How Marxists Understand the World

Reading

• Full Marx, Can Dialectics Explain the World ?
• Communist Party, Dialectical and Historical Materialism Parts 1 and 2.
• Rob Griffiths, ‘Introducing Marxism’ – Class 1 – “The Marxist World Outlook” The full paper copy of the Introducing Marxism can be purchased from the CP Shop for £3. All purchases of the Introducing Marxism in book format also receive a digital copy.

Discussion Questions

1. Has the advance of science into the 21st century undermined idealism in political analysis? Give examples of forms of idealism that are influential today. How can they be countered most effectively? Does the ruling class in Britain promote idealism of any kind?
2. How does Marxist materialism enable us to contribute effectively — and offer a lead — to the working class movement?
3. Take one or two of the burning issues facing us: austerity, the European Union, racism and xenophobia, the oppression of women, or imperialist militarism and war. How do idealists and materialists view these?
4. A theory — a system of ideas — can become a ‘material force’ when it grips the minds of the masses, as people recognise it in the light of their practical experience and act on it. Can you think of an example from your experience where this has happened? What was the role of the Communist Party?
5. Can you think of major changes that have taken place — and were preceded by a process of much? Can you think of any major ‘qualitative’ change in the nature of society that has occurred where there have been no smaller ‘quantitative’ changes leading up to it?
6. Will reforms necessarily lead to revolution? Can there be revolution without previously achieving reforms?
7. Britain’s Road to Socialism proposes a strategy for qualitative change, from capitalism to socialist society. What kind of ‘quantitative changes’ would need to take place first, and why?
8. Consider a local or national issue in which comrades are directly involved. What are the negative and positive sides of the primary contradiction that contains and how can they drive it forward? What in that struggle is dying away, and what is developing? What is disappearing, what is becoming stronger as a result of the struggle? How does the Party organise itself in this perspective?

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