Those that know me know I work a lot on prolewiki.

Online resources are a dime a dozen, and I notice they tend to focus on the beginner stuff. And in most reading lists / youtubers / communities / other repos, it all revolves around marxism 101.

It got me to ask how can we talk about the more advanced stuff on prolewiki? Learning the basics will only get you so far. There’s only so many different ways and so many different people you can teach the basics to – if they’re serious about their marxist studies, people will have to look into more advanced stuff at some point, beyond the basics.

But then I started thinking, what is actually advanced marxism? Past the beginner level. Isn’t the point of marxism that we make it accessible to everyone, thus making complex concepts feel basic and at anyone’s reach?

Perhaps basic marxism is its three components: the philosophy, economy, and class struggle. And anything past that such as how to apply marxism yourself or theory on decolonisation, feminism, LGBT issues etc.

But making your own analyses and understanding the theory of further developments since Marx are two different things for the student of marxism.

Or perhaps it’s the same three components, but in more details – delving into the history of philosophy, learning about the class struggle in different countries and periods, learning about other economy theory?

What is advanced marxism, and how can we bring it to the people over the internet?

  • cass
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    1 year ago

    It’s all nothing without putting it to practice tbh. I think practicing actual Marxism-Leninism is what’s lacking. Plenty of academic works exists if you know where to find them

    Not that I’m against making stuff more accessible, but I find that works best when allied to actual parties and such. In Brazil for instance plenty of my comrades in the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) are translating works from their source Russian texts and publishing them online and to books. Helps fundraise too.