New: “‘Black Marxism’: A Marxist Critique”, by August Nimtz
Over the last decade, Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition has deeply shaped debates on the place of race within capitalist societies.
Perhaps these questions are now settled, but at one time they were far too controversial:
Is race subsumed by class, with the latter the sine qua non of capitalism?
Do race and class act independently within modern societies?
Or does capitalism inevitably express a deeper racial impetus in the West?
August Nimtz defends Marxism from Robinson’s accusations of myopia on matters of race, suggesting that, in charging Marx and Engels with Eurocentrism, he either failed to understand, or misrepresented, their work—and that, in effect, many thinkers inspired by Black Marxism blatantly misrepresented Marxist texts… Get your copy here
“What Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism Gets Wrong”, an interview with August Nimtz, by Constantin Berlin (originally published on Jacobin-Germany)
“Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition did not receive widespread attention after its original publication in 1983. Since 2000, when it was republished with a new preface and an introduction by historian Robin D. G. Kelley, however, the book has enjoyed widespread appeal and influence in the anglophone humanities and social sciences as well as among activists. Robinson’s proposed theory of “racial capitalism” and his framework of a “black radical tradition” have shaped debates about racial inequalities in capitalist societies and Marxism’s potential for anti-racist politics in recent decades. August Nimtz has engaged with the book’s arguments and trajectory, directly or indirectly, since its original publication. The recently published collection, Black Marxism: A Marxist Critique, makes accessible, for the first time, a critique that spans four decades….”
Cosmonaut: ““Black Marxism” Under Debate, 40 Years On” by Gary Levi
“Cedric Robinson’s 1983 Black Marxism is a work that has had a second, and even third life. First revived in academic circles by the proselytizing of his acolyte, acclaimed historian Robin D.G. Kelly, the book was again revived in popular circles by the waves of Black Lives Matters protests that sought in it (along with works of prison abolitionists) a theoretical and historical narrative to broaden the immediate convulsive moment of protest towards a vision of how society might change, and under the impact of what form of mobilization. In this sense, it played a role in BLM protests similar to Graeber’s Debt during Occupy. One couldn’t find a prescription of how to protest in it, nor could one find among most protesters a familiarity with its core ideas, but nonetheless those set into motion found themselves drawn to it, and searching for guidance in its pages….For August Nimtz, at the time a former nationalist and pan-Africanist who had moved towards the interracialism and Trotskyism of the Socialist Workers Party, the answer was straightforward. His 1985 review in Journal of African Marxists was one of the first confrontations with Robinson’s text, where he characterized it as a book by a nationalist who ‘has had to familiarize himself—if not always understand—class analysis.'”
Counterpunch, and Morning Star: “On Cedric Robinson’s “Black Marxism”, by Seth Sandronsky
“….A corollary across the Atlantic was the division between black and white labor. To wit, Nimtz details Robinson’s misreading of Marx and Engels. For instance, Marx’s journalism during the U.S. Civil War shows his understanding of the importance of ending chattel slavery to liberating enslaved blacks and white workers from their domination under the regime of private property that reproduced labor’s subordination as it created an economic surplus. As we know, private property weathered the storm of Reconstruction, destroying it and the promise of a society based on substantive equality…” Read more
APPEARANCES:
Coming from Left Field: “Black Marxism, Class Politics, and the Questions We Cannot Avoid” (Episode 153)
This conversation ranges from the Grenadian Revolution and anti-colonial struggles in Africa to Malcolm X, Black nationalism, identity politics, and the enduring question of whether the left can build an independent political alternative to the Democratic Party. Nimtz also reflects on Lenin’s approach to elections, the meaning of revolutionary parliamentarianism, and why he sees troubling parallels between today’s global conflicts and the period leading up to World War I. This is a wide-ranging, challenging conversation about race, class, imperialism, and the political choices facing the left today….
Opera Mundi and Autonomia Literária (Brazil)
Nimtz took a three-week book tour in Brazil, from July 20 to August 8, 2026. These visits were mainly to promote a Brazilian collection of some of his essays, two of which are from Black Marxism, now being translated for a Brazilian edition. The tour began with three presentations to the Historical Materialism Conference, Rio de Janeiro 2026. That was followed by seven other presentations in Paraty, Guararema, and São Paulo – to about 600 in person audiences, including the leading Left/Progressive bookfair, FLIPEI. Two in-depth interviews; TUTAMÉIA TVand Opera Mundi. (See below for a video from one of these events.)
