- The Guardian
- Issue #2180
The latest edition of the Australian Marxist Review, issue 81 is out now. The AMR is the Communist Party of Australia’s long-form journal, combining history and theory in a way that’s always interesting to Marxists.
This edition’s editorial ends by hoping readers find the material both thought-provoking and action-provoking, reminding us of the Karl Marx quotation, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it,” and Stalin’s “theory becomes purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practice, just as practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illumined by revolutionary theory.”
The Fracturing of Socialist Thought in Australia and Khrushchev’s so-called Secret Speech by David Matters, puts Stalin, Trotskyism, the Cold War and the famous but not very ‘secret’ speech in context. Matters argues that the famous speech was an act of treachery, but one that came from the circumstances of the early Cold War, and led to a vilification of Stalin that we still live with today.
Quotes:
“Opportunism does not arise in a vacuum and has material causes.”
“We have reached a period in history where the bourgeoisie is again toying with the reintroduction of extreme right parties.”
A Time of Qualitative Change: The Importance of the Model of China’s New Political Party System by Roland Boer.
Roland Boer, a scholar of Marxism particularly in China, where he teaches on the subject, explains the “8-point regulation.” The regulation was an important founding document of the Communist Party of China. Boer explains the document’s application to the CPC’s role in running the country, it’s evolution and the document’s spirit. He also explains the regulation’s implications for the question of culture in Australia as we move towards socialism here.
Quote:
“the key is that the people own any decision made, from the grassroots level to the country-wide level.”
In Workers and Oppressed People of the World, Unite! The Leninist Party and the Question of Cadre, Christian Goopy begins with a whirlwind tour of the October Revolution’s effects on world history, connecting it to positive developments in Australia and elsewhere that might well never have happened without the actions of the Russian Bolsheviks.
He goes on to explain the application of Leninism to the needs of the working class now, and finishes by explaining the role of cadre in the communist party today.
Quotes:
“It is no accident that the trend towards improving living standards among the working class throughout the capitalist west stalled and went into reverse with the development of the counter-revolution within the Soviet Union.”
“Lenin, in arguing for a party of professional revolutionaries, was arguing for a party centred on a tightly organised cadre force that embarks on struggle wherever the people are.”
In Multipolarity and Chinese Modernisation – A synopsis of Nation, State and Class, David Matters goes from the Marxist understanding of history in general to China’s modern history leading to the present. Matters explains the connection between China as it is today and ‘multipolarity,’ a term often quoted, but less often explained.
Quote:
“Capitalism has through its characteristics ceased to be a modern form of human development. The planet has become smaller and the problems of humanity can only be solved by the common actions of humanity.”
Finally, there’s a review of Jenny Clegg’s Storming the Heavens: Peasant rebellion in China, 1926-1949 viewed through a Marxist Lens. Lachlan Varley explains how Clegg skillfully uses both Chinese and English language sources to look at the class structure of pre-revolutionary China and how the CPC worked in this context to defeat both the Japanese and the Nationalists.
Quote:
“Clegg’s work is also a response to other theories held in the field of ‘peasant studies’ in contemporary academia. As such, it is a useful work that both offers readers insights into the Chinese revolution and re-establishes the relevance of Marxist analysis.”
