vijay prashad

  1. Karl Marx and Our Necessary Future
    05
    May

    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[...]
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  2. Investigator of Morbid Symptoms
    27
    Apr

    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€[...]
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  3. For Comrade Lenin on his 150th Birth Anniversary
    22
    Apr

    For Comrade Lenin on his 150th Birth Anniversary

    Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870–1924) was known by his pseudonym—Lenin. He was, like his siblings, a revolutionary, which in the context of tsarist Russia meant that he spent long years in prison and in exile. Lenin helped build the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party both by his intellectual and his organizational work. Lenin’s writings are not only his own words, but the summation of the activity and thoughts of the thousands of militants whose paths crossed his own. It was Lenin’s re[...]
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  4. ‘The ruling elites have boycotted humanity’
    13
    Apr

    ‘The ruling elites have boycotted humanity’

    The following is a transcript of an interview with Vijay Prashad for Covid-19 Chronicles broadcast on April 6, 2020. Frank Barat (FB): People are talking about ‘before’ and ‘after’ coronavirus. But many are saying they can’t wait to go back to ‘normal’. But in a recent newsletter of the Tricontinental Institute, you say: ‘We won’t go back to normal, because normal was the problem’. Can you tell us what you meant? Vijay Prashad (VP): The pandemic is an occasion to think [...]
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  5. A letter to Anand Teltumbde
    06
    Apr

    A letter to Anand Teltumbde

    Dear Anand, On Monday, there will probably be a knock on your door. Police officers are likely to arrive to arrest you. They will carry with them a range of papers, a file overflowing with notes that refer to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code. There will be plenty of references to the village of Bhima Koregaon near Pune. These papers will make hallucinatory accusations against you and others. It is hard to keep up with them: you incited violence in Bhima Koregaon[...]
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