What is Marxism?¶
Core Argument¶
What is Marxism? sets out to establish Marxism not as a dead dogma or an academic specialism but as a living, fighting science of revolution whose relevance has been dramatically vindicated by the 2008 economic collapse and the subsequent crisis of global capitalism. The book argues that Marxism alone provides a coherent explanation of capitalism's recurrent crises, the intensification of class polarisation, and the structural impossibility of reforming the system from within. Against the chorus of bourgeois critics who have repeatedly pronounced Marxism dead, the authors insist that the ruling class's own panic-stricken output of anti-Marxist literature betrays a genuine fear that these ideas are gaining traction precisely as capitalism enters its most unstable epoch since the 1930s.
The central thesis is that Marxism is the synthesis of English classical economics, German Hegelian philosophy, and French socialism, whose component parts are dialectical materialism, historical materialism, and Marxist economics. The book contends that this theoretical arsenal is indispensable for the working class because it alone reveals the laws of motion of capitalist society, exposes the hidden mechanisms of exploitation behind the surface phenomena of the market, and demonstrates that socialism is not a moral aspiration but a historical necessity. The authors argue that the objective conditions for socialist revolution are now more mature than ever, and that the only alternatives facing humanity are socialist transformation or the destruction of civilisation through war, environmental collapse, and cultural barbarism.
Overview¶
The book opens with a biographical chapter that establishes its authors, Alan Woods and Rob Sewell, as organic intellectuals of the working-class movement rather than detached academics. Both were raised in Communist households in South Wales, and their prolific output—ranging from classical Marxist philosophy to the history of the Roman Republic—is presented as a sustained polemical intervention in defence of Leninism against reformists, centrists, and anti-Leninists. This framing is crucial: the text insists from the outset that serious Marxist theory is inseparable from revolutionary practice and party discipline, and that the authors are combatants in an ongoing ideological war, not neutral commentators.
The theoretical grounding of the book is established in the chapters on production and dialectical materialism. The materialist conception of history is presented as the bedrock of Marxism: the way human beings produce their means of subsistence determines the entire structure of society, from the legal and political superstructure to the forms of social consciousness. The authors draw extensively on Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State to trace the emergence of class society from primitive communism, and they deploy Trotsky's analysis of combined and uneven development to argue that imperialism has globalised capitalism's contradictions, making socialist revolution a practical necessity. Dialectical materialism is presented as the indispensable philosophical foundation, fusing Hegelian dialectics with materialism to produce a method that sees the world as a complex of processes, not ready-made things, and reveals the transitory character of everything that exists.
The chapters on historical materialism and Marxist economics develop these foundations into a comprehensive analysis of capitalism's rise, development, and necessary demise. Historical materialism is presented as the scientific method for understanding human social development, moving beyond pre-Marxist conceptions of history as a series of accidents or expressions of divine will. The motor force of social development is class struggle, and the viability of any socio-economic system is determined by its capacity to develop the means of production. The authors trace the evolution from hunter-gatherer societies through the Neolithic Revolution, slave society, feudalism, and bourgeois revolutions to the Paris Commune, presenting each mode of production as arising, developing, and eventually becoming a fetter on further productive expansion. Marxist economics is then deployed to expose the hidden mechanisms of exploitation: the labour theory of value, the distinction between labour and labour-power, the extraction of surplus value, and the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The 2008 crash is presented not as an accident or a failure of regulation but as a crisis of overproduction rooted in capitalism's fundamental contradiction between social production and private appropriation.
The book's place in the Marxist tradition is explicitly Leninist and Trotskyist. The authors align themselves with the revolutionary wing of Marxism against both reformist socialism and Stalinism, arguing that the early Soviet state under Lenin and Trotsky was the most democratic ever to exist, based on elected Soviets of ordinary workers, peasants, and soldiers, and that its bureaucratic degeneration into Stalinism was not a product of Bolshevism but its enemy. The text is presented as an introductory work, originally part of an 'Education for Socialists' series, designed for first-time readers and suitable for individual study or discussion groups. The authors stress that there is no substitute for tackling the classic works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, and Plekhanov, and warn that Marxism, as a science with its own terminology, demands perseverance. The book closes with the assertion that Marxism is a "guide to action," quoting Marx's eleventh thesis on Feuerbach: "Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."
Chapter Guide¶
- Authors — Alan Woods and Rob Sewell are presented as organic intellectuals of the working-class movement whose prolific output constitutes a sustained polemical intervention in defence of Leninism.
- Production — The materialist conception of history establishes that the mode of production determines the entire structure of society, driving history through the contradiction between forces and relations of production.
- Preface to the first edition — Marxism's continued relevance is defended against bourgeois critics, and the book is presented as an introductory text designed for first-time readers and discussion groups.
- The Ideas of Karl Marx — The 2008 economic collapse has dramatically vindicated Marx's analysis of capitalism's contradictions, alienation, and the necessity of socialist revolution.
- What Is Dialectical Materialism? — Dialectical materialism is established as the indispensable philosophical foundation of Marxism, fusing Hegelian dialectics with materialism to reveal the laws of motion in nature, society, and thought.
- What Is Historical Materialism? — Historical materialism provides the scientific method for understanding human social development, tracing the rise and fall of successive modes of production through class struggle.
- What Is Marxist Economics? — Marxist economics exposes the hidden mechanisms of exploitation beneath the surface of the market, demonstrating that capitalism's crises are crises of overproduction rooted in its fundamental contradiction.
- Bibliography — A list of primary and secondary sources spanning classical political economy, Enlightenment philosophy, evolutionary biology, and Marxist theory.
Key Concepts¶
- Dialectical materialism — The philosophical foundation of Marxism, fusing Hegelian dialectics with materialism to understand the world as a process of constant motion, change, and development through contradictions.
- Historical materialism — The scientific method for understanding human social development, holding that the mode of production determines the structure of society and that class struggle is the motor force of history.
- Labour theory of value — The theory that the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour-time required for its production, establishing labour as the source of all value.
- Surplus value — The value extracted from the worker beyond the cost of their labour-power, representing the hidden mechanism of exploitation under capitalism.
- Commodity fetishism — The phenomenon by which social relations between persons appear as relations between things under capitalism, obscuring the real character of exploitation.
- Crisis of overproduction — The fundamental contradiction of capitalism, where the working class cannot buy back the values it produces, leading to recurrent economic crises that demonstrate the system's irrationality.
- Dictatorship of the proletariat — The workers' state based on the Paris Commune model, where the working class transforms the state machinery and draws workers into control and accounting, representing the most democratic form of state ever to exist.
- Combined and uneven development — Trotsky's analysis of how imperialism has globalised capitalism's contradictions, making socialist revolution a practical necessity in the epoch of capitalist decline.