Marxist Theory

Marxist theory is the basis upon which our analysis, perspectives, programme, and participation in the movement are based. It is our "guide to action" and is why the International Marxist Tendency places so much emphasis on political education. A firm grounding in theory is similar to having a compass or map, which allows us to get our bearings in the turmoil of events, and permits us to understand the underlying processes that shape our world.

Most of our books are freely available online and can be purchased in paper or ebook format from our publishing house Wellred Books. If you find this material useful, please consider making a donation so that we can keep developing this resource.

Fundamentals of Marxism
No set of ideas has been pronounced dead more frequently than that of Marxism. Yet Marx' ideas stand as vibrant as ever, while bourgeois thought is at an impasse.
Dialectical Materialism
Dialectical materialism is the philosophy or methodology of Marxism. We must seek to understand the laws of society and nature in order to change them.

Historical Materialism
Historical materialism is the general theory of how and why society develops in the way it does. Each social system has its inherent laws of motion.

Marxist Economics
Marxist economics is the study of the laws of motion of capitalist society, allowing us to understand why capitalism perpetually goes into crisis.

Marxism & the State
The state is not at all neutral. We must understand the state’s real basis by treating it historically - taking in its origins, rise, and eventual fall.
Russia & Stalinism
The ability to answer the question “What happened in the Soviet Union?” is critical for revolutionaries. We study both the victory and the degeneration of the revolution.

The National Question
Nations have not always existed, nor will they always exist in the future. Marxists are internationalists, fighting for world revolution.
Anarchism
Anarchism is naturally attractive for those wanting to abolish capitalism. But only Marxist ideas can explain why bureaucracy and oppression exist.

Imperialism & War
Wars represent the sharp extreme of capitalism’s impasse. As long as the profit system exists, there will be wars over markets and influence.

Identity & Oppression
Marxists are irreconcilably opposed to the oppression of women and fight determinedly for liberation and against sexual discrimination.

Fascism
The madness of fascism expresses the historic crisis and dead-end of capitalism. But it could have been avoided if the working class had a militant leadership.
Religion
Religion cannot be overcome by recourse to pure, rational arguments; we must instead attack its social foundation. We can only cast aside religious illusions when we directly control our fate.

Environment
Capitalists and their political representatives are completely incapable of carrying out the radical changes that are required to save the planet from an environmental disaster.
Art
In class society art is so designed as to exclude the masses, and relegate them to an impoverished existence, not only in a material but in a spiritual sense.

Science & Technology
Capitalism is supposed to drive innovation, technology, and scientific advancement. But in fact, the precise opposite is true.

Workers' control
The idea of workers' control is to lift the veil, to show the working class the detailed workings of the capitalist system as a step towards its elimination.

Strategy & Polemics
In order to build the party, it is not sufficient to have correct ideas. It is necessary to develop the correct tactics to convince the masses that our ideas are correct.
Perspectives
Perspectives are not prophecies about the future, as if one had a crystal ball. Our main aim is to analyse the fundamental processes that are taking place below the surface.

Revolution — the locomotive of history

Ancient history
A Marxist explanation of the processes that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic. History is not an inexplicable series of random events.
English Revolution
The Civil War in England was in essence a revolutionary struggle for domination by the rising bourgeois class of merchants and bankers.

French Revolution
The Revolution was so successful because of the involvement of the plebeian masses. It went further than was really possible on a bourgeois basis.

Paris Commune
In a tremendous revolutionary movement, the working people of Paris replaced the capitalist state with their own organs of government and held political power.

First International
The first international proletarian organisation paved the way for the growth of working class organisation and spread of Marxism worldwide.
Second International
While espousing the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “internationalism” in words, in practice the 2nd International had gone over to the nation state and reformism.

WWI & Germany
One year after the victory of the Russian Revolution, the German proletariat entered the scene of world history and brought an end to "the Great War".
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution is the greatest event in world history. Studying this, and understanding why it degenerated into Stalinism, is vital.

Third International
The Communist International became a vital school of revolutionary ideas and strategy, but later degenerated with the rise of Stalinism.

Fourth International
The history of the Fourth International was one of a struggle to keep the genuine international spirit of the working class struggle alive.

Spanish Revolution
The Spanish masses instinctively strived towards socialist revolution but were strangled by the class collaboration of their leadership.
World War II
D-Day was an impressive and costly military operation, but the war against Hitler in Europe was fought mainly by the USSR on the eastern front. For most of the war the British and Americans were mere spectators.

Chinese Revolution
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China marked a monumental change in world history, with hundreds of millions of human beings throwing off their humiliating yoke.
Cuban Revolution
On January 1, 1959, Cuban dictator Batista fell, his regime falling to the guerrillas of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Within 3 years capitalism had been abolished in the island.

Revolutionary 1968
The greatest general strike in the post war period showed the mighty power of the working class, only defeated by the scandalous role of the French Communist Party.

Iranian Revolution
The revolution of 1979 tends to be seen as a movement of Islamic fundamentalists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini to push Iran back to the 6th century. This is false.

Ireland & Republicanism
The national struggle and the class struggle in Ireland have always been closely connected. Today the struggle for a united Ireland is bound up with the struggle for a Workers’ Republic.
British Labour movement
In Britain, it was the unions that built the political parties, not the other way around. Different groups have made one mistake after another on the question of the Labour Party.

Class struggle in the USA
The history of the class struggle in the United States illustrates that the ideas of Marxism, socialism and communism aren't at all alien to "the land of opportunity."
Black struggle
“You can’t operate a capitalistic system unless you are vulturistic. You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.” (Malcolm X)

Stalinism in Eastern Europe
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Prague spring of 1968 and the fall of the Berlin Wall were all significant events showing the dead end of Stalinism.

Arab Revolution
Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added.

Venezuelan Revolution
The crisis in Venezuela is not due to socialism, but due to the constant attempts to seek a compromise with imperialism and the Venezuelan ruling class.
Other section
Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added. Blurb to be added.