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DOI: 10.1177/030981689505500108

1995 19: 156Capital & ClassOpen Marxism: Volume 1, Dialectics and History

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Cherry, B. (1989) Reply to Shulman, inReview of Radical Political Economics 21(4).

__________ (1988) Shifts in Radical Theoriesof Inequality, in Review of Radical PoliticalEconomics20(23).

Engels, F. (1970) The origin of the Family,Private Property and the State, in K. Marxand F. Engels Selected Works. Lawrence &

Wishart, London.Marx, K. (1977)A Contribution to the Critiqueof Political Economy, Preface. ProgressPublishers, Moscow.

Marx, K. and F. Engels (1970a) TheCommunist Manifesto, in Selected Works.Lawrence & Wishart, London.

__________ (1970b) Selected Works. Lawrence& Wishart, London.

__________ (1975) Selecled Correspondence.Progress Publishers, Moscow.

Shulman, Steven (1989) Controversies in the

Marxian Analysis of Racial Discrimination,in Review of Radical Political Economics21(4).

Werner Bonefeld, Richard Gunn & Kosmas Psychopedis (eds.)

Open Marxism: Volume 1, Dialectics and HistoryOpen Marxism: Volume 2, Theory and Practice

Pluto Press, London, 1992

Volume 1: ISBN 07453-05903 12.95, pp.179.Volume 2: ISBN 07453-05911 12.95, pp.172.

Reviewed by Lawrence Wilde

conscious determinations but to identifythe material conditions properly.Mountains will melt before the wagestruggle explains racism. Racism, apolitical phenomenon, is a material means

of maintaining world imperialistdomination. It is the only way thisdomination can be maintained. The falseappearance that capitalism governs byconsent is a fetishisation of nationalboundaries, a product of artificial condi-tions sustained in the metropolis by thesuperexploitation of the rest of the world.

Capitalism remains the worlddictatorshipof the minority over the majority by theopen and violent denial of political rights tothe majority, starting with the right to live

where you choose. Its ideological expression,

racism, is the inhuman doctrine that themajority of the world is not human and hasno rights. This is an international culture ofrepression and any attempt to understand it

within a single nation, above all the mostpowerful in the world, is doomed to failure.Leimans well-meaning book is a laboratory-pure proof.

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References

The ten articles which comprise this double-volume work have been brought togetherunder the title Open Marxism by the

editors, who supply punchy introductions toeach volume. In order to establish thedistinctiveness of an approach it is tempting

to caricature or pillory alternative schools ofthought, and too many of the contributorsadopt this peevish tone, reminiscent of

famous in-house altercations of the past.The enemy in this case comprises thosewho espouse structuralist, regulationist,

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158 Capital & Class55

his argument, at least it is bound to shakereaders into a reexamination of the centralcategories of Marxs thought. The article byFracchia and Ryan which follows appearsmild in comparison. They compare the

methodological paradigm developed byMarx in Capitalwith Thomas Kuhns workon scientific paradigms. Their interpreta-tion stresses the open-endedness of Marxstheoretical work without embracing theradical rejection of basic concepts favouredby Gunn.

The article by Tony Negri is set down ina number of closely argued theses whichexpose the structural crisis of capitalism.However, the contention that this openspossibilities for socialist alternatives appearsto be little more than an act of hope. Theerosion of traditional political life may wellsignal the collapse of the conventional liberalseparation of politics and society, but it isnot immediately obvious that this offershope to the victims of capitalism. HarryCleavers excellent article helps to give a

theoretical basis for understanding potentialresistance to capitalism. He argues thatMarxisms emphasis on analysing the formsof domination has led to a relative neglect ofhow those forms might be turned intoforms of resistance. Cleaver draws on IvanIllichs Tools for Convivialityand points to itstheoretical closeness to the Marxian attackon commodification. He also links it to thework by Negri on autonomy, and it is good

to see Marcuse given a favourable mention,albeit in a footnote. There is no unreasonedoptimism here, but in pointing to attemptsto identify the potential of autonomousstruggle against commodification there is a

clear invitation to further research andpolitical practice.

The main themes of the book arerecapitulated in a crisp contribution fromJohn Holloway attacking the acceptanceby many left-wing academics of theconventional liberal boundaries of theeconomic and the political. This givesrise to a form of intellectual fatalism whichsees crises as moments of restructuring at theexpense of recognising that they alsoindicate a system in rupture, therebyopening up possibilities for struggle. It isbeyond the scope of the book to indicatehow that struggle might develop, butperhaps this may follow?

It is easy to agree that Marxists shouldanalyse the weaknesses of capitalism as wellas its strengths, and identify promising

aspects of resistance and new forms ofstruggle. What I find more difficult toaccept is the rejection tout courtof justabout the entire body of contemporaryMarxist analysis on the basis that it commitsone or more of the mortal sins of beingdefeatist/reformist/deterministic/positivist.In these dark days, can socialists afford to beso querulous?