Introductory Comments to “Alternative Perspectives in Marxist Theory of Accumulation and Crisis”

It has been over a quarter of a century since “Alternative Perspectives in the Marxist Theory of Accumulation and Crisis” was published in The Insurgent Sociologist . It was written in the midst of the vibrant renaissance Marxist thinking in the academy that emerged in the aftermath of the student movements of the 1960s. When I wrote the paper I was a member of a circle of mainly young Marxist-inspired intellectuals who worked on the journal Kapitalistate in the San Francisco Bay Area. We enthusiastically read and debated the newest Marxist work coming out of Europe, especially Althusserian structuralist Marxism from France and capital logic and critical theory from Germany; we had study groups on the classics of the Marxist tradition, particularly on Capital ; and we rediscovered political economy through Sweezey, Dobb and others. It was a period in which for many left intellectuals Marxism was, if not the only game in town, the game where most of the action took place.