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Marxism
is a not a moral code and is more than a set of ideas. It is a method that, if
applied correctly to the concrete situation, acts as a compass for the movement
towards the transformation of society by the working class in the interests of
humanity as a whole. Anyone can use a compass but it is still necessary to
decide whether to continue heading north or to change direction. Trotsky’s
short article,
125 years ago, on March 14th 1883, Karl Marx died. Marx was a
revolutionary above all else. His most celebrated scientific discovery
explains how the working class is exploited under capitalism. Where does profit come from? This is the
central mystery of economics, a mystery that was solved by Marx in his
most famous work, Capital.
As young men, Marx and Engels came
out of the German philosophical tradition. They were at this time groping their
way to becoming revolutionary activists. In 1845 Marx and Engels set out their
revolutionary world view for the first time in a book, The German Ideology, that
settled accounts with the Hegelian tradition from which they had just emerged.
It points the way to the clear language of the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 and addressed to the workers
of the world.
Here we publish A Marxist View of the 20th Century, first shown at 
Lukacs was an important influence on what is called 'western Marxism'.
This was seen as a 'humanist' alternative to the dominant stalinist
orthodoxy of the inter-War period and later. One of Lukacs' most
significant arguments was that (contrary to Engels) there can be no
dialectics of nature. Dan Morley examines the debate and goes into the
contradictory relationship between Lukacs' interpretation of Marxism and
Stalinism.
Socialist Appeal's ongoing campaign to spread the christmas spirit today publishes Lenin, who wrote in 1905 that: "Those who toil are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on
earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live
by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on
earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence
as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in
heaven." 
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. That is all written history. For the majority of human history man did not live in a class society. The development of technique allowed for the production of a surplus of wealth over and above the means of subsistence. This produced a flourish of art, science and philosophy as part of the population was freed for the first time from the toil of everyday labour. Mick Brooks talks on the application of Marxist philosophy to the development of society.
In the build up to Christmas, Socialist Appeal is contributing to the festive spirit by issuing some articles by Marxists on the origins and significance of Christianity, which in its early period was a revolutionary movement of the oppressed. This article deals with the person of Christ and the historical evidence for his existence, which is taken from the first chapter of the 'Foundations of Christianity' by Karl Kautsky.
The present Pope, Ratzinger or Benedict XVI as he has chosen to
call himself, far from being a "transitional" Pope is not only following in the
footsteps of John Paul II, he is putting his foot on the accelerator of
Christian fundamentalism. While talking of reconciliation he promotes conflict,
backs reactionary politicians of the Bush type and condemns anyone who wants to
really change the material conditions of millions of poor and working class
people.
Fred Weston of the International Marxist Tendency, and editor of 'In Defence of Marxism', talks on Leon Trotsky's theory of the Permanent Revolution. This marxist concept constitued the main ideological opposition to Stalin's theory of 'socialism in one country', which came to be the dominant outlook of the Soviet bureaucracy, that grew out of the isolation and degeneration of the young workers state.
The final part of this extended article on Marx's theory of crisis focuses on the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, with reference to the generalised world-wide crash of 1974. The tendency for the rate of profit to fall manifests itself in practice through the development of internal contradictions, as part of a cycle and not, as over-production
theorists would have it, as a crash coming out of a clear blue sky.
The second part of this extended article on the Marxist theory of Crisis looks at world
capitalism since the Second World War. It deals with Glyn and the profit rate, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the increasing organic composition of capital. 
At a meeting in London recently Linda Clarke of the Socialist Appeal talks about Marxism in relation to the national Question. Linda talks about the history and evolution of the nation state, the meaning of bourgeois nationalism, and deals with the particular circumstances of the national question in relation to Scotland, Ireland and the position of the Marxists during the Falklands war.
