This month’s “Notes from the Editors” discusses the accelerating progress of China toward sustainability. China’s decline in carbon emissions and rapidly decarbonizing energy sector demonstrates the importance of societal realignment and extensive planning to shift toward the ecological modernization that has continued to elude monopoly-capitalist regimes. | more…
Inspired by the Venezuelan project of building socialism via the commune, this special issue looks at attempts to use communal models in socialist projects in a range of different contexts, as well as the theoretical bases for such an endeavor. In their introduction, guest editors Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual argue that the theme of Communes in Socialist Construction is an important opportunity for engaged Marxist reflection of a kind that offers valuable contributions to the universal body of socialist thought. | more…
Ángel Prado, a founder of El Maizal Commune and Minister of Communes since 2024, discusses Venezuela’s communal project as both a response to urgent material needs and a long-term strategy for building socialism. Drawing on his experience as a grassroots organizer, he explores how communes are structured, how they relate to the state, and how they embody a vision of popular power. He also reflects on the need for unity within the Chavista movement. | more…
Chris Gilbert proposes to answer the question: When is a socialist commune anti-imperialist? His response follows Karl Marx’s line of thought, looking at the latter’s approach to the commune from the Grundrisse through his late notes and letters on rural communes. After reconstructing the Marxist communal strategy, Gilbert argues that real-world projects in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil in recent times conform to this overall Marxist approach, combining communal construction with an anti-imperialist drive for national liberation. | more…
Brian M. Napoletano revisits the concept of generalized autogestion, traditionally defined broadly as “self-management,” placing it in the context of an ecological path to socialism. Using this orientation, Napoletano leads to reader to consider the potential of socioecological approaches to repairing the metabolic rift and pursuing sustainable human development. | more…
Sit Tsui and Lau Kin Chi elucidate the history of China’s People’s Communes as told through the lens of three present-day rural villages. In these villages, they observe the effects of the project’s dismantling and diminishing collective ownership and land management, with the conclusion that a return to collectivism is vital for carrying forward the socialist project. | more…
In this contribution to the further development of socialism with Chinese characteristics Cheng Enfu and Yang Jun offer their “Theory of Triple Revolution,” enumerating the historical stages of the Chinese Revolution and analyzing its current trajectory. A complete revolutionary view of Marxism in China, they conclude, “will advance the spirit of the revolution to its completion….[moving] forward along the correct track of Marxism, such that a powerful revolutionary vision will open up before us.” | more…
Yumeng Liu takes a deep dive into the history of Laos, the only socialist nation among the Theravāda Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia, examining how the country has developed its own particular approach to socialism, influenced by both local Buddhist beliefs and Marxist ideology. Liu also explores the historical and present-day tensions inherent in this uniquely Lao approach to socialist development. | more…
In this talk given at Peking University in October 2024, John Bellamy Foster shares ten theses describing both the roots and contemporary manifestations of the idea of ecological civilization. Relating the concept’s origins in the writings of Marx and Engels to its expression today in Chinese society, Foster reveals the inherently socialist nature of eco-civilization and the necessity of a worldwide ecological revolution to shift toward sustainable human development. | more…
Joel Wendland-Liu reviews Li Dazhao: China’s First Communist, by Patrick Fuliang Shan (SUNY Press, 2024). This first-ever English-language biography of Li, a founding member of the Communist Party of China, Wendland-Liu writes, contains not only new scholarship but a fresh approach to the life of this revolutionary figure. | more…
In this review of Andrew Drummond’s The Dreadful History and Judgement of God on Thomas Müntzer (Verso Books, 2024), Paul Buhle explores how the influence of this Christian priest reverberated throughout the centuries, inspiring generations of future revolutionaries—including Karl Marx himself. | more…
Minqi Li and Lingyi Wei look to the Chinese and U.S. economies to illustrate the contradictions of secular stagnation, concluding that both economies will likely face great challenges in the decades to come. However, they write, progressive economic policies could change China’s future, encouraging massive investment into the state sector and bringing about the transition to a fully socialist society. | more…