Spectre of Communism

“A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism!” These immortal words from the Communist Manifesto (and the title of this podcast!) herald the most important piece of political literature ever written. In our final episode of the season, we go through the Manifesto chapter-by-chapter, and explain the ongoing relevance of this amazing document.In just a few dozen pages, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels describe the development and dynamics of capitalist society, explain the revolutionary role of communists, and issue a battlecry to the workers of the world. They draw the incredibly profound conclusion that the (written) history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, a discovery that Engels later said had the same impact on political economy as Darwin’s theory of natural selection did on biology.While the Manifesto was written in 1847, in reality it more accurately describes the world of today! As Josh Holroyd, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, explains in our detailed chapter breakdown, the Manifesto predicts a world in which the entire population is made part of the capitalist machine, and periodically plunged into chaos by crises of overproduction. Marx and Engels fend off bourgeois slanders that communism crushes ‘freedom’ and would ‘make people lazy’. They point to the treacherous role of reformism, and teach communists how they should relate to the wider workers’ movement. And much more besides.These theoretical insights have only gained in relevance in the 150 years since the Manifesto was published. And in practice, the ideas contained in this text have transformed the course of world history, inspiring victorious revolutions and continuing to haunt the nightmares of the capitalists and their agents.We are delighted to end this season of the podcast with a deep dive into the foundational document of our movement. Workers of the world, unite!📖 WORKS CITED 📖Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (with prefaces):🔗https://marxist.com/communist-manifesto-chapter-1.htm Purchase a physical copy here as part of Classics of Marxism Volume One: 🔗https://wellred-books.com/classics-volume-one/ Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm [Podcast] How Marx became a Marxist:🔗https://marxist.com/podcast-how-marx-became-a-marxist.htm

“A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism!” These immortal words from the Communist Manifesto (and the title of this podcast!) herald the most important piece of political literature ever written. In our final episode of the season, we go through the Manifesto chapter-by-chapter, and explain the ongoing relevance of this amazing document.In just a few dozen pages, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels describe the development and dynamics of capitalist society, explain the revolutionary role of communists, and issue a battlecry to the workers of the world. They draw the incredibly profound conclusion that the (written) history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, a discovery that Engels later said had the same impact on political economy as Darwin’s theory of natural selection did on biology.While the Manifesto was written in 1847, in reality it more accurately describes the world of today! As Josh Holroyd, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, explains in our detailed chapter breakdown, the Manifesto predicts a world in which the entire population is made part of the capitalist machine, and periodically plunged into chaos by crises of overproduction. Marx and Engels fend off bourgeois slanders that communism crushes ‘freedom’ and would ‘make people lazy’. They point to the treacherous role of reformism, and teach communists how they should relate to the wider workers’ movement. And much more besides.These theoretical insights have only gained in relevance in the 150 years since the Manifesto was published. And in practice, the ideas contained in this text have transformed the course of world history, inspiring victorious revolutions and continuing to haunt the nightmares of the capitalists and their agents.We are delighted to end this season of the podcast with a deep dive into the foundational document of our movement. Workers of the world, unite!📖 WORKS CITED 📖Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (with prefaces):🔗https://marxist.com/communist-manifesto-chapter-1.htm Purchase a physical copy here as part of Classics of Marxism Volume One: 🔗https://wellred-books.com/classics-volume-one/ Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm [Podcast] How Marx became a Marxist:🔗https://marxist.com/podcast-how-marx-became-a-marxist.htm

The term ‘postmodernism’ is thrown around a lot by right-wing shock-jocks like Jordan Peterson, often in tandem with Marxism: although these two sets of ideas are totally opposed. In this episode, leading comrade Hamid Alizadeh takes on some of the main luminaries of this obscure, impenetrable and ultimately reactionary school including Foucault, Derrida and Lyotard. Lyotard describes postmodernism as “incredulity towards metanarratives.” In other words: an opposition to ‘big ideas’ about history, truth, science and progress. But with these ‘big ideas’ discarded, what are we left with? As Hamid demonstrates, the answer for all the postmodernists is basically the same: we cannot know the world, let alone change it, all we can do is ‘think differently’, play around with words, and retreat to subjectivity. They even celebrate writing in incomprehensible gibberish and ‘believing in nothing’ as a ‘radical’ act!This cynical philosophy is a total dead-end which winds up in stasis and despair. In total contrast to Marxism, which recognises the world as made up of complex processes, and driven by an inner lawfulness towards higher and higher complexity. By knowing the world, we can organise ourselves to intervene and change it for the better.Postmodernism is not merely a reactionary worldview, Hamid explains, it has a directly negative impact on society, serving to divide the working class through the related phenomenon of identity politics, and preserve the status quo by hampering unity of the working class. It is our duty as Marxists to oppose these counter-revolutionary ideas, and demonstrate the vast superiority of our dialectical materialist philosophy!📖 WORKS CITED 📖The case for theory: why communists should study philosophy | SPECTRE OF COMMUNISM: 🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQBXX7jZYgMarxism vs. Postmodernism, Daniel Morley and Hamid Alizadeh: 🔗https://marxist.com/marxism-versus-postmodernism.htmTheological-Political Treatise, Baruch Spinoza:🔗https://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/24118/excerpt/9780521824118_excerpt.htm Hegel, G.F. W. (1975). Hegel's Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art [For the quote about an ignorant man not being free]📖 WORKS CRITIQUED 📖Gender Trouble (Tenth Edition), Judith Butler: 🔗https://selforganizedseminar.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/butler-gender_trouble.pdf The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Jean-François Lyotard:🔗https://monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Lyotard_Jean-Francois_The_Postmodern_Condition_A_Report_on_Knowledge.pdf The Subject and Power, Michel Foucault: 🔗https://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~alexroni/IPD2018%20readings/IPD1%202018%20No.8/Foucault%20Subject%20and%20Power.pdf Differance, Jacques Derrida: 🔗https://mforbes.sites.gettysburg.edu/cims226/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Week-5a-Jacques-Derrida.pdf Article about how the CIA used Foucault and postmodern ideas to their benefit: 🔗https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-cia-reads-french-theory-on-the-intellectual-labor-of-dismantling-the-cultural-left/ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️00:55 - What is postmodernism?11:40 - Is language oppressive?25:46 - 'Differance' vs Dialectics 31:58 - Are there objective patterns in the world?40:42 - Is there a barrier between mind and matter?01:00:54 - Practical impact of these ideas

How did Stalin outmanoeuvre Trotsky and take power following Lenin’s death? What do Marxists mean by ‘value’? And what does it really mean to ‘master the dialectic’? We went back to social media and asked for some more burning questions from our audience, for leading communist Niklas Albin Svensson to answer in a quickfire round!Watch our previous viewers’ questions episode with Ben Curry here:🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korpvewBWo8&t=3561s 📖 WORKS & SOURCES CITED 📖Wage, Labour and Capital, Karl Marx:🔗https://marxist.com/classics-wage-labour-and-capital.htm Value, Price and Profit, Karl Marx: 🔗https://marxist.com/classics-marxism-two-book/value-price-and-profit.htm ABC of Materialist Dialectics, Leon Trotsky: 🔗https://marxist.com/abc-materialist-dialectics-trotsky.htmRevolution Betrayed, Leon Trotsky: 🔗https://marxist.com/classics-the-revolution-betrayed.htm Results and Prospects, Leon Trotsky: 🔗https://marxist.com/results-and-prospects.htm Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Vladimir Lenin: 🔗https://marxist.com/classics-imperialism-the-highest-stage-of-capitalism/.htm The Wealth of Nations, Book One, Chapter 5: 🔗https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/book01/ch05.htm Astronomy Is In Crisis...And It's Incredibly Exciting - 3 million views (discusses crisis in cosmology): 🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozEm4f_dlw Reason in Revolt, Ted Grant and Alan Woods: 🔗https://marxist.com/reason-in-revolt-marxist-philosophy-and-modern-science.htm Purchase In Defence of Marxism Issue 51 here: 🔗https://magazine.marxist.com/ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️00:57 - What is value?22:18 - How to master the dialectic?52:20 - How did Stalin come to power?1:04:23 - How did capitalism affect post-Soviet countries?🌐 LINKS 🌐✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

Ted Grant is not widely known outside of revolutionary circles, but he was the most important Marxist theorist since the death of Leon Trotsky, who alone predicted the course of world politics after WWII. Amongst other things, he foresaw the post-war economic upswing; the expropriation of capitalism in China and much of Eastern Europe; Stalin’s clashes with Tito and Mao; and much more besides. In this episode, his closest collaborator Alan Woods, the main leader and theorist of the RCI, reminisces about Ted’s life and works, and explains the importance of his contributions.In today’s episode, Alan talks about Ted’s legacy. He emphasises not only Ted’s brilliant mastery of Marxism, which gave him a huge advantage over his contemporaries; but also his humanity, his indignance towards all forms of injustice, and his profound sense of optimism. While the road to revolution is long and often difficult, Ted always said, there are two indispensable traits for any revolutionary: a sense of proportion and a sense of humour!Aside from the organisation we inherit today, Ted’s main legacy can be found in his tremendous contributions to Marxist theory and analysis. The third volume of his collected works will be released in January 2026. Stalinist land programme wins peasants, Chiang’s conscripts roped to prevent escape, Ted Grant:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1949/01/china.htm Democracy or Bonapartism in Europe - A Reply to Pierre Frank, Ted Grant: 🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1946/08/frank.htm Ted’s obituaries in the bourgeois press: 🔗https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1524889/Ted-Grant.html, 🔗https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/27/guardianobituaries.southafrica Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary, Alan Woods: 🔗https://wellred-books.com/ted-grant-the-permanent-revolutionary/The degeneration and collapse of the Fourth International: in defence of our heritage, RCI: 🔗https://marxist.com/the-degeneration-and-collapse-of-the-fourth-international.htm The TRUTH about World War 2: Marxist historian sets the record straight | SPECTRE OF COMMUNISM:🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1vobbAMUzM&t=1191s The Changed Relationship of Forces in Europe and the Role of the Fourth International, Ted Grant:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1945/03/changed.htm Economic Perspectives 1946, Ted Grant: 🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1946/04/economy.htm Perspectives in Britain, Ted Grant:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1946/07/britain.htm Czechoslovakia: The Issues Involved, Ted Grant:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1948/04/czechoslovakia.htm Reply to David James, Ted Grant:🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1949/james.htm Stalinism in the Postwar World, Ted Grant: 🔗https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1951/06/stalinism