Against academic 'Marxism'
Channel: The Communist
Date: 2020-10-24

Ever since their inception, there has been a war waged against the genuine ideas of Marxism – not only by the ruling classes and by Stalinist regimes, but in the universities also. The aim of this concerted campaign has always been the same: to blunt the revolutionary edge of Marxism.

In the interwar years – a period of revolution and counter-revolution – the Frankfurt School and its theorists served to obscure socialist ideas and sow confusion. Subsequently, postmodernist thinkers have played a similarly pernicious role.

Deciding that Marx's ideas were outdated and that ‘new ideas’ were necessary, these so-called Marxists opened the backdoor to idealism and all manner of reactionary conclusions. Today, prominent academic ‘Marxists’ such as Slavoj Zizek and David Harvey show where this path leads – to utopian and reformist attempts to patch up capitalism. 

In this session, Daniel Morley will explain why this ‘academic Marxism’ is incompatible with the real revolutionary ideas of Marxism. To paraphrase Marx’s famous aphorism: The academics have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.