What in the hell …

I used to know this but it escapes me… so, the first edition of Capital v1 had a different opening section (some comments on this here). Marx revised and expanded the opening later, incorporating an appendix into those opening chapters. I know at some point I ran across a citation for an english translation of the first version of the opening section of volume 1, but now I can’t find. I’m once again intensely curious about this and interested in reading the first edition intro. Does this ring any bells for anyone? Any help finding this text?

I ran across this article, “Toward a Breakdown of the Capitalist Subject?” via a post at Jodi’s. I think the piece is inadequate and evidences a widespread and mistaken understanding of capitalism which overemphasizes the sphere of circulation; this is common in conversations that conflate (anti-)capitalism with (anti-)neoliberalism. (more…)

I took a whole mess of notes on Don Hamerquist’s recent essay on Lenin and contemporary radical organization. Then I beat those notes into a slightly less jumbled thing, trying to work out what I think is going on in the piece and what I think of it.

The essay is doing a lot. (more…)

There’s an essay on that topic by Don Hamerquist here. Definitely worth a look, as are the responses. I took notes on a printout of the essay, I’m working on typing them up in the body of this post, when I’m done I need to read over all these notes and see what, if anything, they add up to, then I’d like to bang them into a more concise and coherent reply to at least some parts of the essay. (Don suggested I might do something that “extends Wetzel’s response in relationship to “autonomy for mass organizations”" and asked about my views “on democracy, participation, consciousness, and organization in terms of revolutionary strategy.”)

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I’m still in prefatory mode with regard to the reading group on chapter 25 of v1 of Capital. Duncan and NP have kicked things off good and proper with posts on chapter 25. There’s been some particularly substantial discussion at Duncan’s, I need to re-read it soon when I’ve had more sleep than I did during my first read through. Check it out.

Like I said, I’m in prefatory mode still. This post is my notes on chapter 24. Chapter 25 next, soon-ish. (more…)

So several folk around this corner of the bloggiverse are going to use some fancy web technology to coordinate us reading some Marx together, to up our interaction density. I’m pretty sure we’re going to read ch25 of v1 of Capital. Other folk are of course welcome to join in. The idea is simple - read the chapter, post on it, read others’ posts, make comments and conversation. Should be fun. (more…)

If I made a laundry list of the influences that shaped my gut level impulses about intellectual and cultural stuff, punk rock and marxism would be really close to the top. (more…)

I’ve been meaning to read Pashukanis for a long while, I’ve finally started. (more…)