Marxism Essay

Vidushi Dyall
Critical Review 3
Marxism

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Marxism was revived and Marxists were no longer held responsible for the sins of the new Soviet empire, which allowed the focus of debate to shift to analyzing the failures of global capitalism rather than the shortcomings of socialism. Global capitalization had developed a system of production that involved sweatshops, outsourcing of employment and usage of temporary employment. Financial crises at the time had led to countries bailing out and nationalizing backs, which were not free market principles. With wars being fought over oil and resources and severe economic inequalities, Marxism became the “common sense of our epoch” (Halliday, 1994).

Italian Marxist, Antonia Gramsci preferred ‘good sense’ to ‘common sense’, believing that common sense lacked evidential backing. ‘Good sense’ referred to seeing through the surface to an underlying reality and was fundamental to Marxists. Marxism in general examines how capitalism operates at social, economic, and political levels and thereby affects and is affected by the role of the state, international relations, spatial relations and culture. There are many perspectives of Marxism. An example being that the economic role of class under capitalism produces global structures to which everyone must adapt to ‘on pain of extinction’ (Marx & Engels, 1848). They believe this system will ultimately see its demise. State formations and differences in alignments and formation of classes can produce different types of states.

According to classical Marxism, capitalism introduces a complimentary and contradictory relationship between wage labor and capital. This relationship is established through linking the ...

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...orld sympathy over the September 11th attack to challenge Iraq directly.
a. The social forces behind this attack may have included the material demand for oil, popular pressue on state institutions for revenge against any Arab state, and the desire by elites to enforce hegemony through the war on terror.
b. Counter hegemony emerged not only with the national resistance of Iraq but through an international movement against the war.
B. The financial Crisis, 2008-2009: comparative or international?
1. From 2008, the US financial system itself has been subject to shock therapy, not necessarily to the advantage of neoliberalism: in fact, there has been a mini-revival of Keynesianism through nationalization and state subsidies.
2. One nation is being portrayed as being enveloped within a global system and, therefore, its politics and policies defy separate analysis.