Marxist theory

Is Latin America Proceeding Towards Socialism?

Oktay Baran, January 2006

The cause of the working class is not one of providing some free social services coupled with keeping the population under political pressure ensuring a formal equality on poverty. The aspiration of building a world without classes and exploitation, i.e. the cause of socialism, is the cause of equal sharing of not poverty but the whole wealth of the world, meeting material and moral needs and thus removing all kind of obstacles on the way of individual and social development of humanity. Therefore international communists defend that whole world needs not Chavezes, Castros etc. but Bolshevik revolutionaries.

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Variations of Bonapartism from Nasser to Chavez

İlkay Meriç

The recent developments in Venezuela and especially Chavez’s talk of socialism which he named as “Socialism of the 21st Century” created a new wave of excitement in the vast majority of the world socialist movement. It is undoubtedly exciting and pleasing for anyone who calls himself/herself Marxist to see that working masses demonstrate openly their discontent against the system by eliminating traditional bourgeois parties, repulse - by fighting in the streets - attempts of coup d´état supported by the Venezuelan oligarchy and the US imperialism and finally create a revolutionary situation. But, the meaning of these developments changes when it is realized that the real source of this wave of excitement is not the revolutionary situation created by the initiative of the masses but the demagogical talk and populist policies of Chavez.

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In the Light of Marxism

Questioning of an Historical Period

Elif Çağlı, August 1991

Is there any room for a "socialism in one country" in Marx's scientific theory of socialism? Is there a separate socio-economic formation called "socialism" in itself independent from communism in Marx's theory? Can the socialist organisation of society (which is classless society) be compatible with the simultaneous presence of a "nation-state"? Can there really be a workers' democracy if the workers do not rule, even if there is a state conducting "in the name of" the working class, organised in a bureaucratic manner with its professional army and police, judicial and administrative machinery? Or, in such a "workers" state, in whose hands would be the real power: in the hands of workers, or of some others?

In this book, Elif Çağlı deals with these questions and other similar ones, and gives answers on the basis of Marxism.

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The International Unites the Human Race

Elif Çağlı, 3 Kasım 2004

For such a long time the significant lyrics of the Internationale have reflected the revolutionary hope and enthusiasm of the working class in many countries. The International unites the human race! These words do not merely voice revolutionary enthusiasm rising up through the air, but also express an important truth. It is an indispensable condition that the working class must be successful in its struggle against capitalism in order for the humanity to achieve liberty, getting rid of the evil of exploitative and class societies. To advance this struggle and gain victory depends in turn on the level of internationalist consciousness and organization of the proletariat.

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Historical Experience and the Theory of Permanent Revolution

Ömer Gemici, August 2000

It is very important to overcome the theoretical confusion reproduced at a more intellectual level by some “revolutionary Marxist” circles who adapted themselves tothe Third Worldism and hoodwinked by these movements. Here, we only touch briefly on the matters such as; why and how in backward countries had the petty-bourgeois leaderships entered a road which led to the liquidation of capitalism; what kind of problems arise in relation to the permanent revolution and where does the solution of these problems lie in our opinion. But first of all, it is necessary to take a glance at how in Trotskyist movement had this question been attempted to solve.