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Why we are Marxists

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that Marxism is not merely a political programme but a comprehensive scientific world outlook — dialectical and historical materialism — whose validity has been confirmed, not refuted, by the trajectory of capitalism since the 2008 crisis. The central claim is that capitalism has exhausted its progressive potential: the productive forces have outgrown the limits of private property and the nation state, producing a structural crisis that cannot be resolved by regulation, reform, or a return to "normal" business cycles. Against Fukuyama's thesis of the "end of history," Woods insists that history is only beginning — because the objective conditions for socialist revolution are now more mature than at any point since the 1930s, and the subjective consciousness of the working class is beginning to catch up with that objective reality.

Theoretical Grounding

The article draws on the foundational categories of classical Marxism:

  • Dialectical materialism as a method: the transformation of quantity into quality, the interpenetration of opposites, and the leap from gradual accumulation to explosive change. Woods connects this explicitly to modern chaos theory and phase-transition physics, arguing that Marx and Engels anticipated these insights a century before they were formalised mathematically.
  • Historical materialism: the primacy of the development of the productive forces as the ultimate determinant of social change, and the correspondence (and later contradiction) between those forces and the relations of production. The article deploys this to explain why the present crisis is not cyclical but epochal.
  • The concentration and centralisation of capital from the Communist Manifesto, confirmed by contemporary data on monopoly power and the dominance of finance capital.
  • The theory of imperialism (Lenin): the dominance of finance capital, the fusion of bank and industrial capital, and the parasitic character of the monopoly stage.
  • The critique of reformism: the article treats the crisis as insoluble within capitalism's framework, rejecting any strategy that seeks to "tinker" with the system rather than overthrow it.

The tradition invoked is that of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, with Trotsky's 1930s observation about the bourgeoisie "tobogganing to disaster with its eyes closed" serving as a direct conjunctural reference point. The article sits firmly within the orthodox Marxist tradition, rejecting both social-democratic reformism and post-modernist rejections of grand theory.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was written in June 2017, and its analysis is tightly bound to that moment:

  • The long shadow of 2008: the crisis is presented not as a temporary downturn but as a structural rupture from which capitalism has not recovered. Woods notes that the "weak recovery" has been accompanied by high unemployment, austerity, and falling living standards — a characterisation that fits the post-2008 trajectory across Europe and North America.
  • The Greek crisis is cited as "graphic confirmation" of European capitalism's diseased state, with Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy following behind.
  • Brexit (the UK's decision to leave the EU, taken in 2016 and unfolding through 2017) is interpreted as a symptom of chronic political instability and economic decline, not a solution.
  • China's slowdown is noted as a critical factor, since Chinese growth had temporarily masked the depth of global overaccumulation.
  • Data on monopoly concentration: the article cites 2015-2016 studies showing that 147 corporations control 40% of global wealth, that the top 10 corporations have revenues exceeding the GDP of 180 countries, and that eight billionaires own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people. These figures are used to argue that the Communist Manifesto's predictions on concentration have been "brilliantly confirmed."
  • The political conjuncture: Woods identifies a "beginning of a change of consciousness" — a radicalisation still in its early stages — and compares the period to Spain from 1930 to 1937, a phase of intense class struggle with defeats and setbacks but rapid learning by the masses.

Where the Argument Continues

This article is an introductory statement of first principles, not a detailed strategic or programmatic text. It leaves open or underdeveloped:

  • The concrete political strategy for building a revolutionary party in the current conjuncture. The article establishes why Marxism is necessary but does not elaborate how revolutionaries should organise, intervene in trade unions, or relate to emerging movements (e.g., Corbynism, Sanders, the Yellow Vests, which postdate the article).
  • The question of the state: the article calls for the "overthrow" of capitalism and the establishment of a "World Socialist Federation," but does not discuss the Marxist theory of the state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, or the lessons of the Russian Revolution.
  • The nature of the USSR and Stalinism: the article mentions the fall of the Soviet Union only to dismiss Fukuyama's triumphalism. It does not offer a Marxist analysis of why the USSR collapsed or what lessons revolutionaries should draw from that experience.
  • The relationship between the class struggle and other oppressions: the article focuses on class as the central contradiction but does not systematically address gender, race, or ecological questions as they intersect with capital.

These gaps are filled elsewhere in the IDOM corpus. Readers should consult:

  • Alan Woods, Reformism or Revolution (for the critique of reformism in detail)
  • Alan Woods, The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective (for the philosophical grounding)
  • IDOM articles on the state, the USSR, and the transition to socialism
  • Against the Stream episodes on the current conjuncture, particularly those analysing the 2020-2024 period

Connections

  • Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto: the article's central textual reference, quoted at length on globalisation and concentration of capital.
  • Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: the methodological framework for the critique of utopianism and the defence of scientific socialism.
  • Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: the theoretical basis for the analysis of finance capital and monopoly.
  • Trotsky, The Transitional Programme: the strategic orientation for the period of capitalist decay and the approach to mass radicalisation.
  • Mark Buchanan, Ubiquity: cited by Woods as a contemporary scientific confirmation of dialectical laws.
  • Oxfam and Global Justice Now reports: used as empirical sources on inequality and monopoly concentration.

Key Quotes

  1. "The development of the productive forces on a world scale has gone beyond the narrow limits of private property and the nation state. That is the most fundamental reason for the present crisis, which has exposed the bankruptcy of capitalism in the most literal sense of the word."

  2. "The two main barriers to the development of humankind are: on the one hand, private ownership of the means of production and on the other hand, that obsolete remnant of barbarism, the nation state. It is the historic task of the proletariat to tear down these barriers to the progress of civilization."

  3. "Dialectics does away with the fixed, rigid, lifeless way of looking at things that was characteristic of the old mechanical school of classical physics. It shows that under certain circumstances things can turn into their opposite."

  4. "The root cause of revolutionary changes is the fact that a particular socio-economic system has reached its limits and is unable to develop the productive forces as before."

  5. "We can therefore answer Mr. Fukuyama as follows: history has not ended. In fact, it has hardly begun. When future generations look back at our present 'civilisation', they will have approximately the same attitude that we adopt towards cannibalism."

  6. "The socialist revolution will sweep aside all national barriers and free the vast potential for the development of the productive forces by creating a World Socialist Federation that will pool the limitless resources of our planet in a planned and harmonious manner to satisfy the needs of all humanity, not the greed of a few super-rich parasites."