Open Marxism

Marxist school of thought

Map of open Marxist tendencies Part of a series on

Marxism
Outline

Theoretical works

* Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
* The Condition of the Working Class in England
* The German Ideology
* The Communist Manifesto
* The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
* Grundrisse
* Capital
* Critique of the Gotha Programme
* Dialectics of Nature
* The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
* What Is to Be Done?
* The Accumulation of Capital
* Philosophical Notebooks
* Terrorism and Communism
* The State and Revolution
* Essays on Marx's Theory of Value
* History and Class Consciousness
* Prison Notebooks
* The Black Jacobins
* On Practice
* Dialectic of Enlightenment
* A Critique of Soviet Economics
* The Long Revolution
* Guerrilla Warfare
* The Wretched of the Earth
* Reading Capital
* The Society of the Spectacle
* Pedagogy of the Oppressed
* Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
* Ways of Seeing
* How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
* Social Justice and the City
* Women, Race and Class
* Marxism and the Oppression of Women
* Imagined Communities
* Hegemony and Socialist Strategy
* The Sublime Object of Ideology
* Time, Labor and Social Domination
* The Age of Extremes
* The Origin of Capitalism
* Empire
* Late Victorian Holocausts
* Change the World Without Taking Power
* Caliban and the Witch
* An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital
* Capitalist Realism
* Capital in the Anthropocene

Philosophy

* Alienation
* Dialectical materialism
* Ideology
* Philosophy of nature
* Philosophy in the Soviet Union
* Reification
* Marxist ethics

Critique of political economy

* Capital (accumulation)
* Crisis theory
* Commodity
* Concrete and abstract labor
* Factors of production
* Falling profit-rate tendency
* Means of production
* Mode of production
* Capitalist
* Socialist
* Productive forces
* Scientific socialism
* State monopoly capitalism
* Surplus product
* Socially necessary labour time
* Value-form
* Wage labour

Sociology

* Base and superstructure
* Bourgeoisie
* Class
* Class consciousness
* Classless society
* Commodity fetishism
* Communist society
* Critical theory
* Cultural hegemony
* Democracy
* Dictatorship of the proletariat
* Soviet
* Radical
* Democratic centralism
* Exploitation
* False consciousness
* Human nature
* Immiseration
* Imperialism
* Lumpenproletariat
* Metabolic rift
* Proletariat
* Private property
* Relations of production
* State theory
* Working class

History

* Class struggle
* Historical determinism
* Primitive accumulation
* Proletarian revolution
* World revolution
* Theory of historical trajectory

Aspects

* Aesthetics
* Archaeology
* Criminology
* Cultural Marxism
* Cultural Studies
* Ethics
* Film theory
* Geography
* Historiography
* Literary criticism
* Marxism and religion
* Sociology
* Philosophy

Common variants

|  Structural

* Autonomist
* Marxism–Leninism
* Guevarism
* Maoism
* Neo-Gramscianism
* Regulation school
* Third-worldist
* Titoism
* Trotskyism

Hegelian

* Budapest School
* Frankfurt School
* Humanist
* Neue Marx-Lektüre
* Open
* Praxis School

Both

* Black
* Classical
* Communization
* Feminist
* Leninism
* Neo
* Post
* Western

Other variants

* Analytical
* Austromarxism
* Hispanic marxism
* Centrist
* Eurocommunism
* Instrumental
* Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
* Nkrumaism
* Political
* Revisionist
* Situationist
* Socialism with Chinese characteristics
* Wertkritik

People

* Marx
* Engels
* Morris
* Lafargue
* Rubin
* Kautsky
* Plekhanov
* Du Bois
* Connolly
* Lenin
* Luxemburg
* Liebknecht
* Kollontai
* Stalin
* Trotsky
* Grossman
* Zinoviev
* Bloch
* Lukács
* Korsch
* Bukharin
* Ho
* Serge
* Gramsci
* Pashukanis
* Bordiga
* Benjamin
* Mao
* Basu
* Mariátegui
* Horkheimer
* Dutt
* Brecht
* Marcuse
* Kalecki
* Fromm
* Cox
* Lefebvre
* James
* Adorno
* Padmore
* Sartre
* Deutscher
* Beauvoir
* Sombart
* Nkrumah
* Sweezy
* Emmanuel
* Hill
* Bettelheim
* Draper
* Jones
* Hobsbawm
* Althusser
* Hinton
* Williams
* Freire
* Cunhal
* Lara
* Mandel
* Sivanandan
* Miliband
* Cabral
* Thompson
* Bauman
* Fanon
* Berger
* Castro
* Guevara
* Liebman
* Heller
* Guattari
* Mészáros
* O'Connor
* Wallerstein
* Mies
* Tronti
* Debord
* Amin
* Hall
* Nairn
* Parenti
* Negri
* Jameson
* Dussel
* Harvey
* Laclau
* Bahro
* Poulantzas
* Vattimo
* Badiou
* Harnecker
* Altvater
* Ismail
* Anderson
* Löwy
* Vogel
* Sison
* Easthope
* Rancière
* Berman
* Przeworski
* Cohen
* Therborn
* Losurdo
* Postone
* Rodney
* Bannerji
* Spivak
* Newton
* Wood
* Federici
* Wolff
* Balibar
* Eagleton
* Kurz
* Rowbotham
* Mouffe
* Geras
* Brenner
* Davis
* Massey
* Cleaver
* Bishop
* Haraway
* Panitch
* Clarke
* Jessop
* Davis
* Wright
* Fraser
* Burawoy
* Holloway
* Rose
* Screpanti
* Tamás
* Hampton
* Cano
* Žižek
* Berardi
* Sankara
* Hennessy
* McDonnell
* Douzinas
* Roediger
* Foster
* West
* Ghandy
* Marcos
* Heinrich
* Prashad
* Kelley
* Dean
* Lordon
* Linera
* Fisher
* Li
* Prestes
* Coulthard
* Malm
* Seymour
* Toscano
* Bhattacharya
* Moufawad-Paul
* Srnicek
* Horvat
* Hamza
* Saito

Journals

* Antipode
* Capital & Class
* Capitalism Nature Socialism
* Constellations
* Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory
* Historical Materialism
* Mediations
* Monthly Review
* New Left Review
* Race & Class
* Rethinking Marxism
* Science & Society
* Socialist Register

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Open Marxism is a collection of critical and heterodox Marxist schools of thought which critique state socialism[1] and party politics, stressing the need for openness to praxis and history through an anti-positivist method grounded in the "practical reflexivity" of Karl Marx's own concepts.[2] The "openness" in open Marxism also refers to a non-deterministic view of history in which the unpredictability of class struggle is foregrounded.[3]

It is very strongly anti-structuralist in both its Marxism–Leninist[4] and Althusserian[5] forms, while sharing some features with post-Marxist thought.[6] It often (though not always) aligns itself with humanist Marxism, and libertarian, anarchist or left communism.[7] It draws strongly from value-form criticism.

## Overview

[edit]

Originating from a term used by Johannes Agnoli in a debate with Ernest Mandel, open Marxism began in the 1980s as an effort to unite heterodox Marxist tendencies (against the dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism) and mainstream sociological structuralist[8] versions of Western Marxism, such as Althusserian Marxism and Gramscian hegemony theory. The term is featured in a book Agnoli co-authored with Mandel in 1980, titled Offener Marxismus. Ein Gespräch über Dogmen, Orthodoxie und die Häresie der Realität (Open Marxism: A Discussion about Doctrines, Orthodoxy and the Heresy of Reality). Open Marxists returned to basic Marxist concepts such as value, labour and the state-form,[9] and argued against social-democratic state-led and Marxist-Leninist party-led utilisations of Marxism.

Derrida described an 'open' Marxist tradition in an interview from 1980.[10] Alvin Gouldner also described 'two Marxisms' in the 1980s; one scientific, and one critical.[11]

The sources of critical, open Marxism (sometimes called the 'warm stream of Marxism'[12]) are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, the New Left, elements of Autonomism and situationism and also the Neue Marx-Lektüre of 1970s Germany.[13] Hegel is often the common thread within these tendencies.[3]

Intellectual affinities with autonomist Marxism were especially strong and led to the creation of the journal The Commoner (2001–2012) following in the wake of previous open Marxist journals Arguments (1958–1962)[14] and Common Sense (1987–1999).

In the 1970s and 1980s, state-derivationist debates around the separation of the economic and the political under capitalism unfolded in the working group Kapitalistate and the Conference of Socialist Economists[15] journal Capital & Class, involving many of the theorists of open Marxism and significantly influencing its theoretical development.[16] Endnotes journal refers to itself as influenced by OM.[17]

## Theorists

[edit]

* Theodor Adorno[18]
* Johannes Agnoli[19]
* Kostas Axelos[20]
* Hans-Georg Backhaus[21]
* Zygmunt Bauman[22]
* Ernst Bloch[23]
* Werner Bonefeld[24]
* Peter Burnham[25]
* Simon Clarke[26]
* Harry Cleaver[27]
* Ana C Dinerstein[28]
* Alfonso Garcia Vela[23]
* Edith Gonzalez[23]
* Richard Gunn[29]
* John Holloway[29]
* Karl Korsch[30]
* Henri Lefebvre[31]
* Michael Löwy[32]
* György Lukács[33]
* Rosa Luxemburg[34]
* José Carlos Mariátegui[35]
* Ernest Mandel[36]
* Mike Neary[37]
* Antonio Negri[2][38]
* Evgeny Pashukanis[30]
* Frederick Harry Pitts[39]
* Moishe Postone[40]
* Kosmas Psychopedis[24]
* Helmut Reichelt[24]
* David Roediger[34]
* Mike Rooke[2]
* Isaak Illich Rubin[41]
* Victor Serge[42]
* Gáspár Miklós Tamás[43]
* Sergio Tischler[44]
* Adrian Wilding[45]

## Publications

[edit]

Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. A fourth volume, again published by Pluto, appeared in 2020. The authorship of the latest volume showed how far the influence of Open Marxism has spread from Europe to Latin America.[46]

## Open Leninism

[edit]

Some scholars discuss the existence of an open Leninism,[47] or a neo-Leninism,[48] that is, a critical[49] or post-structural Leninism that is critical of Marxism-Leninism[50] as it existed in the 20th century.[51][52] The work of Lars T. Lih,[53] Kevin B. Anderson,[54] Kai Heron,[55] Jodi Dean,[56] Andreas Malm,[57] Antonio Negri,[58] Alberto Toscano[59] and Slavoj Žižek[60] have been representative of this trend.

## Criticism

[edit]

Some critics have alleged that open Marxism is too open[61]\- a charge of 'subjectivism' [62] and 'voluntarism'[63] is sometimes levelled, though its authors, particularly John Holloway have responded to this.[64]

Others claim that open Marxist accounts tend to treat the national capitalist state abstractly, without reference to uneven and combined development and international forms of class struggle in the capitalist "world-system".[65]

Like other forms of Marxism, it has been criticised for being totalising, universalising and Eurocentric.[66]

## See also

[edit]

* Antipositivism
* Anti-Stalinist left
* Autonomism
* Centrist Marxism
* Democratic confederalism
* Humanist Marxism
* Hegelian Marxism
* Neozapatismo
* Parametric determinism
* Post-Marxism
* State derivation
* Third camp
* Value criticism
* Western Marxism

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Gabriel, Meier (2023). "Book Review - Werner Bonefeld, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion: Wealth, Suffering, Negation" (PDF). Antipode.
2. ^ a b c ""The Limitations of "Open Marxism" " by Mike Rooke". Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
3. ^ a b "A libertarian Marxist tendency map | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
4. ^ "What is to be Done? Leninism, Anti-Leninist Marxism and the Question of Revolution Today". Capital & Class. 31 (1): 137–140\. March 2007. doi:10.1177/030981680709100109. ISSN 0309-8168.
5. ^ Charnock, Greig; Starosta, Guido (June 2023). "'If "Marxists" would only read Marx': The significance of Simon Clarke's Marxism". Capital & Class. 47 (2): 177–181\. doi:10.1177/03098168231171786. ISSN 0309-8168.
6. ^ Harrison, Oliver (October 2016). "Occupy: 'Struggles for the common' or an 'anti-politics of dignity'? Reflections on Hardt and Negri and John Holloway". Capital & Class. 40 (3): 495–510\. doi:10.1177/0309816816653877. ISSN 0309-8168. S2CID 147973886.
7. ^ plutopress (2017-02-17). "Why we need Marxist-Humanism now". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
8. ^ Clarke, Simon (June 1977). "Marxism, Sociology and Poulantzas' Theory of the State". Capital & Class. 1 (2): 1–31\. doi:10.1177/030981687700200101. ISSN 0309-8168.
9. ^ Burnham, Peter (2006-04-01). "Marxism, the State and British Politics". British Politics. 1 (1): 67–83\. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200005. ISSN 1746-9198.
10. ^ Easthope, Antony (1991). British Post-Structuralism Since 1968 (2nd ed.). Britain: Routledge. pp. 239–240\. ISBN 0415062047.
11. ^ Gouldner, Alvin W. (1980). "The Two Marxisms". SpringerLink. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-16296-3. ISBN 978-0-333-28880-1.
12. ^ Boer, Roland (2016-01-02). "Concerning the "Warm Stream" within Marxism". International Critical Thought. 6 (1): 13–28\. doi:10.1080/21598282.2016.1142384. ISSN 2159-8282. S2CID 147376682.
13. ^ "Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
14. ^ Elden, S. (2004). Kostas Axelos and the World of the Arguments Circle. Progressive Geographies. Vol. 4: pg. 125-48.
15. ^ "In and Against the State". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
16. ^ Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D. (2010). Acorns and Fruit: From Totalization to Periodization in the Critique of Capitalism. Capital & Class. Vol. 34 (1): pg. 25-37
17. ^ Endnotes. "Endnotes". endnotes.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
18. ^ Holloway, John; Matamoros, Fernando; Tischler, Sergio (2009). Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-2836-2.
19. ^ "Destruction as the Determination of the Scholar in Miserable Times - Johannes Agnoli | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
20. ^ "Open Marxism and critical theory: negative critique and class as critical concept" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-03-02.
21. ^ "Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
22. ^ Вятр, Ежи (2017). "Открытый марксизм и возрождение социологии: роль Юлиана Хохфёльда и Зигмунта Баумана". Журнал Белорусского Государственного Университета. Социология (3): 138–145.
23. ^ a b c Bonefeld, Werner (2020). Open Marxism 4. Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvs09qng. ISBN 9780745340258. JSTOR j.ctvs09qng. S2CID 241494291.
24. ^ a b c "Open Marxism" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-04-30.
25. ^ Burnham, Peter (1994). "Open Marxism and vulgar international political economy". Review of International Political Economy. 1 (2): 221–231\. doi:10.1080/09692299408434277.
26. ^ Charnock, Greig; Starosta, Guido (2023). "'If "Marxists" would only read Marx': The significance of Simon Clarke's Marxism". Capital & Class. 47 (2): 177–181\. doi:10.1177/03098168231171786.
27. ^ "Open Marxism 2: Theory and Practice | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
28. ^ "Ana Cecilia Dinerstein". www.anaceciliadinerstein.com. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
29. ^ a b "Open Marxism" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-06-08.
30. ^ a b Burnham, Peter (1994). "Open Marxism and Vulgar International Political Economy". Review of International Political Economy. 1 (2): 221–231\. doi:10.1080/09692299408434277. JSTOR 4177100.
31. ^ Charnock, Greig (2010). "Challenging New State Spatialities: The Open Marxism of Henri Lefebvre". Antipode. 42 (5): 1279–1303\. Bibcode:2010Antip..42.1279C. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00802.x.
32. ^ "For a Critical Marxism | Solidarity".
33. ^ Grollios, Vasilis (2014). "Dialectics and democracy in Georg Lukács's Marxism". Capital & Class. 38 (3): 563–581\. doi:10.1177/0309816814550389. S2CID 144334812.
34. ^ a b "Race, Class and Roediger's Open Marxism". 25 October 2017.
35. ^ Kline, Curtis (2022). "The Open Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui". Latin American Perspectives. 49 (4): 94–109\. doi:10.1177/0094582X221095080. S2CID 248907483.
36. ^ "Ernest Mandel Was One of the 20th Century's Greatest Marxist Thinkers".
37. ^ "Chain Reaction: Critical Theory Needs Critical Mass—Contradiction, Crisis and the Value-Form, Mike Neary". 16 September 2019.
38. ^ "Open Marxism - further reading guide"
39. ^ Pitts, Frederick Harry; Gunn, Richard; Bonefeld, Werner; Vela, Alfonso García (January 2019). "Open Marxism 4. Against a closing world".
40. ^ "Book review: Werner Bonefeld, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion: Wealth, Suffering, Negation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-12-14.
41. ^ Bellofiore, Riccardo (2020). "Isaak Illich Rubin (1886–1937)". Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism. pp. 495–502\. doi:10.4324/9781315149608-58. ISBN 9781315149608. S2CID 228850347.
42. ^ "Serge and Trotsky – Left Unity in the 1930s | Left Unity".
43. ^ "Corbynism: A Critical Approach".
44. ^ "Sergio Tischler".
45. ^ "Open Marxism 3: Emancipating Marx | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
46. ^ "Open Marxism 4". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
47. ^ Hancox, Alfie (2023-03-02). "Red Fightback's Final Crisis". Ebb Magazine. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
48. ^ "For a Neo-Leninism". Verso. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
49. ^ "The Need for Post-Leninism". Against the Current. 2023-05-05. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
50. ^ Bahro, Rudolf (1977-12-01). "The Alternative in Eastern Europe" (PDF). New Left Review (I/106): 3–37.
51. ^ Levant, Alex (2009). "Rethinking Leninism".
52. ^ "Red Fightback's Final Crisis". Ebb. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
53. ^ "The Lies We Tell About Lenin". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
54. ^ Anderson, Kevin B. (2021-12-20), "Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism: A critical Study", Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-47161-0, retrieved 2023-12-14
55. ^ "Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition". Spectre Journal. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
56. ^ "Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition". Spectre Journal. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
57. ^ ""To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism"". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
58. ^ "The Common Before Power: An Example - Journal #87". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
59. ^ "With Lenin, Against Hegel? 'Materialism and Empirio-Criticism' and the Mutations of Western Marxism | Historical Materialism". www.historicalmaterialism.org. 28 April 2018. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
60. ^ "Lenin: Remembering and Repeating". Verso. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
61. ^ "The Limitations of". herramienta.com.ar. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
62. ^ Dyer-Witheford, Nick. "UI Press | Nick Dyer-Witheford | Cyber-Marx". www.press.uillinois.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
63. ^ Jessop, Bob (2008-01-01), "Chapter Twenty-Two. States, state power, and state theory", Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism, Brill, pp. 413–429, doi:10.1163/ej.9789004145986.i-813.123, ISBN 978-90-474-2360-7, retrieved 2024-01-11
64. ^ "In the Beginning Was the Scream - John Holloway | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
65. ^ Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D., 2010, pg. 28.
66. ^ Bruff, Ian (May 2009). "The Totalisation of Human Social Practice: Open Marxists and Capitalist Social Relations, Foucauldians and Power Relations". The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 11 (2): 332–351\. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856X.2009.00366.x. ISSN 1369-1481. S2CID 145147658.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). Open Marxism, vol. 1: Dialectics and History. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0590-5).
* Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). Open Marxism - vol. 2: Theory and Practice. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0591-2).
* Bonefeld, W., Holloway, J., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1995). Open Marxism - vol. 3: Emancipating Marx. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0864-7).
* Bonefeld, W., and Psychopedis, K. (Eds.).(2005). Human Dignity: Social Autonomy and the Critique of Capitalism. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
* Clarke, S. (1983). "State, Class Struggle, and the Reproduction of Capital" Archived 2022-01-20 at the Wayback Machine. Kapitalistate. Vol. 10 (11): pg. 118-33.
* Clarke, S. ed. (1991). The State Debate. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
* Cleaver, H. (1977). Reading Capital Politically. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
* Dinerstein, A., Garcia Vela, A. Gonzalez, E., Holloway, J. (2020). Open Marxism 4: Against a Closing World. London: Pluto.
* Holloway, J., Matamoros, F., Tischler, S. (2009). Negativity and Revolution: Adorno & Political Activism. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-987-22929-2-8)
* Holloway, J. (2002). Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. London: Pluto Press.
* Memos, Christos (2025). Open Marxism: Critical Theory as Militant Enlightenment. Bloomsbury Academic.

## External links

[edit]

* Common Sense journal Archived 2016-12-30 at the Wayback Machine

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