Before we examine the economic theories of comrade Dieterich, we will attempt to provide the reader with a brief summary of the basic economic laws of capitalism, which Marx explained long ago.

The forerunners of modern socialism could never bring about the new and equal society that they dreamed of, because the material basis for a classless society did not exist. Thus the early revolutionary movements of the masses directed against the old oppressors could only serve as the means whereby a new class of exploiters established itself in power. With the development of capitalism come the proletariat, which prepared the ground for scientific socialism, i.e. Marxism.

Marxism deals with history concretely, not in the abstract. Historical materialism carefully deals with the different historical stages through which humankind has developed and explains the particular laws that govern different socio-economic formations.

Historical materialism sets out from the premise that the mainspring of historical development is, in the last analysis, the development of the productive forces - that is, humankind's power over nature.

The crisis of the capitalist system is reflected in a crisis of bourgeois values, morality, religion, politics and philosophy. The mood of pessimism that afflicts the bourgeoisie and its ideologues in this period is manifested in the poverty of its thought, the triviality of its art and the emptiness of its spiritual values. It is expressed in the wretched philosophy of post-modernism, which imagines itself to be superior to all previous philosophy, when in reality it is vastly inferior.

We start today a serialised publication of Alan Woods' latest book "Reformism or revolution. Marxism and socialism of the 21st Century (reply to Heinz Dieterich)". We open with the Author's Preface and Chapter One, "Methodology", in which the unscientific method of Heinz Dieterich is dealt with.