Tema: Politisk biografi

Politisk biografi

Brian Richardson: Muhammad Ali – en folkets kæmper
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 352, maj 16 
Note: Muhammad Ali fascinerede verden, da han blev verdensmester i sværvægtsboksning i 1964. Han kombinerede ekstraordinær ynde og hurtighed i ringen med en stor personlighed udenfor.
 

Rhys Williams: Book Review: In the belly of the beast
International Socialism Journal nr. 150, apr 16 – side 218
Note: A review of Christian Høgsbjerg, C L R James in Imperial Britain (Duke University Press, 2014), £16.99
In these days of intense state and media racism, any book that offers a deeper understanding of the role of anti-racist and black liberation struggles is invaluable. Høgsbjerg’s book provides a thorough and engrossing account of such struggles in the colonial world and in the belly of the imperial beast—where C L R James lived from 1932 to 1938.
 

Stephen Philip: Book Review: A vibrant portrait of Walter Benjamin
International Socialism Journal nr. 148, okt 15 – side 209
Note: Howard Eiland and Michael W Jennings, Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life (Harvard University Press, 2014), £25

At 700 pages, Walter Eiland and Michael W Jennings’s Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life is the most complete biography available of this fascinating writer whose posthumous fame and reach continue to have an impact in radical intellectual circles. With admirable scholarship, the authors have marshalled a wealth of detail to provide a vibrant picture of Benjamin’s life.
 

Andrew Stone: Book Review: From militant to minister
International Socialism Journal nr. 146, apr 15 – side 214
Note: Paula Bartley, Ellen Wilkinson: From Red Suffragist to Government Minister (Pluto, 2014), £11.50, and Matt Perry, “Red Ellen” Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World (Manchester University Press, 2014), £75
Ellen Wilkinson led an extraordinary life. The daughter of an under-employed insurance collector and Methodist minister in Manchester, she took on many guises in her political life: suffragist, teacher, trade union organiser, Communist, Labourist and ultimately cabinet minister. She was an ardent and persuasive public speaker, and a journalist, novelist and writer of several influential books, including her account of the Jarrow Crusade—The Town That Was Murdered—that has lived on in the popular memory as ­epitomising ­depression-hit 1930s Britain. She was also one of the foremost anti-imperialist voices of the inter-war years.
 

Hazel Norton: Book Review: A Rebel’s Guide to Eleanor Marx
Irish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 12, mar 15 – side 54
Note: Siobhan Brown, A Rebel’s Guide to Eleanor Marx, 2014, Bookmarks £3.00
 

Alex Callinicos: Review: A revolutionary impatience
International Socialism Journal nr. 144, okt 14 – side 218
Note: Daniel Bensaïd, An Impatient Life: A Political Memoir (Verso, 2013), £24.99
Daniel Bensaïd was, as Tariq Ali says in his foreword to this autobiography, “France’s leading Marxist public intellectual” until he died at the age of 63 in 2010. For many years he had lived with the prospect of an early death, and so he wrote a bewilderingly rapid succession of books.
 

Alex Callinicos: Stuart Hall in perspective
International Socialism Journal nr. 142, apr 14 – side 139
Note: Stuart Hall’s death removes from the scene one of the most influential Marxists in Britain of the past 50 years. To describe him thus is immediately to invite controversy.
 

Freddie Nielsen: Pete Seeger 1919-2014: Et langt og vigtigt liv er slut
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 336, feb 14 – side 14
Note: Den 27. januar døde den amerikanske protest-, folkesanger og kommunist, Pete Seeger, 94 år gammel.
 

Christian Høgsbjerg: A “Trot of the milder persuasion”: Raymond Challinor’s Marxism
International Socialism Journal nr. 141, jan 14 – side 71
Note: In 1957 E P Thompson in a private letter to his friend, the fellow dissident Communist historian John Saville, described Raymond Challinor (1929-2011) warmly as a “Trot of the milder persuasion”.
 

Siobhan Brown: Review: The age of Hobsbawm
International Socialism Journal nr. 137, jan 13 – side 215
Note: Gregory Elliott, Hobsbawm: History and Politics (Pluto, 2010), £12.99
For many, Eric Hobsbawm represented the archetypal Marxist historian. His many works on empire, class, nations and states are for many new to Marxism the first way in to understanding a history that he described as “the sweat, blood, tears and triumphs of the common people, our people”. In particular, his vast series The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, The Age of Empire and then Age of Extremes are some of the most comprehensive contributions to Marxist historiography.
 

Leo Zeilig: Pitfalls and radical mutations: Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary life
International Socialism Journal nr. 134, apr 12 – side 141
Note: Since his death Frantz Fanon has been appropriated for almost every cause. Five years after his death in 1961 he emerged as the preferred theorist of the emergent Black Power movement in the US, influencing Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton in the Black Panther Party.
 

Richard Seymour: The late Christopher Hitchens
International Socialism Journal nr. 134, apr 12 – side 167
Note: A review of Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir (Atlantic, 2010), £9.99
 

Ian Birchall + Joseph Choonara: Talkin’ ‘bout a revolutionary
International Socialism Journal nr. 131, jul 11 – side 207
Note: Joseph Choonara spoke to Ian Birchall, author of Tony Cliff: A Marxist for his Time (Bookmarks, 2011), which looks at the life of the founder of the International Socialist tradition,
 

John Charlton: Obituary: Ray Challinor 1929-2011
Socialist Worker nr. 2238, feb 11 – side 6
Note: An appreciation of the life of a veteran socialist and Marxist historian.
 

Matt Perry: Frank Henderson 1925-2009: A remarkable and revolutionary life
Socialist Worker nr. 2183, jan 10 – side 6
Note: Frank had a remarkable life: he was in Italy and Greece during the Second World War and encountered those countries’ partisan movements; he saw the last days of British rule in Palestine, the early days of Algerian independence and was at the battle of Saltley Gate in the 1972 miners’ strike.
 

Hassan Mahamdallie: William Morris: Victorian artist and revolutionary
Socialist Worker nr. 2183, jan 10 – side 13
Note: Famous for his art, William Morris's commitment to socialism and struggle is less well known.
 

Talat Ahmed: Gandhi: the man behind the myths
International Socialism Journal nr. 123, jul 09 – side 111
Note: “The saint has left our shores, I sincerely hope forever”.1 Jan Christiaan Smuts, a future South African prime minister, uttered these words in 1914. The saint was none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on his way home to India after 21 years in South Africa.
 

Neil Faulkner: Gordon Childe and Marxist archaeology
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 81
Note: It may not be an accident that Vere Gordon Childe (1892-1957), perhaps the greatest archaeologist of the 20th century, committed suicide within a year of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. For Childe was not just a leading academic, prehistorian and social theorist; he was also, throughout his adult life, an active and deeply committed socialist, but one who retained illusions in Stalinism to the end.
 

Ian Birchall: Review: Debray's memoirs: tears of a clown
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 193
Note: Régis Debray, Praised Be Our Lords (Verso, 2007), £19.99
Régis Debray first came to prominence in the 1960s when he published various articles and a short book, Revolution in the Revolution?, about guerrilla struggles in Latin America.
 

Mike Gonzalez: José Carlos Mariátegui: Latin America’s forgotten Marxist
International Socialism Journal nr. 115, jul 07 – side 69
Note: José Carlos Mariátegui was born into a society in crisis, a Peru deeply divided between a coastal sector where most of Peru’s capitalist class was concentrated, an emerging mining industry in the central valley between Lima and Huancavelica, and a mountain region which Mariátegui described as “semi-feudal”.
 

Andy Durgan: Andreu Nin and the Poum in the Spanish Revolution
Socialist Worker nr. 2057, jun 07 – side 13
Note: The revolutionary socialist Andreu Nin resisted fascism and Stalinism during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9. Nin was murdered by Stalinists 70 years ago this month. Andy Durgan looks at his life.
 

Sheila McGregor: The legacy of Frantz Fanon
Socialist Worker nr. 2052, maj 07 – side 13
Note: Sheila McGregor looks back at the life and work of the radical psychiatrist
 

Chris Harman: Review: Forgotten treasure: a new biography of Grossman
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 207
Note: Rick Kuhn, Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism (University of Illinois Press, 2007), £14.99
 

Christian Høgsbjerg: C L R James: the revolutionary as artist
International Socialism Journal nr. 112, sep 06 – side 163
Note: Marxism is often accused of being Eurocentric. One person who did not agree was C L R James, the Trinidad-born revolutionary who wrote the classic account of the slave revolt in Haiti, The Black Jacobins. Christian Høgsbjerg looks at his life and his writings.
 

Andy Brown: The real Simon Bolivar
International Socialism Journal nr. 112, sep 06 – side 183
Note: Simon Bolivar's name is now used to describe the revolutionary process in Venezuela. Andy Brown looks at an important new biography, explaining who Bolivar was and what he really stood for.
(A review of John Lynch: "Simon Bolivar: A Life" (Yale University Press, 2006))
 

Andy Zebrowski: Obituary: Jacek Kuron
Socialist Review nr. 287, jul 04 – side 31
Note: Andy Zebrowski explores the life and politics of a leading Polish dissident.
 

Rebecca Pitt: Reclaiming Sartre (Ian Birchall: "Sartre Against Stalinism")
International Socialism Journal nr. 102, mar 04 – side 131
Note: Rebecca Pitt argues that Jean-Paul Sartre can be reclaimed for a new generation of socialists.
 

Andrew Stone: Orwell Centenary: From 2003 to 1984
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 8
Note: George Orwell was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. On the hundredth anniversary of his birth we examine the controversy around his work and his legacy for today. Andrew Stone assesses the relevance of Orwell's most famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
 

Paul Foot: Orwell Centenary: The Cold War Controversy
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 10
Note: Paul Foot examines why much of the left rejects Orwell.
 

Orwell Centenary: George Orwell, 1903-1950
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 10
Note: The facts of Orwell's life.
 

Andy Durgan: Orwell Centenary: No Pasaran
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 12
Note: Andy Durgan describes the impact of revolutionary Spain on Orwell.
 

John Newsinger: Orwell Centenary: The Biographies
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 13
Note: John Newsinger reviews recent biographies of Orwell.
 

Gareth Jenkins: Orwell Centenary: Culture, Class and Communism
Socialist Review nr. 276, jul 03 – side 14
Note: Gareth Jenkins assesses Orwell's writing on culture.
 

Ian Birchall: Michael Kidron (1930-2003)
International Socialism Journal nr. 99, jun 03 – side 103
Note: Mike Kidron, who died recently, was the founding editor of this journal 43 years ago. Ian Birchall introduces a selection of extracts from his early editorials, spanning, among other things, pacifism and the bomb, confronting Nazis on our streets, and the role of the theoretical journal.
 

Mikkel Birk Jespersen: Nekrolog Halfdan Rasmussen: Farvel til en finurlig socialist
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 202, mar 02 – side 8
Note: Halfdan Rasmussen er død, 87 år gammel.
 

Ida H. Jakobsen + Rasmus Keis: Naser Khader: Borgerskabets yndling – indvandrernes fjende
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 188, dec 00 – side 8
Note: En af Danmarks mest markante indvandrere, Naser Khader, har udgivet erindringsbogen, Khader.dk.
 

Tony Cliff, en stor revolutionær: En inspiration for alle socialister
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 183, jun 00 – side 9
Note: Grundlæggeren af IS-tendensen, Tony Cliff, døde d. 9. april.
 

Tony Cliff 1917-2000: En revolutionær kæmpe
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 182, maj 00 – side 11
Note: Kampen for et socialistisk samfund har mistet en meget inspirerende og engageret kraft, da Tony Cliff, grundlæggeren af IS-tendensen, døde d. 9. april.
 

Anna Chen: George Orwell: a literary Trotskyist? (John Newsinger: "Orwell's Politics")
International Socialism Journal nr. 85, dec 99 – side 131
 

Shaun Doherty: Will the real James Connolly please stand up? (James Connolly: "The Lost Writings, introduced and edited by Aindrias Ó'Cathasaigh" + "Selected Writings, introduced and edited by Peter Berresford")
International Socialism Journal nr. 80, sep 98 – side 127
Note: Shaun Doherty takes issue with a new introduction to the writings of the great Irish revolutionary James Connolly
 

Ahmed Shawki + Tony Cliff: 50 år med den Internasjonale Sosialistiske tradisjonen
Internasjonal Sosialisme 2 (norsk) nr. 2, jun 98 
Note: Ahmed Shawki intervjuer Tony Cliff
 

Jakob Nerup: Månedens bog: Rudi Dutschke – revolutionær marxist fra 1968
Socialistisk Revy nr. 3, apr 98 – side 29
Note: Gretchen Dutschke: "Et skønt, barbarisk liv – Rudi Dutschke – en biografi"
 

Jakob Nerup: Bertolt Brecht – socialist fremfor alt
Socialistisk Revy nr. 2, mar 98 – side 24
Note: Overalt i verden fejres Bertolt Brechts 100 års fødselsdag. Han hyldes berettiget som et af dette århundredes store dramatikere. Jakob Nerup skriver om den politiske Brecht
 

William Keach: In perspective: Alexander Cockburn and Christopher Hitchens
International Socialism Journal nr. 78, mar 98 – side 143
Note: The return of our occasional 'In Perspective' feature gives William Keach the chance to dissect the work of two radical journalists, Christopher Hitchens and Alex Cockburn
 

John Parrington: In perspective: Valentin Voloshinov
International Socialism Journal nr. 75, jun 97 – side 117
Note: Valentin Voloshinov, the brilliant Marxist and psychologist who worked in Russia in the years after the 1917 revolution, comes to life in John Parrington's account, the second in our new In perspective series.
 

Anthony Arnove: In perspective: Noam Chomsky
International Socialism Journal nr. 74, mar 97 – side 117
Note: Noam Chomsky's work is widely admired among socialists, and rightly so, argues Anthony Arnove in the first of our new occasional series, 'In perspective'. But, he concludes, Chomsky's undoubted achievements shouldn't blind us to the weaknesses of his analysis and his corresponding difficulties in answering the question, 'What is to be done?'
 

Paul O’Flinn: From the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom: Morris's News From Nowhere
(C Wilmer (ed): "William Morris: News from Nowhere and other Writings")
International Socialism Journal nr. 72, sep 96 – side 101
 

Kevin Ovenden: Karl Liebknecht 1871-1919: Ja til revolution! Nej til krig!
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 138, jun 96 – side 8
Note: Første verdenskrig splittede arbejderbevægelsen i reformister og revolutionære. Karl Liebknecht fastholdt sin krigsmodstand og argumenterede for nødvendigheden af revolution.
 

Hassan Mahamdallie: William Morris and revolutionary Marxism: crossing the 'river of fire'
International Socialism Journal nr. 71, jun 96 – side 57
Note: William Morris's centenary has proved that he is the socialist the middle classes would most like to love­if it wasn't for his politics. Hassan Mahamdallie looks at the historical and social background to Morris's life, the development of his socialism and at the revolutionary behind the artist.
 

Chris Nineham: Raymond Williams: revitalising the left?
International Socialism Journal nr. 71, jun 96 – side 117
Note: Raymond Williams became one of the best known literary and political theorists in post-war Britain. Fred Inglis' recent biography of Williams has promoted debate about its subject and fate of the New Left. Chris Nineham adds his own assessment.
 

Paul Foot: A passionate prophet of liberation
(Peter Ackroyd: "A review of Blake" + E P Thompson: "Witness against the beast – William Blake and the moral law")
International Socialism Journal nr. 71, jun 96 – side 131
 

Brian Richardson: The making of a revolutionary
(Huey P Newton: "Revolutionary Suicide")
International Socialism Journal nr. 70, mar 96 – side 91
Note: Black Panther Huey Newton's life is both an inspiration to socialists and a lesson that taking on the state without a clear strategy is a dangerous game, as Brian Richardson's review of Newton's autobiography shows.
 

Jane Elderton: Suffragette style (K Dodd (ed): "A Sylvia Pankhurst Reader")
International Socialism Journal nr. 64, sep 94 – side 123
Note: A look at Sylvia Pankhurst's life
 

Jørgen Lund: Boganmeldelse: Ole Sohn: "Et liv i kamp og kærlighed – om sygeplejerske Elna Hiort-Lorenzen"
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 100, feb 94 – side 12
Note: Dansk Sygeplejeråd har udsendt Ole Sohns bog “Et liv i kamp og kærlighed – om sygeplejerske Elna Hiort-Lorenzen”. Når bogen er god, dramatisk og letlæst, er det fordi den nu 92-åriges liv har været dramatisk.
 

Jens Loller: Malcolm X – symbol på antiracisme og revolutionær kamp
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 89, feb 93 – side 10
 

Steve Wright: Hal Draper’s Marxism
International Socialism Journal nr. 47, jun 90 – side 157
Note: Steve Wright contributes an appreciation of Hal Draper, an early American Trotskyist and author of the much acclaimed three volume Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, who died earlier this year.
 

Bill Roberts: Obituary: Abbie Hoffman: No regrets
Socialist Review nr. 120, maj 89 – side 24
Note: An obituary of the former Yippie leader
 

Charlie Lywood: Renegaten Kautsky
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 47, feb 89 – side 9
Note: SPD, USPD, Kautsky,
 

Peter Green: Sergei Eisenstein: Fire and passion
Socialist Review nr. 113, okt 88 – side 28
Note: ‘Battleship Potemkin’ and ‘October’ are probably the two most fanous films ever to come out of Russia. Sergei Eisenstein directed both and is one of the greatest directors in the history of film. An exhibition of his work is currently on in London.
Pete Green wites about the life and work of Eisenstein.
 

Kieran Allen: Rewriting Connolly (Austin Morgan: "James Connolly: A Political Biography")
Socialist Review nr. 112, sep 88 – side 26
 

Ian Birchall: Raymond Williams: centrist tragedy?
International Socialism Journal nr. 39, jun 88 – side 139
Note: Ian Birchall assesses the work of Marxist critic Raymond Williams, who died earlier this year.
 

Chris Bambery: The politics of James P Cannon
International Socialism Journal nr. 36, sep 87 – side 49
 

Charlie Lywood: Kautsky: "Marxismens pave"
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 29, maj 87 – side 9
Note: SPD, USPD
 

Tony Cliff: The tragedy of A J Cook
International Socialism Journal nr. 31, mar 86 – side 69
Note: A J Cook was a leader of the miners during the 1926 General Strike
 

Andy Durgan: The rise and fall of Largo Caballero
International Socialism Journal nr. 18, dec 82 – side 87
 

Dave Beecham: Writers reviewed: Boris Vian
Socialist Review nr. 40, feb 82 – side 29
Note: "I'll desert, I'll go underground. I'll fight my own war."
 

Tony Cliff: Alexandra Kollontai: Russian Marxists and Women Workers
International Socialism Journal nr. 14, sep 81 – side 75
Note: Over the last ten or so years two examples have been used by many who consider themselves socialist feminists to bolster their position of the need for a separate women’s organisation. One was the example of Clara Zetkin and the German socialist movement, the other that of the Russian Marxists and above all Alexandra Kollontai.
 

Mike Jones: Anmeldelse: Rosa Leviné-Meyer: “Leviné – The Life of a Revolutionary”
Proletar! nr. 7, feb 74 – side 36
Note: Eugen Leviné blev henrettet efter nedkæmpelsen af rådsrepublikken i München, som han havde taget ledelsen af for det tyske kommunistiske parti. Denne biografi er skrevet af hans kone og partikammerat, Rosa Leviné-Meyer.
 

Peter Sedgwick: Tragedy of the Tragedian: An appreciation of Isaac Deutscher
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 31, dec 67 – side 10
Note: The sudden death of Isaac Deutscher on 19 August last tore a deep, for some an unexpectedly deep, wound in the hearts of all of us who prize Marxist thought and practice. Until we lost Deutscher, we did not know what we owed him; while he was alive, the forbidding armoury of his scholarship and his international rank shielded, not only him from us but us from him.
 

Ray Challinor: Review: In Memory of G.D.H. Cole
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 1, jun 60 – side 31
Note: Essays in Labour History
Edited by Asa Briggs and John Saville
Macmillan. 42s.

This volume, originally conceived in homage to Professor Cole on his 70th birthday, had to be changed, due to his unfortunate death, into a memorial to him – a well-earned tribute. For G.D.H. Cole, more than any other British socialist, has been responsible for transforming the study of the Labour Movement’s history from being a grubby, suspect business, carried out by a few cranks, into an accepted part of historical study. All socialists owe him a debt of gratitude.
 

Karl Marx

Jacques Bidet: Book Review: Capital in context
International Socialism Journal nr. 151, jul 16 – side 203
Note: A review of Alex Callinicos, Deciphering Capital: Marx’s Capital and its Destiny (Bookmarks, 2014), £14.99
Deciphering Capital by Alex Callinicos is the impressive balance sheet of some 30 years of research. Its starting point is a thesis completed at Oxford in 1978 entitled “The Logic of Capital”, which distanced him at one and the same time from both the surrounding Hegelian Marxism and the empiricism of Ernest Mandel.
 

Fred Moseley: Book Review: Marx’s research notebooks and globalisation
International Socialism Journal nr. 148, okt 15 – side 195
Note: A review of Lucia Pradella, Globalization and the Critique of Political Economy: New Insights from Marx’s Writings (Routledge, 2014), £90

In this pioneering book Lucia Pradella examines Marx’s research notebooks that have been published for the first time in recent years in the monumental Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) collection (planned to be 110 volumes in all, 69 of which have been published).
 

Brian O’Boyle: Review: Alex Callinicos, Deciphering Capital
Irish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 11, dec 14 – side 76
Note: In Deciphering Capital, Alex Callinicos adds an important contribution to the list of commentators who see Capital as the crowning achievement of political economy.
 

Mark Thomas: Why read Wage-Labour and Capital?
Socialist Review nr. 380, maj 13 – side 35
Note: Karl Marx’s pamphlet Wage Labour and Capital first appeared as a series of articles in Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the newspaper that Marx edited during the 1848-9 revolution that swept Germany and Europe.
 

Stacey Whittle: Book review: Philosophy on the barricades
International Socialism Journal nr. 127, jul 10 – side 209
Note: Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson (eds), Raya Dunayevskaya: The Power of Negativity—Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx (Lexington Books, 2002), £16.95
The relationship of Marx and historical materialism to Hegelian dialectics has long been a source of argument amongst Marxists and non-Marxists alike. The great value of Raya Dunayevskaya’s work, and of these selected writings, is to leave no shadow of doubt that Marx’s entire work (despite allegations of an “epistemological break” between his early “philosophy” and later “economic” work) is indebted to Hegel’s historical and philosophical dialectic. Her aim is to demonstrate the relationship of the Hegelian revolution in philosophy to Marx’s philosophy of revolution.
 

Amy Leather: The struggle for the heart of Marx
Socialist Worker nr. 2179, nov 09 – side 13
Note: Karl Marx’s ideas have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Most mainstream commentators, however, concentrate on Marx’s economic theories and tend to ignore the other fundamental aspect of his politics – his belief in the ability of the working class to liberate itself.
 

Jonathon Collerson: Book review: Marx misread
International Socialism Journal nr. 123, jul 09 – side 205
Note: Stephen Shapiro, How to Read Marx’s Capital (Pluto Press, 2008), £12.99
In How to Read Marx’s Capital, Stephen Shapiro gives a near chapter by chapter reading of the first volume of Capital. But the act of paraphrasing imbues the text with a definite interpretation and Shapiro’s version of Marx’s theory of value undermines his otherwise adequate reading of topics such as the working day, the division of labour and primitive accumulation.
 

Joseph Choonara: Unravelling Capitalism: A Return to Marx
Socialist Worker nr. 2152, maj 09 – side 13
Note: Joseph Choonara talked to Socialist Worker about his new book Unravelling Capitalism and the renewed interest in Marxist economic ideas
 

Feiyi Zhang: Book Review: Laying the groundwork
International Socialism Journal nr. 121, jan 09 – side 181
Note: Marcello Musto (ed), Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy 150 Years Later (Routledge, 2008), £65
The current global financial meltdown highlights the need to both grasp and apply Karl Marx’s analysis of the crisis-prone and exploitative capitalist economy. The Grundrisse is a manuscript in which Marx elaborated his plan for his major work, Capital, and developed his understanding of the central characteristics of capitalism.
 

Simon Basketter: What Marx really said
International Socialism Journal nr. 110, mar 06 – side 186
Note: A review of Hal Draper and E Haberkern, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution Volume V: War and Revolution (Monthly Review Press, 2005), $17.99.
 

Mark Thomas: Philosophy and the masses (Stathis Kouvelakis: "Philosophy and Revolution: From Kant to Marx")
International Socialism Journal nr. 99, jun 03 – side 139
 

John Bellamy Foster: Marx's ecology in historical perspective
International Socialism Journal nr. 96, sep 02 – side 71
Note: JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER draws on his excellent recent book, "Marx's Ecology", in order to give a devastating reply to those who argue that Marx and the Marxist tradition have had little to say on environmental and ecological issues.
 

Hans Erik Madsen: Francis Wheen: “Karl Marx – et liv”: Brug Marx i dag
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 190, feb 01 – side 6
Note: “Det er på tide at skære igennem al mytologien og forsøge at genopdage manden Karl Marx.”
 

Peter Morgan: The man behind the mask (Francis Wheen: "Karl Marx")
International Socialism Journal nr. 85, dec 99 – side 107
Note: Karl Marx's continuing popularity is confirmed by the widespread acclaim for Francis Wheen's new biography, reviewed here by Peter Morgan.
 

Ole Andersen: Hvor fik Marx sine ideer fra?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 174, aug 99 – side 4
Note: Karl Marx’s ideer og teorier har altid spillet en større eller mindre rolle i arbejderklassen og dens partier – lige fra Socialdemokratiet til IS.
 

Chris Harman: Marxismens klassikere: Historisk materialisme
Socialistisk Revy nr. 10, dec 98 – side 26
Note: Karl Marx: "Teser om Feuerbach" + Karl Marx og Friedrich Engels: "Den tyske ideologi"
Historisk materialisme er det navn, man normalt giver til Marx' beskrivelse af, hvordan et samfund udvikler sig og forandres.
 

John Rees: The return of Marx?
International Socialism Journal nr. 79, jun 98 – side 3
Note: 150 years after its first publication there are 14 different editions of The Communist Manifesto now in print in Britain alone. Last year 80,000 copies of just one of these editions were sold. In an extended editorial John Rees examines the revival of interest in Marx among media pundits and academics and assesses what this means for the working class movement.
 

Lindsey German: Reflections on The Communist Manifesto
International Socialism Journal nr. 79, jun 98 – side 13
Note: The Manifesto was written during the revolutionary years of the 1840s, and in a major article Lindsey German examines these revolutions and explains the Manifesto's continuing relevance for understanding and changing the world today.
 

Frank Antonsen: Mads P. Sørensen, Peter Bjørntoft, Ulf V. Olsen (red.): "Kodeord: Marx – nye læsninger": Mislæsning af Marx
Socialistisk Revy nr. 2, mar 98 – side 28
Note: Det er interessant, at Forlaget Modtryk før årsskiftet udgav Kodeord: Marx – nye læsninger. Man må formode at forlagets initiativ skyldes en voksende interesse for Marx. Det er også glædeligt, at bogens forfattere klart slår fast, at Stalin og Mao intet har med marxisme at gøre. Men så er det positive også sagt.
 

Jane Elderton: Ideer der kan forandre verden
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 124, nov 95 – side 6
Note: Marxismen bliver ofte afvist som forældet. Jane Elderton forklarer hvordan vi kan bruge marxismen til at forstå den verden vi lever i, og hvordan vi kan forandre den.
 

Derek Howl: The legacy of Hal Draper
International Socialism Journal nr. 52, sep 91 – side 137
Note: Review: Hal Draper: “Karl Marx’s theory of revolution, Volume IV, Critique of other socialisms”
 

Colin Barker: Book Review: A rich legacy
Socialist Review nr. 143, jun 91 – side 18
Note: Hal Draper: Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution. Volume IV: Critique of Other Socialisms
Socialism has always had two opposing traditions: the reformist tradition of socialism from above and the revolutionary tradition of socialism from below. The latest volume of Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution examines the rivals to Marx and is reviewed here by Colin Barker.
 

Duncan Hallas: Marx' vej til marxismen (1985)
Socialist Review nr. 81, nov 85 
 

Peter Green: Review: The First International And After
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 74, jan 75 – side 30
Note: The First International And After: Political Writings, Vol.3
Karl Marx
Penguin, £1.00
 

Fr Engels

Lily Murphy: Engels visits Ireland
Irish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 13, jun 15 – side 86
Note: Some years ago a rumour arose regarding a visit Vladimir Lenin made to Ireland. The rumour proved false, but one person whose philosophy Lenin built his soviet ideals on, did visit Ireland.
 

Jack Farmer: Why read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific?
Socialist Review nr. 379, apr 13 – side 35
Note: Freidrich Engels’ pamphlet, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, summarised – and criticised – some of the most sophisticated thinkers to reject the cruelty of the Industrial Revolution and argue for a different way of organising society.
 

Roland Boer: Engels’s contradictions: a reply to Tristram Hunt
International Socialism Journal nr. 133, jan 12 – side 199
Note: In a recent and reasonably popular biography, Tristram Hunt charges Friedrich Engels with a series of class and gender contradictions.
 

Lindsey German: In my opinion: Money well spent!
Socialist Review nr. 337, jun 09 – side 7
Note: There is nothing that well paid commentators and writers like more than being able to expose what they see as hypocrisy from the left.
 

Simon Basketter: Frederick Engels: theorist and fighter
Socialist Worker nr. 2105, jun 08 – side 13
Note: Sometimes Frederick Engels is seen simply as Karl Marx’s lieutenant, but he was a great socialist activist and thinker in his own right.
 

Gilbert Achcar: Engels: theorist of war, theorist of revolution
International Socialism Journal nr. 97, dec 02 – side 69
Note: GILBERT ACHCAR from the Fourth International provides a controversial analysis of the drive to war and the response of socialists by looking back to the debates of the Second International and the writings of Frederick Engels.
 

Martin B. Johansen: Friedrich Engels: Marx’ andet jeg
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 112, feb 95 – side 12
Note: I august i år er det 100 år siden Karl Marx’ ven og kampfælle Friedrich Engels døde. Vi anmelder et særnummer af International Socialism, som handler om Engels.
 

Lindsey German: Frederick Engels: life of a revolutionary
International Socialism Journal nr. 65, dec 94 – side 3
Note: Lindsey German's "Frederick Engels: life of a revolutionary" introduces readers to the events which shaped Engels and his ideas.
 

John Rees: Engels' Marxism
International Socialism Journal nr. 65, dec 94 – side 47
Note: John Rees' "Engels' Marxism" replies to those who accuse Engels of distorting Marx's ideas and of laying the foundations of reformism and Stalinism.
 

V I Lenin

Kevin Corr: In from the cold – Tamás Krausz’s Lenin
International Socialism Journal nr. 147, jul 15 – side 139
Note: A review of Tamás Krausz, Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography (Monthly Review Press, 2015), £25
Reconstructing Lenin is a thoughtful and compelling study of Lenin. Tamás Krausz reveals Lenin as an activist revolutionary whose thoughts were shaped by immediate political events but who also at the same time never strayed far from a coherent theoretical framework. As a work of scholarship it deserves to be up there with Lars Lih’s Lenin Rediscovered.
 

James O’Toole: Lenin’s What is to be Done? – a defence
Irish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 13, jun 15 – side 46
Note: Lenin’s 1901 pamphlet What is to be Done? is still controversial. The book is used to provide illustration, by conservatives and liberals alike, for the argument that Lenin was an ‘elitist’.
 

Kevin Corr + Gareth Jenkins: The case of the disappearing Lenin
International Socialism Journal nr. 144, okt 14 – side 37
Note: What, if anything, do modern day socialists have to learn from Lenin? Capitalism is mired in its deepest and longest crisis since the 1930s, producing bitter discontent that in places overflows into mass resistance and even revolutions. With Stalinism all but dead and traditional reformist parties offering little beyond doing austerity in a fairer manner, revolution from below would seem to be an idea whose time has at long last returned.
 

Anders Bæk Simonsen: Lenin: En revolutionær realpolitiker
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 324, nov 12 – side 6
Note: Ved at læse hvad Lenin skriver og læse om den tid han og andre socialister navigerer i, får man en fornemmelse af en meget dedikeret politisk aktivist, der kommer med tidssvarende bud på udvikling af den socialistiske bevægelse.
 

John Molyneux: In defence of Leninism
Irish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 3, sep 12 – side 27
Note: The contemporary defence of Leninism involves two tasks: first, the defence of the political record of the historical Lenin; second the demonstration of the continuing relevance and applicability of Lenin’s key political ideas today. This article will mainly focus on the second task but I will begin with a few remarks about the first.
 

Jonathan Maunder: Book review: Lenin: A Study on the Unity of His Thought
Socialist Review nr. 338, jul 09 – side 27
Note: Georg Lukács, Verso; £6.99
This newly republished short book is essential in understanding Lenin's contribution to Marxism. When Georg Lukács wrote it in 1923 he had only recently become a Marxist, radicalised by the First World War and the Russian Revolution. He joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1918 at the age of 33, and up to that point had written books on literary criticism.
 

Paul Le Blanc: Why read Lenin today?
Socialist Worker nr. 2131, dec 08 – side 13
Note: The acclaimed Marxist historian Paul Le Blanc explains why Lenin’s political ideas are vitally important for anyone who wants to understand capitalism and struggle against it.
 

Jørn Andersen: Lenins Hvad må der gøres?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 283, okt 08 – side 11
Note: Få bøger har været udsat for den skæbne, som Lenins pjece fra 1902 „Hvad må der gøres?“. Borgerlige har i den set Lenins plan for Stalins Gulag. Revolutionære smågrupper har læst den som en konkret vejledning i alle mulige situationer. Men hvad kan vi bruge den til i dag?
 

Dan Mayer: A to Z of Socialism: L is for Lenin
Socialist Review nr. 325, maj 08 – side 17
Note: There have been many revolutionary upheavals in the past century, each one unleashing the huge creative energy of millions of people.
 

Chris Harman: Review: Shedding some light on Lenin
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 211
Note: Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis and Slavoj Zizek (eds), Lenin Reloaded: Towards a Politics of Truth (Duke University, 2007), £12.99
 

Mark Thomas: Review: Leninism with reservations
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 215
Note: Paul Le Blanc, Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism in the Age of Globalisation (Routledge, 2006), £18.99
 

Paul Blackledge: Lenin: What was done
International Socialism Journal nr. 111, jun 06 – side 111
Note: A review of Lars T Lih: "Lenin Rediscovered: What is to be Done? in Context" (Brill, Historical Materialism series, 2006), euro 129
 

Jan Hoby: Derfor Lenin!
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 216, jul 03 – side 9
Note: Den første reaktion på ideen om at ville aktualisere Lenin i det 21.århundrede vil nok være sarkastisk latter.
 

Tim Robinson: 75 år etter hans død: hva sto Lenin for?
Internasjonal Sosialisme 2 (norsk) nr. 3, mar 99 
 

Inge-Lise Bjørn: Marxismens klassikere: Georg Lukacs: "Lenin": Det revolutionære partis opgaver
Socialistisk Revy nr. 8, okt 98 – side 30
Note: Problemet med hvordan arbejderklassen opnår det bevidsthedsniveau, som er nødvendigt for at gennemføre en revolution, bliver behandlet i den ungarske socialists Georg Lukacs’ bog.
 

Martin B. Johansen: V. I. Lenin: “Staten og revolutionen”: Hvad er marxisme? Staten og revolutionen
Socialistisk Revy nr. 7, sep 98 – side 30
Note: Når socialister argumenterer for, at en samfundsomvæltning ikke kan ske via parlamentet, men kræver en revolution, så anklages de ofte for at være udemokratiske.
 

Adrian Budd: A new life for Lenin
(P Le Blanc: "Lenin and the Revolutionary Party")
International Socialism Journal nr. 70, mar 96 – side 143
Note: On Lenin's struggle to build a revolutionary party
 

Tom Christiansen: Lenins “Staten og revolutionen”: Socialisme igennem folketinget?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 10, jun 85 – side 6
Note: Storstrejken er slut for denne gang. Og Schlüter sidder stadig på sin post. Derfor vil mange stille spørgsmålet: »Hvordan kommer vi så af med ham?« De fleste vil højst sandsynligt komme til konklusionen: Han må stemmes ud ved næste valg.
 

Duncan Hallas: Review: All Power to the Soviets (part 1)
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 89, jun 76 – side 7
Note: Duncan Hallas on the second volume of Cliff’s Lenin to be published by Pluto Press this month.
 

Duncan Hallas: Review: Building the Revolutionary Party
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 79, jun 75 – side 17
Note: Tony Cliff: Lenin, Vol 1, Building the Party
THIS BOOK is the most important work on the theory and practice of building a revolutionary socialist organisation that has appeared for some time.
 

Leon Trotskij

Anders Bæk Simonsen: Leon Trotskij: Revolutionens nederlag
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 355, nov 16 – side 15
Note: Historien om Trotskij kan bedst beskrives som en tragedie.
 

Anders Bæk Simonsen: Trotskij i 1920’erne, del 1: Leon Trotskij: Revolutionens sværd
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 354, okt 16 – side 15
Note: Efter den russiske revolutions sejr i 1917 er den mest påtrængende opgave at forsvare revolutionen. 14 imperialistiske hære truer den på livet.
 

Paul Le Blanc: Letter: John Rose’s review of Leon Trotsky
International Socialism Journal nr. 150, apr 16 – side 183
Note: Dear friends, I very much appreciate John Rose’s thoughtful review of my book Leon Trotsky (Half socialist? Leon Trotsky and the Soviet Union, in International Socialism 149) including his positive comments and the gratifying endorsement: “Buy this book!”
Yet his review is far from uncritical, and I would like to address a couple of issues touching on the nature (including limitations) of writing a succinct biography, and also to offer a crucial political clarification.
 

John Rose: Book Review: Half socialist? Leon Trotsky and the Soviet Union
International Socialism Journal nr. 149, jan 16 – side 175
Note: A review of Paul Le Blanc, Leon Trotsky (Reaktion Books, Critical Lives series, 2015), £11.99
Paul Le Blanc faced a daunting challenge when he agreed to write a book about Leon Trotsky and his life in exile for the Critical Lives series, which specialises in brief introductions to leading political and cultural personalities. How do you briefly introduce one of the greatest leaders of the world’s first socialist revolution that then apparently rejected him? How do you summarise all the unanswered political questions that were intensified by Trotsky’s expulsion from the Soviet Union in February 1929?
 

Neil Davidson: From deflected permanent revolution to the law of uneven and combined development
International Socialism Journal nr. 128, okt 10 – side 167
Note: “Trotsky is the one for whom there is no room either in pre-1990 Really Existing Socialism or in post-1990 Really Existing Capitalism, in which even those who are nostalgic for Communism do not know what to do with Trotsky’s permanent revolution”. Slavoj Zizek wrote these words at the beginning of the millennium and, in this case, he expresses a sentiment with which readers of International Socialism are likely to agree.
 

Esme Choonara: Book review: Skipping stages
International Socialism Journal nr. 128, okt 10 – side 215
Note: Richard B Day and Daniel Gaido (eds), Witnesses to Permanent Revolution: The Documentary Record, (Haymarket, 2011), $36
“The revolutionary centre is moving from the West to the East,” writes German socialist Karl Kautsky in 1903 in the first article in this collection. It is an apt opening for a groundbreaking book that documents some of the huge debates that took place in the socialist movement in Russia and beyond in the years 1903-1907.
 

Esme Choonara: Trotskijs socialisme
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 301, sep 10 – side 6
Note: For 70 år siden blev den russiske revolutionære Leon Trotskij myrdet. Esme Choonara tager et kig på hans liv, ideer og arv.
 

Chris Bambery: Stalin’s Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky
Socialist Worker nr. 2161, jul 09 – side 11
Note: Chris Bambery looks at a new account of Leon Trotsky’s life and death, which was recently Radio 4’s Book of the Week
Stalin’s Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky by Bertrand M Patenaude is available for £20 from Booksmarks, the socialist bookshop.
 

Andrew Stone: Book Review: Bertrand M Patenaude: Stalin's Nemesis
Socialist Review nr. 337, jun 09 – side 26
Note: Leon Trotsky spent the last four years of his life in a prison-like exile in Mexico. Pursued by Stalinist enemies, he survived an armed assault on his home before succumbing to the blows of Ramon Mercader, a GPU agent posing as a political sympathiser.
Stalin's Nemesis is a very readable account of these years, which despite Trotsky's enforced isolation were very eventful.
 

Esme Choonara: A to Z of Socialism: T is for Trotsky
Socialist Review nr. 333, feb 09 – side 22
Note: In a world dominated by capitalist crisis and war the life and writings of Leon Trotsky can offer socialists some pointers on the way forward.
 

Christian Hogsbjerg: Trotsky on race in the US
International Socialism Journal nr. 121, jan 09 – side 99
Note: Leon Trotsky’s life and work were intrinsically intertwined with the rise and fall of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky was also an outstanding internationalist and, although he did not write a great deal on the African diaspora as a whole, he did address what was known by revolutionary socialists at the time as the “Negro question”—the systematic racism suffered by black people in the United States.
 

Krise og klassekamp
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 284, dec 08 – side 12
Note: Vil den økonomiske krise føre til mere klassekamp? Den russiske socialist Leon Trotskij skrev om det komplicerede forhold mellem økonomisk opsving, nedgang og klassekamp
 

John Molyneux: Trotsky slandered
International Socialism Journal nr. 112, sep 06 – side 200
Note: A review of Geoffrey Swain: "Trotsky" (Pearson Longman, 2006), £14.99
 

Judy Cox: Trotsky for the 21st century
International Socialism Journal nr. 111, jun 06 – side 171
Note: A review of Bill Dunn and Hugo Radice (eds): "100 years of Permanent Revolution: Results and Prospects" (Pluto Press, 2006), £18.99
 

Neil Davidson: The prophet, his biographer and the watchtower (Anmeldelse af Isaac Deutscher's 3-binds biografi om Trotskij)
International Socialism Journal nr. 104, sep 04 – side 95
Note: Isaac Deutscher's three-volume biography of Trotsky has just been reprinted. It inspired the 1960s generation of activists and can do so again today. But it also contains political assumptions that have to be challenged, argues Neil Davidson in a wide-ranging review article. Neil was this year's winner of the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize.
 

Duncan Hallas: Trotskijs marxisme (kap. 5: Arven) (1979)
 

Jørgen Lund: 60 år siden Leon Trotskijs død: En af historiens største revolutionære
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 184, aug 00 – side 8
Note: 21. august er det 60 år siden Leon Trotskij døde på et hospital, efter at han var blevet tilføjet adskillige slag med en isøkse i sit hjem i Mexico. Overfaldsmanden blev senere afsløret som agent for Stalin, og han blev senere højt dekoreret og levede resten af sit liv i Prag.
 

Dave Sherry: Trotsky's last, greatest struggle (Tony Cliff: "Trotsky. 4: 1927-1940 The darker the night, the brighter the star")
International Socialism Journal nr. 63, jun 94 – side 135
Note: Dave Sherry looks at the final volume of Tony Cliff's biography of Leon Trotsky.
 

John Rees: Trotsky and the dialectic of history
International Socialism Journal nr. 47, jun 90 – side 113
Note: Leon Trotsky was murdered by Stalin’s agent 50 years ago. We publish three articles which re-examine his legacy just at the moment when Stalin's empire is crumbling. John Rees examines Trotsky’s recently published Writings on Lenin, Dialectics and Evolutionism and evaluates Trotsky's original contribution to the Marxist method.
 

James Higgins: Now Let Us Praise Leon Trotsky
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 80, jul 75 – side 27
Note: Trotsky by Joel Carmichael, Hodder and Stoughton, £5.95.
 

Tony Cliff: Trotsky om “substitutionismen”
Proletar! nr. 6, nov 73 – side 24
Note: Oversat af Brian Gooseman og Tage Bild fra “Party and Class” (Essays by Tony Cliff, Duncan Hallas, Chris Harman and Leon Trotsky), Pluto Press, London 1972
Alt. url: Original-tekst (engelsk)
 

Tony Cliff: The Revolutionary Party and the Class or Trotsky on Substitutionism
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 2, sep 60 – side 14
Note: Twenty years ago Trotsky was assassinated. The best tribute one can pay to this great revolutionary, who so despised all cant, would be a critical study of some of his ideas. We offer the following study of one problem he so brilliantly posed as a very young man, a problem that plagued him for the rest of his life, and that is still with us: the problem of the relation between party and class, and the danger of the former substituting for the latter.
Alt. url: Dansk udgave
 

Nikolai Bukharin

Donny Gluckstein: Review: Last writings of the party favourite
International Socialism Journal nr. 116, okt 07 – side 188
Note: Nikolai Bukharin, Socialism and its Culture (Berg, 2007), £16.99
 

Rob Ferguson: Hero and villain? (Donny Gluckstein: "The tragedy of Bukharin")
International Socialism Journal nr. 64, sep 94 – side 115
 

Hans Erik Madsen: Nikolai Bukharin: Stalins bydreng
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 44, nov 88 – side 9
Note: Nikolai Bukharin er blevet rehabiliteret af Gobatjov, der mener, at Bukharins ideer var, og er, et alternativ til stalinismen. Men det meste af sit liv støttede Bukharin Stalin, skriver Hans Erik Madsen.
 

Mike Haynes: The resurrection of Nikolai Bukharin
International Socialism Journal nr. 2, sep 78 – side 11
Note: On 13 March 1938 at 4 p.m. the Soviet Court trying Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin returned to pronounce him and his co-conspirators guilty as charged. Less than twenty-four hours later Bukharin, the man who Lenin had described as ‘a most valuable and major theorist … rightly considered the favourite of the whole Party’ was dead, executed by firing squad. With him died 17 of his fellow defendants in the third and greatest of the Soviet Purge Trials.
 

Victor Serge

Christophe Chataigné: Reviews – Books: Victor Serge: Unforgiving Years
Socialist Review nr. 325, maj 08 – side 30
Note: The life of Victor Serge was fascinating. Serge was also a great writer as Unforgiving Years shows. Available for the first time in English (it was first published in French 25 years after his death) this novel is written in a style that shows how revolution impacts on every facet of life.
 

Gareth Jenkins: A truly human culture (Al Richardson (ed): "Victor Serge, Collected Writings on Litterature and Revolution")
International Socialism Journal nr. 104, sep 04 – side 119
Note: Our new reviews sections looks at Victor Serge’s writings on literature.
 

Richard Greeman: Memoirs of a revolutionary (Susan Weissman: "Victor Serge: The course is set on hope")
International Socialism Journal nr. 94, mar 02 – side 103
 

Rosa Luxemburg

Lars Henrik Carlskov: Lenin og Luxemburg: Det er ikke enten-eller
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 352, maj 16 – side 14
Note: Enhedslisten-strateg bag ny bog om den fremtrædende marxistiske teoretiker og revolutionære leder Rosa Luxemburg.
 

Tony Cliff: Rosa Luxemburg – et liv i kamp
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 285, jan 09 – side 12
Note: Da Rosa Luxemburg blev myrdet for 90 år siden, den 15. januar 1919, mistede den internationale arbejderbevægelse én af sine største revolutionære. Vi genoptrykker her en kort biografi, skrevet i 1959 af Tony Cliff, én af stifterne af IS-tendensen.
 

Tony Cliff: Rosa Luxemburg: a life of struggle
Socialist Review nr. 332, jan 09 – side 22
Note: When Rosa Luxemburg was murdered 90 years ago this month, the international workers' movement lost one of its greatest revolutionaries. Here we reprint an evaluation of her life from a pamphlet by Socialist Workers Party founder Tony Cliff, first published in 1959.
Alt. url: Læs artiklen på dansk
 

Mark Thomas: A to Z of Socialism: M is for mass strike
Socialist Review nr. 326, jun 08 – side 21
Note: "...for the first time [it] awoke feeling and class-consciousness in millions upon millions as if by an electric shock... the proletarian mass... quite suddenly and sharply came to realise how intolerable was that social and economic existence which they had patiently endured for decades in the chains of capitalism. Thereupon there began a spontaneous general shaking of and tugging at these chains."
 

Beatrice Leal: Rosa Luxemburg: The tragedy of Germany’s failed revolution
Socialist Worker nr. 2089, feb 08 – side 6
Note: In the last part of our series on Rosa Luxemburg, Beatrice Leal looks at how the end of the First World War brought revolution, but also betrayal by some on the left
 

Chris Bambery: Rosa Luxemburg: "Massestrejke, parti og fagforeninger": Massestrejken, der kastede lys på arbejderklassens styrke
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 238, feb 05 – side 9
Note: Rosa Luxemburg stammede fra Polen og var indblandet i 1905-revolutionen. Hvad hun erfarede dér inspirerede hende til at skrive en mindre bog, "Massestrejken", som bør læses også i dag.
 

Tony Cliff: Rosa Luxemburg – en politisk biografi (1959)
 

Judy Cox: Rosa Luxemburg: "Reform eller revolution": Revolutionens levende hjerteslag
Socialistisk Revy nr. 10, dec 98 – side 16
Note: Rosa Luxemburg var den første, der så, hvordan reformismen bredte sig i arbejderbevægelsen omkring århundredskiftet. Judy Cox gennemgår hendes vigtige bidrag til den revolutionære marxisme.
 

Jørgen Lund: Bog: Toni Liversage: “Røde Rosa – en bog om Rosa Luxemburg”: Røde Rosa: Inspiration til socialister i dag
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 109, nov 94 – side 12
Note: Toni Liversages bog om Rosa Luxemburg giver ny aktualitet til en revolutionær, hvis virke kan give inspiration til socialister i dag.
 

Ellen Christensen: Rosa Luxemburg: “Reform eller revolution”
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 19, maj 86 – side 9
Note: Diskussionen om mål og midler i kampen for socialismen er lige så gammel som arbejderbevægelsen selv: kan vi få kontrol og magt over samfundet skridt for skridt gennem reformer, eller kan kun en magtovertagelse i en revolution sikre os socialisme?
 

Ellen Christensen: Socialistisk klassiker: Rosa Luxemburg og massestrejke
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 4, jan 85 – side 6
Note: SiD’s formand, Hardy Hansen, har i sin harme over regeringens indgreb i jobtilbudsordningen udtalt, at hvis ikke regeringen trækker sit lovforslag tilbage, kan det komme til generalstrejke i forbindelse med OK-forhandlingerne til foråret.
 

Jørgen Lund: Anmeldelse: Tony Cliff: “Rosa Luxemburg – en politisk biografi”
Proletar! nr. 9, aug 74 – side 33
Note: Det er en farlig færd, Tony Cliff begiver sig ud på, når hans erklærede mål er at fremstille det, Luxemburg lærte fra sig.
 

Tony Cliff: Rosa Luxemburg
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 002-3, jun 59 
Note: First published as a pamphlet in 1959 (International Socialism, No.2/3). Reprinted 1968, 1969 and 1980.
Alt. url: 1969 edition
Alt. url: Dansk udgave
 

Antonio Gramsci

Bob Fotheringham: Book Review: Antonio Gramsc—Academic or Revolutionary?
International Socialism Journal nr. 151, jul 16 – side 214
Note: A review of George Hoare and Nathan Sperber, An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2015), £16.99
A central question confronted by the authors of this book is, what is Antonio Gramsci’s relevance today? It seems to me that there exist two parallel Gramscis—one is the Italian revolutionary activist and founding member of the Italian Communist Party who died shortly after leaving prison in 1937; and the other is the philosopher and theoretician whose prison writings have had a major impact on a wide range of academics trying to make sense of their world in their own particular field of study.
 

Robert Jackson: Book Review: Everything moves
International Socialism Journal nr. 149, jan 16 – side 215
Note: Antonio Gramsci (edited and translated by Derek Boothman), A Great and Terrible World: The Pre-Prison Letters, 1908-1926 (Lawrence and Wishart, 2014), £25
The Italian revolutionary Antonio Gramsci is widely acknowledged, even beyond the left, as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. This collection gathers together around 200 of his letters ranging from his school days in Sardinia, through joining the socialist movement at university, as an international communist leader in the early 1920s, right up until the moment of his arrest and imprisonment by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in 1926.
 

Andreas Ytterstad: Good sense on global warming
International Socialism Journal nr. 144, okt 14 – side 141
Note: Good sense, for Antonio Gramsci, was the “healthy nucleus of common sense”. This article tries to make sense of what Gramsci meant by good sense, and seeks to develop his understanding of good sense into a resource we can use to stop runaway global warming in time. Although I conclude by briefly outlining the politics of good sense on global warming, the article is not primarily concerned with how we use good sense on global warming.
 

Adrian Budd: Book reviews: Globalising Gramsci
International Socialism Journal nr. 129, jan 11 – side 220
Note: Alison J Ayers (ed), Gramsci, Political Economy and International Relations Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), £55
It says a good deal about the nature of the academy that despite Marxism’s internationalist perspective it was until recently at best marginalised and at worst ignored in the discipline of international relations (IR). This began to change in the 1980s in large part due to the pioneering work of Robert W Cox and those who subsequently developed his insights in what has come to be called the neo-Gramscian current in IR.
 

Jesper Juul Mikkelsen: Introduktion til socialisme: Gramsci: Klassekamp – en kamp om bevidstheden
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 300, aug 10 – side 13
Note: Den italienske marxist Antonio Gramsci skriver om mulighederne og udfordringerne for revolutionære under en mere udviklet kapitalisme end mange andre af de store marxistiske tænkere. Det gør at han tydeligere kan se hvilket kæmpestort ideologisk apparat, maghaverne råder over under den udviklede kapitalistiske stat. Han bidrager derfor med nogle meget vigtige betragtninger om udfordringerne for moderne klassekamp.
 

Chris Bambery: Book review: Gramsci rendered whole
International Socialism Journal nr. 127, jul 10 – side 205
Note: Peter Thomas, The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism (Brill, 2009), £104
So much quoted, less read and even less understood, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks must be one of the most cited works by any Marxist. Peter Thomas has produced a fine book, which readers of this journal should beg, steal or borrow to obtain a copy, placing Gramsci firmly, not just in the revolutionary camp, but as a Leninist rooted in the early, revolutionary years of the Communist International.
 

Chris Bambery: Marxists and recession: Gramsci and the phases of war
Socialist Worker nr. 2152, maj 09 – side 6
Note: In the first part of our new series Chris Bambery looks at the link between workers’ struggle and revolution
 

Tom Walker: Repression and consent
Socialist Worker nr. 2150, maj 09 – side 13
Note: Our rulers strike a delicate balance to keep us in line. Tom Walker looks at ‘hegemony’ and the role of state violence in modern capitalism
 

Penny Howard: Book review: Putting “culture” into context
International Socialism Journal nr. 122, apr 09 – side 188
Note: Kate Crehan, Gramsci, Culture and Anthropology (Pluto, 2002), £18.99
Gramsci, Culture, and Anthropology is a welcome contribution to the revival of interest in the work of Antonio Gramsci. Kate Crehan’s clear and succinct book begins with a brief biographical summary, emphasising Gramsci’s engagement with revolutionary politics in Turin and his later imprisonment by Benito Mussolini.
 

Chris Harman: Gramsci versus Eurocommunism (1977)
Note: The article reclaims Gramsci for revolutionary socialism. It was written at a time when "Euro-communist" parties tried to use Gramsci to back up their support for right-wing governments in Italy and elsewhere.
It first appeared as articles in International Socialism (first series) issues 98 + 99. It was later published with an introduction as a pamphlet: "Gramsci versus Reformism".
 

Gramsci's revolutionary legacy: Introduction
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 65
 

Megan Trudell: Gramsci: the Turin years
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 67
Note: Since the mid-1970s academics have rarely considered Antonio Gramsci’s revolutionary activism. The emphasis has been on ‘a more subtle and academically assimilable Gramsci’,1 a figure whose later work is separated from his political development in the Italian city of Turin in 1919 and 1920, known as the biennio rosso—the ‘two red years’.
 

Chris Bambery: Gramsci: Hegemony and revolutionary strategy
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 85
Note: Lenin, Leon Trotsky, the young Soviet Republic and the Communist International saw Russia’s October Revolution as the prelude to a European revolution. Their hope and attention were focused primarily on Germany, but also on Italy.
 

Chris Harman: Gramsci, the Prison Notebooks and philosophy
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 105
Note: Those who want to present Antonio Gramsci as someone other than a revolutionary Marxist focus on the notebooks he wrote in prison.
 

Adrian Budd: Gramsci’s Marxism and international relations
International Socialism Journal nr. 114, apr 07 – side 125
 

Roberto Robaina: Gramsci and revolution: a necessary clarification
International Socialism Journal nr. 109, dec 05 – side 109
Note: The name of Antonio Gramsci is regularly invoked internationally by people looking for a version of Marxism that avoids references to revolution. Roberto Robaina challenges this approach, criticising fellow Brazilians who use it.
 

Chris Bambery: Gramsci: Class, ideology and revolution in the West (3/3)
Socialist Worker nr. 1966, sep 05 – side 6
Note: Last in a series of 3.
 

Chris Bambery: Gramsci: A philosophy that reveals contradictions (2/3)
Socialist Worker nr. 1965, aug 05 – side 6
Note: Second in a series of 3.
 

Chris Bambery: Gramsci: The state, consent and ‘war of position’ (1/3)
Socialist Worker nr. 1964, aug 05 – side 6
Note: First in a series of 3.
 

Sam Ashman: Antonio Gramsci 1891-1937: Inspiration til revolution
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 144, okt 96 – side 6
 

Mette Moltke: Anmeldelse: Antonio Gramsci – Hvad kan vi lære? (Antonio Gramsci: "Fængselsoptegnelser")
International Socialisme nr. 1, feb 92 – side 33
Note: I 100-året for Antonio Gramscis fødsel udkom på dansk et udvalg af den italienske revolutionæres fængselsoptegnelser. Bogen er et vigtigt bidrag for enhver, der vil forstå historien og marxismens teoretiske fundament.
 

Sam Ashman: Gramsci's political thought revisited (Roger Simon: "Gramsci's Political Thought")
International Socialism Journal nr. 53, dec 91 – side 123
 

Ellen Christensen: Kamp mod reformismen: Revolutionære Gramsci
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 40, jun 88 – side 9
Note: Den italienske marxist Antonio Gramsci brugte sit liv på en hård kamp mod reformisterne i det italienske socialistparti og i fagbureaukratiet. Han døde i Mussolinis fængsel i april 1937.
 

Anne Kaltoft: Råd og magt: Antonio Gramsci og fabriksbesættelserne i Torino i 1920
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 28, apr 87 – side 10
Note: Mange socialister mener, at den eneste politiske magt ligger i folketinget. Men historien viser talrige eksempler på, at arbejdere spontant har organiseret sig i råd som alternativ til det eksisterende magtapparat.
 

Chris Harman: Forward from 1968 – or back to 1928? A reply to Martin Shaw
International Socialism Journal nr. 2, sep 78 – side 35
Note: A reply to Martin Shaw: "Back to the Maginot Line: Harman's New Gramsci" in ISJ2:1
 

Martin Shaw: Back to the Maginot Line: Harman’s New Gramsci
International Socialism Journal nr. 1, jul 78 – side 55
Note: A reply to two articles by Chris Harman in IS 98 and 99 (First Series)
 

Chris Harman: Gramsci versus Eurocommunism, part II
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 99, jun 77 – side 10
Note: In the first part of this article, which appeared in our last issue, Chris Harman rescued Gramsci’s thought from the distortions it has suffered at the hands of the Eurocommunists. In the second and final part he critically examines Gramsci’s strategy for revolution in Western Europe.
Alt. url: Part 1
Alt. url: Full article (part 1 + 2)
 

Chris Harman: Gramsci versus Eurocommunism, part I
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 98, maj 77 
Note: ANTONIO Gramsci died forty years ago, on April 27 1937. His death was brought on by years of ill-treatment in Mussolini’s gaols. Yet in some ways, he has suffered more misfortune since his death from the distortion of his ideas by those who have nothing in common with his revolutionary principles.
Alt. url: Part 2
Alt. url: Full article (part 1 + 2)
 

Chris Harman: Gramsci
International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 32, mar 68 – side 37
Note: Review: Antonio Gramsci and the Origins of Italian Communism, John M. Cammett, Stanford/OUP 68s
 

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Esme Choonara: Book Review: Che Guevara
Socialist Review nr. 336, maj 09 – side 26
Note: Olivier Besancenot and Michael Lowy, Monthly Review Press; £12.95
"Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was not a saint, a superman or an infallible leader," the authors assert at the beginning of this engaging book. In this spirit they show how Che's ideas evolved throughout his short life.
 

Sasha Simic: Film Review: Che: Part 2 (Director: Steven Soderbergh) (online only)
Socialist Review nr. 333, feb 09 
Note: The second part of Steven Soderbergh's biographic film of the life of Che Guevara is much more straightforward – and depressing – than the first. It concentrates almost wholly on the debacle of Guevara's final campaign fought in Bolivia between 1966 and 1967, a campaign which ended in his tragic death.
 

Gareth Jenkins: Che: the inspiring life of a vibrant revolutionary
Socialist Worker nr. 2132, dec 08 – side 11
Note: Che Part One brings the politics of revolution to a new audience.
 

Fernando Lizárraga: Che and the socialist tradition: a reply to Mike Gonzalez
International Socialism Journal nr. 106, mar 05 – side 144
Note: A friendly critique from Argentina of Mike Gonzalez's much-acclaimed book on Che Guevara.
 

Christophe Chataigné: Che: From Rebel to Icon
Socialist Review nr. 287, jul 04 – side 11
Note: Christophe Chataigné spoke to author Mike Gonzalez about Che Guevara's life and legacy.
 

Mike Gonzalez: John Lee Anderson: “Che Guevara”: Che Guevara – den revolutionære helgen
Socialistisk Revy nr. 1, feb 98 – side 21
Note: Che Guevara er stadig et symbol for revolutionær kamp. Mike Gonzales ser bag om myten og manden, hvis strategi ledte til nederlag trods dens heltemodige karakter
 

Mike Gonzalez: The resurrections of Che Guevara
International Socialism Journal nr. 77, dec 97 – side 51
Note: Che Guevara is still a symbol of resistance – and for good reason: he represents one of the few revolutions to have faced-down the might of American imperialism. But why did Che's strategy so tragically end in his own death when he tried to export it to other countries? Mike Gonzalez takes a sympathetic but critical look at Che's life and achievements.
 

Martin B. Johansen: Hvem var Che Guevara?
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 163, jul 97 – side 6
Note: Han dukker konstant op på plakater, T-shirts og badges og har fæstnet sig i den historiske hukommelse som en revolutionær helt på linje med Malcolm X, Spartakus og Skipper Clement.
 

Jørgen Lund: Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Historien om en helt
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 86, nov 92 – side 10
Note: Che Guevara – leder i den cubanske revolution – døde for 25 år siden. Che blev en helt og en myte. Ideen og troen på guerillakamp som vejen til revolution inspirerede titusinder af unge på venstrefløjen.
 

Malcolm X

Brian Richardson: The many lives of Malcolm X
Socialist Review nr. 359, jun 11 – side 17
Note: Manning Marable, an academic and activist, died in April this year, just three days before the release of his biography of Malcolm X, the great icon of the Black Power Movement.Brian Richardson looks at this landmark book and the extraordinary life of Malcolm X.
 

Adnan Siddiqui: Malcolm X – En kilde til inspiration for alle muslimer, der kæmper for retfærdighed
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 240, mar 05 – side 12
Note: George Bushs "krig mod terror" har gjort Malcolm X’s idé om universel frigørelse relevant for muslimer i dag, skriver den britiske borgerrettighedsaktivist Dr. Adnan Siddiqui.
 

Jens Loller: Anmeldelse: Malcolm X – sort revolutionær (Kevin Ovenden: "Malcolm X – Black Nationalism and Socialism")
International Socialisme nr. 3, dec 92 – side 34
Note: Havde oprøret i LA i april 92 ikke henledt opmærksomheden på de sociale problemer, som særligt de sorte i USA lider under, havde et blik på den kulturelle udvikling kunnet give et godt fingerpeg. Den sorte rapmusik fra ghettoerne har bredt sig og vinder indflydelse overalt. Film af den sorte instruktør Spike Lee er af høj kunstnerisk kvalitet og har hver gang også et politisk budskab. Hans næste film er om Malcolm X, og den ventes at få premiere til foråret.
 

Pierre Bourdieu

Jim Wolfreys: Pierre Bourdieu: voice of resistance
International Socialism Journal nr. 94, mar 02 – side 97
 

Jakob L. Krogh: Nekrolog: Pierre Bourdieu: En guldgrube af argumenter mod liberalismen
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 201, feb 02 – side 8
Note: Den franske sociolog og samfundskritiker Pierre Bourdieu døde den 23. januar, 71 år gammel.
 

Jim Wolfreys: Pierre Bourdieu i perspektiv
Internasjonal Sosialisme 2 (norsk) nr. 6, sep 00 
Note: Denne artikkelen er oversatt fra engelsk: J. Wolfreys: "In Perspective: Pierre Bordieu", International Socialism 87, 2000.
 

Jim Wolfreys: In perspective: Pierre Bourdieu
International Socialism Journal nr. 87, jun 00 – side 95
Note: Jim Wolfreys looks at the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who has been at the forefront of the rebirth of radical intellectuals in France.
Alt. url: På norsk på Marxisme Online
 

Biografi: DK indtil 1900

Jakob Nerup: Frederik Dreier: Danmarks første socialist
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 216, jul 03 – side 8
Note: Mens nutidens politikere debaterer om der skal ændres komaer i Grundloven, kan man læse et anderledes mere radikalt og visionært svar hos Frederik Dreier.
 

Poul Erik Kristensen: Frederik Dreier: Danmarks første socialist
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 167, sep 97 – side 6
Note: Allerede fra kapitalismens gennembrud i Danmark begyndte socialistiske ideer at spire frem. Den unge medicinstuderende Frederik Dreier (1827-53) var den første, som både i teori og praksis gennemskuede, at kapitalismen var et undertrykkende klassesamfund, som kun fortjente en kort levetid.
 

Ole Mølholm Jensen: Louis Pio 1841-1894: “Med loven eller – uden den!”
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 139, aug 96 – side 6
Note: Louis Pio opbyggede 1. Internationale og den socialistiske bevægelse i Danmark, og hans ideer lå langt fra Socialdemokratiets reformisme.
 

Biografi: DK 1900-1945

Jørgen Lund: Klassekampens historie i Danmark: Marie Nielsen: Den første kommunist
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 137, jun 96 – side 6
Note: Marie Nielsen betegnede sig selv som Danmarks eneste kommunist. Hun blev ekskluderet fra kommunistpartiet tre gange, fordi hun var for kritisk.
 

Biografi: DK efter 1945

Jakob Nerup: Nekrolog Tom Christiansen: En kammerat er død
Socialistisk Arbejderavis nr. 202, mar 02 – side 11
Note: Tom Christiansen, medstifter af Internationale Socialister i Danmark i 1984, døde d. 25. februar af en blodprop i hjertet, kun 43 år gammel.
 

Jens Loller: Et nyttigt værk om Aksel Larsen (Kurt Jacobsen: "Aksel Larsen – en politisk biografi")
International Socialisme nr. 6, okt 93 – side 31
Note: Aksel Larsen er uden tvivl den mest markante og kendte venstreorienterede politiker, der har levet i Danmark. Han var medlem af DKP og dets forgænger Venstresocialistisk parti i mere end 37 år. Af dem var han formand i 24 år og folketingsmedlem i flere perioder. Han var den første kommunist, der kom i folketinget sammen med Arne Munch Petersen i 1932.
Det var Aksel Larsens brud med DKP i 1958, der skabte muligheden for dannelse af Socialistisk Folkeparti, som han repræsenterede på Christiansborg i perioden 1960-72. Aksel Larsen repræsenterer på den måde et stykke Danmarkshistorie, som særligt må interessere socialister.
 

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