state and revolution
Lenin wrote The State and Revolution between August and October of 1917, while he was living and organizing underground, hiding from the police. He pushed through these difficult circumstances to write the pamphlet not in order to intervene in the revolutionary...
Antonio Gramsci: A communist revolutionary, organizer, and theorist
On January 1, 1916, just about 10 years before Mussolini's fascist regime imprisoned him, Italian communist Antonio Gramsci published a short article in Avanti! (Forward!)--the Italian Socialist Party's (PSI) daily newspaper--about why he "hates" New Year's Day....
The U.S. “justice system:” Sanctuaries of sexual abuse
Editor's note: This is a longer version of an article originally published in Breaking the Chains magazine. In December 2019, 14 women, both former and current inmates at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, filed a lawsuit accusing the Florida prison of creating...
How will the police be abolished? A Marxist perspective
12 points on the U.S. state and the necessity of revolution 1. The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands for the overthrow, dismantling and complete replacement of the core institutions of the capitalist state, which are the “special bodies of armed men,” namely...
From rebellion to revolution
Editorial note: This article was originally published on Liberation News. Introduction A profound rebellion against racism has been sweeping the country for a month. Millions have taken to the streets in every part of the country, shaking public opinion. Elite...
Rebellion and repression: capitalism’s long hot summer begins
Introduction Trump declared last night from the White House that he would “end the riots” with a national military mobilization to “dominate the streets” and that “if a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary,” he would “deploy the United States...
Always watching, always profiting: Fighting digital repression
While the lifeblood of capitalism—the pursuit of profit—remains the same, the specific ways capitalist’s pursue profit and protect their rule are constantly changing. Marx and Engels identified this trend in their 1848 Communist Manifesto, writing that “the...
How “The State and Revolution” changed history
Anyone who aspires to be a real communist or to understand the theory of modern communism must study Lenin’s pamphlet The State and Revolution. Lenin was able to nearly finish this monumental contribution to Marxism and revolution while on the run, living underground...