ABSTRACT
Marxism has long been a dialectical “other” of capitalism. As a set of theories, it has been continuously generated and regenerated by, while being simultaneously denounced as the antithesis of, capitalism. The transformations of capitalism have profoundly influenced Marxism, and vice versa. The same dialectic applies to the set of social movements that called themselves Marxist. The varieties and contradictions of the different kinds of actually historical capitalism have their counterparts in the complex diversity of Marxisms. Crises of capitalism have reflected as well as provoked crises of Marxism. Such interdependence is once again the case, we shall argue, today. Capitalism's contradictions have recurringly provoked anticapitalist upsurges. Although these reactions have so far been repressed, the repressions themselves have served as lessons for antitcapitalists. Slowly, increasingly systematic insights into and revolutionary responses to those contradictions have been developed. In Europe, the 1848 revolutions, the Paris Commune, the rise of German social democracy, and the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 were major moments of anticapitalist upsurge, repression, and learning. Parallel moments have occurred in all other continents. Not only did Marxism—or rather, Marxisms—emerge from this process, so too did the awareness that anticapitalist revolutionaries could transform repression, defeat, and defeatism into lessons for the next assault by means of a rigorous process of criticism.
