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By In Defence of Marxism
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Friday, 25 February 2005 |
 The
editor of Marxist.com, Alan Woods, recently appeared on a programme on
the French Revolution broadcast on the History Channel in the U.S. The
Channel interrupted its schedule of WWII footage for a special on the
French Revolution. This was shown on Saturday 22 January and consisted
of an hour-long re-enactment with commentaries by experts representing
different viewpoints. |
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By Alan Woods
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Thursday, 12 June 2003 |
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In a new series Alan Woods looks at the specific historical role of Napoleon
Bonaparte. He looks into the characteristics of this man that fitted the needs
of the reactionary bourgeoisie as it attempted to consolidate its grip on French
society and sweep to one side the most revolutionary elements who had played a
key role in guaranteeing the victory of the revolution. |
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By Alan Woods
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Thursday, 12 June 2003 |
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In the second part of his series on Napoleon Bonaparte, Alan
Woods looks at how Napoleon came to prominence as the embodiment of the
bourgeoisie's desire for "order" and an end to the "excesses" of the revolution
which had brought it to power. |
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By Alan Woods
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Thursday, 12 June 2003 |
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In the third part of his series, Alan Woods looks at Napoleon Bonaparte as
he concentrated all power in his hands striking blows against the Left and
reintroducing many of the trappings of the old regime, while maintaining the
essential social aspects of the revolution, the abolition of feudalism and the
establishment of bourgeois property relations. |
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By Alan Woods
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Thursday, 12 June 2003 |
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In this, the fourth and final part of his series on Napoleon, Alan Woods
looks at the final demise of the Emperor, as he outstretched himself in one war
after another, finally being betrayed by the same bourgeoisie that had earlier
fawned on him. |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 05 March 2003 |
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Fifty years ago today the world heard the news of
the death of Stalin. For decades the Stalinist propaganda machine had
assiduously encouraged the myth of Stalin as "the Lenin of today", who was
supposed to have led the Bolshevik Party together with Lenin. But all this was
merely a construction to justify the usurpation of power by a tyrant who
destroyed Lenin's party, liquidated the political conquests of October and
wrecked the Communist International. |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 05 March 2003 |
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The second part of Alan Woods' article covers the whole period of the
thirties, from the adventurist policy of forced
collectivisation to the Moscow Trials, until the assassination of Trotsky |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 05 March 2003 |
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There are still many misconceptions about the Second World War, especially
concerning the role of Stalin. The attempt to portray him as "a great war
leader" is based on pure mythology. In fact, by his policies Stalin placed
the USSR in the greatest danger. |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 05 March 2003 |
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After 1945 Stalin's power was absolute. He could never tolerate anyone too big alongside
him. Nobody was to be taller than Stalin, nobody wiser, stronger, more
artistically aware, more brilliant, more far-sighted, more beloved by the
People. He hated intellectuals and anyone on a
higher cultural level than himself because he felt inferior in their presence.
There was, however, a simple remedy for this: the physical removal of such
people. |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 05 March 2003 |
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This is the last part of the article on Stalin's death. Some university
professors try to interpret historical processes as the result of "good" or "bad"
individuals. Thus they argue that Stalin (and Hitler, too) was "uniquely evil".
This is a purely subjective interpretation of history. History cannot be explained in
terms of individual personalities, although the individual can certainly play an
important role in history. |
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By Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 17 July 2002 |
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This article by Alan Woods deals with barbarism and the development of
human society. In post-modern writing, history appears as an
essentially meaningless and inexplicable series of
random events or accidents. It is governed by no laws that we can
comprehend. A
variation on this theme is the idea, now very popular in some academic circles
that there is no such thing as higher and lower forms of social development and
culture. This denial of progress in history is characteristic of the psychology of the
bourgeoisie in the phase of capitalist decline. |
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Marxist Theory 
