This session covers the chapter “Class 1: The Marxist World Outlook” of the Introducing Marxism booklet.
Video intro
Discussion Questions
- Think of a current issue or event of political importance. How would a dialectical materialist approach to it deepen our understanding and enable us to make a more significant contribution to political struggle?
- Identify some idealist (in the philosophical sense) notions or ideas which limit the struggle for progressive change today. How might they be challenged or overcome?
- Why is class struggle the motor which drives forward economic and social development and how does this apply to capitalism today?
- What role does human thought and action play in the class struggle – can people really change the course of history and, if so, how?
Further Reading
Introductory and general reading
- VI Lenin, ‘Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism’ (1914), Collected Works Vol.21, and ‘The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism’ (1913), Collected Works Vol.19 (available from the Communist Party’s Classics of Communism range as, On Karl Marx and Marxism, 2007)
- K Marx & F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), Collected Works Vol.6 (available from the as part of the Communist Party’s Classics of Communism series, 2006)
- F Engels, ‘Principles of Communism’ (1847), Collected Works Vol.6
- David McLellan, The Thought of Karl Marx (Papermac, 1980)
- Ernst Fischer, Marx in His Own Words (Penguin, 1981)
- Mary Davis, Women and Class (Manifesto Press, 2020 edn)
The Marxist World Outlook
- K Marx, ‘Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law. Introduction’ (1844), Collected Works Vol.3
- K Marx, ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Part One. Preface’ (1859), Collected Works Vol. 29
- F Engels, ‘Dialectics of Nature’ (1882), Collected Works Vol.25
- F Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (1888), Collected Works Vol.26
- Jonathan White, Making Our Own History: A User’s Guide to Marx’s
- Historical Materialism (Praxis Press, 2021)