Ernest Mandel was one of the most significant Marxists of the twentieth century. During his life, Mandel participated in anti-fascist resistance, played a leading role in the Fourth International, and assisted Che Guevara with socialist economic planning after the Cuban Revolution. For many socialists, Mandel’s writings were their first encounter with Marxist theory and played an important role in their political education.

The IIRE has released the first volume of the Selected Writings by Ernest Mandel (1923-1995). And fortunately, more volumes are in the pipeline: Marxists Against Stalinism. A debate with Chris Harman and Historical & Theoretical Essays.

From colloquiums to seminars, from articles to opinion pieces, a thesis has spread to the point of acquiring the quiet force of a commonplace: it is to Marx himself, and not to Stalin or Lenin, that the original sin and the inevitable metamorphosis of the socialist paradise into a totalitarian hell can be traced.