Articles

Written during 1969, this essay criticizes Althusser’s interpretation of the ‘mature’ Marx as breaking with the influence of Hegel and with the concept of alienation. Without denying the discontinuity in Marx’s thinking, Mandel thought Marx based his analysis on a materialist interpretation of Hegel’s dialectic. Mandel argued that rather than abandoning the notion of alienation, Marx changed this concept from an anthropological to a historical, materialist one. A ‘call to revolutionary action by the proletariat’ replaced a ‘philosophical conclusion on the plane of thoughts, ideas, intellectual work’. Althusser however had transformed Marxism into something ‘static’, without understanding that its basis is ‘the historically perishable nature of all ‘structures’’. Writing in the aftermath of May 68, this was a discussion that for Mandel had direct political implications.

In 2020, it is seventy-five years since the liberation of Auschwitz. As a young resistance-activist, Ernest Mandel barely escaped death in the camps himself. We publish here a 1988 essay in which he attempted to outline the preconditions for the Nazi genocide.

Michael Löwy reviews Livio Maitan's ''Memoirs of a critical communist. Towards a History of the Fourth International''

We are happy to announce that we met our fundraising goal to support the English translation of Manuel Kellner’s book on the thought of Ernest Mandel.

This address was given by Franco Turigliatto at the launch of Livio Maitan’s book ''Memoirs of a critical communist: Towards a history of the Fourth International'' at the Historical Materialism conference in London in November 2019.

A video message from Gregor Benton at the launch of ''Memoirs of a Critical Communist. Towards a history of the Fourth International''. Benton reflects on Livio Maitan, and what Maitan's work meant for him.

Preface by Daniel Bensaid
Translated by Gregor Benton
Edited with an introduction by Penelope Duggan

Llivio Maitan's Memoirs of a Critical Communist tells the life of revolutionary communist in the second half of the 20th century. From his early commitment to communism under fascism in Italy, Livio chose to be 'against the current' by rejecting both Stalinism and social democracy, and charted a curse towards democratic and revolutionary Marxism.

In Mid-July, the IIRE again organized a women's seminar. A report and some photos can be found here. Here, we publish a report by Penny Duggan, one of the organizers of the seminar. 

Los últimos años han sido testigos de un nuevo y motivante surgimiento del movimiento de mujeres que comenzó en Argentina e incluyó importantes movilizaciones contra la violencia en la India, las movilizaciones anti-Trump en Estados Unidos y en otros lugares en enero de 2017, el movimiento #metoo en todo el mundo, #Ele Nao! en Brasil, la huelga masiva de mujeres en el Estado español en 2018 y 2019.....

  Ces dernières années ont vu une nouvelle montée passionnante et motivante du mouvement des femmes qui a commencé en Argentine et qui comprend des mobilisations majeures contre la violence en Inde, les mobilisations anti-Trump aux Etats-Unis et ailleurs en janvier 2017, le mouvement #metoo dans le monde, #Ele Nao ! au Brésil, la grève massive des femmes dans l'état espagnol en 2018 et 2019....