Abstract
In the twenty-first century, it is time that Marxists updated the conception of socialist revolution they have inherited from Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Slogans about the “dictatorship of the proletariat” “smashing the capitalist state” and carrying out a social revolution from the commanding heights of a reconstituted state are completely obsolete. In this article I propose a reconceptualization that accomplishes several purposes: first, it explains the logical and empirical problems with Marx’s classical theory of revolution; second, it revises the classical theory to make it, for the first time, logically consistent with the premises of historical materialism; third, it provides a (Marxist) theoretical grounding for activism in the solidarity economy, and thus partially reconciles Marxism with anarchism; fourth, it accounts for the long-term failure of all attempts at socialist revolution so far. In serving these functions, the revision I propose finally “modernizes” and corrects Marx’s conception of revolution.
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Recommended Citation
Wright, Chris
(2021)
"Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of Revolution,"
Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 9:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
DOI: 10.25148/CRCP.9.1.009647
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol9/iss1/2