Democratic Marxism Series

* Books: DEMOCRATIC MARXISM SERIES. Series Editor: Vishwas Satgar.

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Description

"The crisis of Marxism in the late twentieth century was the crisis of orthodox and vanguardist Marxism associated mainly with hierarchical communist parties, and imposed, even as state ideology, as the ‘correct’ Marxism. The Stalinisation of the Soviet Union and its eventual collapse exposed the inherent weaknesses and authoritarian mould of vanguardist Marxism. More fundamentally vanguardist Marxism was rendered obsolete but for its residual existence in a few parts of the world, including within authoritarian national liberation movements in Africa and in China.

With the deepening crises of capitalism, a new democratic Marxism (or democratic historical materialism) is coming to the fore.

Such a democratic Marxism is characterised by the following:

• Its sources span non-vanguardist grassroots movements, unions, political fronts, mass parties, radical intellectuals, transnational activist networks and parts of the progressive academy;

• It seeks to ensure that the inherent categories of Marxism are theorised within constantly changing historical conditions to find meaning;

• Marxism is understood as a body of social thought that is unfinished and hence challenged by the need to explain the dynamics of a globalising capitalism and the futures of social change;

• It is open to other forms of anti-capitalist thought and practice, including currents within radical ecology, feminism, emancipatory utopianism and indigenous thought;

• It does not seek to be a monolithic and singular school of thought but engenders contending perspectives;

• Democracy, as part of the history of people’s struggles, is understood as the basis for articulating alternatives to capitalism and as the primary means for constituting a transformative subject of historical change.

This series seeks to elaborate the social theorising and politics of democratic Marxism."

(https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/101192/9781776149445_WEB.pdf?)

Directory

Published in the series and available:

Michelle Williams and Vishwas Satgar (eds). 2013. Marxisms in the 21st Century: Crisis, Critique and Struggle. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Vishwas Satgar (ed.). 2015. Capitalism’s Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Vishwas Satgar (ed.). 2018. The Climate Crisis: South African and Global Democratic EcoSocialist Alternatives. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Vishwas Satgar (ed.). 2019. Racism after Apartheid: Challenges for Marxism and Anti-Racism. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Vishwas Satgar (ed.). 2020. BRICS and the New American Imperialism: Global Rivalry and Resistance. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Michelle Williams and Vishwas Satgar (eds). 2021. Destroying Democracy: Neoliberal Capitalism and the Rise of Authoritarian Politics. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Vishwas Satgar and Ruth Ntlokotse (eds). 2023. Emancipatory Feminism in the Time of Covid19: Transformative Resistance and Social Reproduction. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Latest Publication

* Book: Digital Capitalism and its Limits. Technotopia, Power and Risk. Edited by Vishwas Satgar, 2024

URL = https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/101192/9781776149445_WEB.pdf?sequence=1

Chapter 8: Commons Economics. By Michel Bauwens, Rok Kranjc, and Mayssam Daboul. Wits University Press, 2024.

URL = https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/101192/1/9781776149445_WEB.pdf#page=160