Fundamentals of Marxism
What is the capitalist class? An introduction

What is the capitalist class? An introduction

A 2020 report by the Institute for Policy Studies found that “Between 1990 and 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth soared 1,130 percent in 2020 dollars, an increase more than 200 times greater than the 5.37 percent growth of U.S. median wealth over this same period" [1]. In...

What is democracy?

What is democracy?

“Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for...

What is the working class?

What is the working class?

The Marxist view of society starts with questions of power, such as: who holds power, how, and to what end? In class societies, these questions focus on issues of ownership, since ownership determines who has the power to decide what happens with land, banks, mines,...

What is dialectical materialism? An introduction

What is dialectical materialism? An introduction

After the deaths of Marx and Engels, socialists began taking up the important task of summarizing their work for popularization. In 1919, for example, Georg Lukács, the Hungarian Marxist, argued that the essence of Marx’s project is not the correctness or...

6 ways socialism is superior to capitalism

6 ways socialism is superior to capitalism

How would socialism address the terrible problems of capitalist society? The following is an edited version of a talk given by Brian Becker, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Executive Committee, at an East Coast PSL membership conference. We...

What is capitalism?

What is capitalism?

The economic reality of the United States today is one of vast inequality in wealth and living standards. At present, 31.1 million households do not have enough food to eat in an average year. Housing within the means of average Americans is increasingly scarce,...

What is the real legacy of the Soviet Union? An overview

What is the real legacy of the Soviet Union? An overview

The first time the people had the power The capitalist class and its well-paid intellectuals and pundits continue to argue that the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 means that socialism and communism are impossible. A stereotyped and negative image of the Soviet Union...

What is national oppression?

What is national oppression?

Oppression and exploitation are basic features of capitalist society. Workers are paid wages while the capitalist owners make profits from the products created by those who work. This is the essence of economic exploitation. Almost every worker, even if they do not...