Karl Marx and Our Necessary Future

When Karl Marx (born on 5 May 1818) finished his doctoral dissertation on Epicurus, he could not find a job. The reactionary climate in Germany meant that any radical, actually any liberal, could not be allowed a post; two of Marx’s interlocutors – Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer – were both denied academic jobs. Marx, therefore, wandered into journalism; he, along with Bruno Bauer, worked at Rheinische Zeitung, where he wrote powerful pieces from 1842 to 1843. In January 1843, Marx wrote[...]

Create two, three, many Vietnams

[Editor’s note:] In April 1965, Che Guevara left Cuba to lend his leadership abilities as a guerrilla commander to revolutionary struggles in other parts of the world — from the Congo to Bolivia. The following undated message was addressed to the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL, also referred to as the Tricontinental), which was established following a January 1966 conference in Havana. It was published on April 16, 1967, in a special in[...]

Investigator of Morbid Symptoms

This day in 1937, Antonio Gramsci, Marxist thinker and revolutionary, passed away after prolonged illness at the age of 46 in Rome—an optimist to the very end. Journalist, historian and Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, Vijay Prashad, looks back at the life of this brilliant investigator of the morbid symptoms that appear as a capitalist society, scared stiff by social upheaval, attempts to perpetuate the oppression it gives rise to. ☭ ☭ ☭ For a diagnosis of our very own—i.e. Indiaâ€[...]

Marxism-Leninism and the Bourgeois Judiciary

In February 1968, the High Court of Kerala held E.M.S. Namboodiripad in contempt for certain ‘offensive’ remarks about the judiciary he had made publicly on November 9, 1967. Soon after, EMS challenged his conviction in an appeal to the Supreme Court, which gave its decision on July 31, 1970. The apex court upheld the HC judgment, noting that ‘as regards sentence we think that it was hardly necessary to impose heavy sentence. The ends of justice in this case are amply served by exposing th[...]

Frankenstein and the Monster

The note we share today was written by Aijaz Ahmad as an added preface to his Iraq, Afghanistan and The Imperialism of Our Time (LeftWord, 2004). Saddam Hussein’s capture was touted as a big win for the forces of freedom by the international press. The author, however, advises caution. The trial by an Iraqi court was going to be, as it did turn out to be, a sham. And though Hussein was a mass murderer himself, there was an even bigger monster than him. Saddam in US Captivity On 14 December[...]