Our inaugural episode! We discuss the current state of Marxist theory, developments on the Left since 2008, and who we are.

Episode 1: The New Moment in Marxism

Episode 2: The Many Lives of Marx's Capital

The emergence of ‘Marxism’ as a ‘worldview’ and political tendency was not achieved during Marx’s lifetime, but remains the achievement of his epigones. This episode establishes what was meant by ‘Marxism’ when it forged its first orthodoxy by examining the popularizing works of Engels, Kautsky and Plekhanov.

Episode 3: The Invention of Marxism

The battle over Marxist orthodoxy was not long in arriving. Almost as soon as it emerged, it was subjected to a sustained theoretical assault from within, most notably and thoroughly by Eduard Bernstein, the foremost protagonist (or antagonist) in what was called ‘the revisionist controversy.’ This episode examines the political motivations and theoretical repercussions of this period of debate.

Episode 4: The Revisionist Controversy

From the moment Social Democracy was compelled by virtue of the maturity of its institutions to formulate policy and strategy, Marxists have feared for the timeliness of their theoretical commitments. Efforts to bring Marxism up to date most often manifested themselves as theories of ‘imperialism.’ In this episode, we do our best to unpack this capacious concept with an eye to learning what we can from its use by Second International social democrats. And since this terrain contains an unusual number of sacred cows, we’ve come armed.

Episode 5: Early Debates on Imperialism

Despite the simplicity and strong appeal of the slogan “Proletarians of all countries unite,” the early Social Democratic movement would find themselves quite divided on how to carry out this great task. Downstream of The Revisionism Controversy and the Early Debates On Imperialism, the issue of the National Question would be hotly contested across the Second International.

Episode 6: The National Question

The most popular book produced by a Second International figure was August Bebel’s “Women Under Socialism.” It introduced the world of scientific socialism to the question that began to appear confidently on the political scene, that of women’s oppression and emancipation. For decades, Marxists would argue amongst themselves and with their opponents on the relationship of the so-called “woman question” to class struggle and the social revolution.

The Measures Taken

Ep 7: The Woman Question

Questions of the bourgeois state, democracy, and the proletariat’s conquest of state power were the subject of a number of debates and attempts at theoretical formulation in the Second International. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the dissolving of the Constituent Assembly, the stakes of the debate became even more pronounced, with figures such as Lenin, Kautsky, and Luxemburg focusing especially on the concept of dictatorship of the proletariat.

Ep. 8: Dictatorship of the Proletariat

What components of Marxism can most successfully help us to understand the appearance and shape of the phenomenon of ‘Red Terror?’

2.1 Red Terror

The Measures Taken is a project to survey and reconstruct the history of Marxism from the development of mass Social Democracy to our own moment. Recognizing that Bolshevism has lapsed as a living political tendency, those of us who remain committed to revolutionary communist politics and convinced by the Marxist critique of political economy are left searching for a past capable of orienting us in the present. Mindful of the threat of eclecticism and all too cognizant of the infelicities of sectarianism, the hosts of this podcast embrace a non-denominational Marxism. Our purpose is self-education, never the display of expertise. We hope that our listeners extend to us the same principled courtesy we do our forebears: not to judge too harshly.

The Measures Taken

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