Open Marxism

Originating from a term used by Johannes Agnoli in a debate with Ernest Mandel, open Marxism began in the 1980s as an effort to unite heterodox Marxist tendencies (against the dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism) and mainstream sociological structuralist{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Simon |date=June 1977 |title=Marxism, Sociology and Poulantzas' Theory of the State |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030981687700200101 |journal=Capital & Class |language=en |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=1–31 |doi=10.1177/030981687700200101 |issn=0309-8168|url-access=subscription }} versions of Western Marxism, such as Althusserian Marxism and Gramscian hegemony theory. The term is featured in a book Agnoli co-authored with Mandel in 1980, titled Offener Marxismus. Ein Gespräch über Dogmen, Orthodoxie und die Häresie der Realität (Open Marxism: A Discussion about Doctrines, Orthodoxy and the Heresy of Reality). Open Marxists returned to basic Marxist concepts such as value, labour and the state-form,{{Cite journal |last=Burnham |first=Peter |date=2006-04-01 |title=Marxism, the State and British Politics |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200005 |journal=British Politics |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=67–83 |doi=10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200005 |issn=1746-9198|url-access=subscription }} and argued against social-democratic state-led and Marxist-Leninist party-led utilisations of Marxism.

Derrida described an 'open' Marxist tradition in an interview from 1980.{{Cite book |last=Easthope |first=Antony |title=British Post-Structuralism Since 1968 |publisher=Routledge |year=1991 |isbn=0415062047 |edition=2nd |location=Britain |pages=239–240}} Alvin Gouldner also described 'two Marxisms' in the 1980s; one scientific, and one critical.{{Cite journal |last=Gouldner |first=Alvin W. |date=1980 |title=The Two Marxisms |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-16296-3 |journal=SpringerLink |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-16296-3|isbn=978-0-333-28880-1 }}

The sources of critical, open Marxism (sometimes called the 'warm stream of Marxism'{{Cite journal |last=Boer |first=Roland |date=2016-01-02 |title=Concerning the "Warm Stream" within Marxism |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21598282.2016.1142384 |journal=International Critical Thought |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=13–28 |doi=10.1080/21598282.2016.1142384 |s2cid=147376682 |issn=2159-8282|url-access=subscription }}) are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, the New Left, elements of Autonomism and situationism and also the Neue Marx-Lektüre of 1970s Germany.{{Cite web |title=Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History |url=https://libcom.org/book/export/html/34094 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=libcom.org}} Hegel is often the common thread within these tendencies.

Intellectual affinities with autonomist Marxism were especially strong and led to the creation of the journal The Commoner (2001–2012) following in the wake of previous open Marxist journals Arguments (1958–1962)Elden, S. (2004). [http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/kostas-axelos-and-the-arguments-circle.pdf Kostas Axelos and the World of the Arguments Circle.] Progressive Geographies. Vol. 4: pg. 125-48. and Common Sense (1987–1999).

In the 1970s and 1980s, state-derivationist debates around the separation of the economic and the political under capitalism unfolded in the working group Kapitalistate and the Conference of Socialist Economists{{Cite web |title=In and Against the State |url=https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341811/in-and-against-the-state |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Pluto Press |language=en-US}} journal Capital & Class, involving many of the theorists of open Marxism and significantly influencing its theoretical development.Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D. (2010). Acorns and Fruit: From Totalization to Periodization in the Critique of Capitalism. Capital & Class. Vol. 34 (1): pg. 25-37 Endnotes journal refers to itself as influenced by OM.{{Cite web |last=Endnotes |title=Endnotes |url=http://endnotes.org.uk/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=endnotes.org.uk}}

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• Theodor Adorno{{Cite book|last1=Holloway|first1=John|title=Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism|last2=Matamoros|first2=Fernando|last3=Tischler|first3=Sergio|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7453-2836-2|location=London}}
• Johannes Agnoli{{Cite web | title=Destruction as the Determination of the Scholar in Miserable Times - Johannes Agnoli {{!}} libcom.org | url=https://libcom.org/article/destruction-determination-scholar-miserable-times-johannes-agnoli | access-date=2025-04-27 | website=libcom.org}}
• Kostas Axelos{{Cite web| title=Open Marxism and critical theory: negative critique and class as critical concept | url=https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15036831/Memos_OpenMarxismAndCriticalTheory_Author_2017.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302174855/https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15036831/Memos_OpenMarxismAndCriticalTheory_Author_2017.pdf | archive-date=2021-03-02}}
• Hans-Georg Backhaus{{Cite web | title=Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History {{!}} libcom.org | url=https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-1-dialectics-and-history#:~:text=For%20Backhaus%2C%20the%20abstract%20categories,of%20recent%20Marxist%20state%2Ddebates. | access-date=2025-04-27 | website=libcom.org}}
• Zygmunt Bauman{{cite journal | url=https://journals.bsu.by/index.php/sociology/article/view/1654 | title=Открытый марксизм и возрождение социологии: роль Юлиана Хохфёльда и Зигмунта Баумана | journal=Журнал Белорусского Государственного Университета. Социология | date=2017 | issue=3 | pages=138–145 | last1=Вятр | first1=Ежи }}
• Ernst Bloch{{cite book | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvs09qng | jstor=j.ctvs09qng | title=Open Marxism 4 | last1=Bonefeld | first1=Werner | date=2020 | publisher=Pluto Press | doi=10.2307/j.ctvs09qng | isbn=9780745340258 | s2cid=241494291 }}
• Werner Bonefeld{{Cite web| title=Open Marxism | url=https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Dialectics%20and%20History.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430164110/https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Dialectics%20and%20History.pdf | archive-date=2023-04-30}}
• Peter Burnham{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09692299408434277 | doi=10.1080/09692299408434277 | title=Open Marxism and vulgar international political economy | date=1994 | last1=Burnham | first1=Peter | journal=Review of International Political Economy | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=221–231 | url-access=subscription }}
• Simon Clarke{{cite journal | doi=10.1177/03098168231171786 | title='If "Marxists" would only read Marx': The significance of Simon Clarke's Marxism | date=2023 | last1=Charnock | first1=Greig | last2=Starosta | first2=Guido | journal=Capital & Class | volume=47 | issue=2 | pages=177–181 | doi-access=free }}
• Harry Cleaver{{Cite web | title=Open Marxism 2: Theory and Practice {{!}} libcom.org | url=https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-2-theory-and-practice | access-date=2025-04-27 | website=libcom.org}}
• Ana C Dinerstein{{Cite web | title=Ana Cecilia Dinerstein | url=https://www.anaceciliadinerstein.com | access-date=2025-04-27 | website=www.anaceciliadinerstein.com}}
• Alfonso Garcia Vela
• Edith Gonzalez
• Richard Gunn{{Cite web| title=Open Marxism | url=https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%202%20-%20Theory%20and%20Practice.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608235433/https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%202%20-%20Theory%20and%20Practice.pdf | archive-date=2022-06-08}}
• John Holloway
• Karl Korsch{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4177100 | jstor=4177100 | title=Open Marxism and Vulgar International Political Economy | last1=Burnham | first1=Peter | journal=Review of International Political Economy | date=1994 | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=221–231 | doi=10.1080/09692299408434277 | url-access=subscription }}
• Henri Lefebvre{{cite journal | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00802.x | doi=10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00802.x | title=Challenging New State Spatialities: The Open Marxism of Henri Lefebvre | date=2010 | last1=Charnock | first1=Greig | journal=Antipode | volume=42 | issue=5 | pages=1279–1303 | bibcode=2010Antip..42.1279C | url-access=subscription }}
• Michael Löwy{{cite web | url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/832.html | title=For a Critical Marxism | Solidarity }}
• György Lukács{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816814550389 | doi=10.1177/0309816814550389 | title=Dialectics and democracy in Georg Lukács's Marxism | date=2014 | last1=Grollios | first1=Vasilis | journal=Capital & Class | volume=38 | issue=3 | pages=563–581 | s2cid=144334812 | url-access=subscription }}
• Rosa Luxemburg{{cite web | url=https://salvage.zone/race-class-and-roedigers-open-marxism/ | title=Race, Class and Roediger's Open Marxism | date=25 October 2017 }}
• José Carlos Mariátegui{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221095080 | doi=10.1177/0094582X221095080 | title=The Open Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui | date=2022 | last1=Kline | first1=Curtis | journal=Latin American Perspectives | volume=49 | issue=4 | pages=94–109 | s2cid=248907483 | url-access=subscription }}
• Ernest Mandel{{cite web | url=https://jacobin.com/2023/04/ernest-mandel-marixism-late-capitalism-postmodernism-socialism-economic-theory | title=Ernest Mandel Was One of the 20th Century's Greatest Marxist Thinkers }}
• Mike Neary{{cite web | url=https://social-epistemology.com/2019/09/16/chain-reaction-critical-theory-needs-critical-mass-contradiction-crisis-and-the-value-form-mike-neary/ | title=Chain Reaction: Critical Theory Needs Critical Mass—Contradiction, Crisis and the Value-Form, Mike Neary | date=16 September 2019 }}
• Antonio Negri[http://libcom.org/library/open-marxism-further-reading-guide "Open Marxism - further reading guide"]
• Evgeny Pashukanis
• Frederick Harry Pitts{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/39398140 | title=Open Marxism 4. Against a closing world | date=January 2019 | last1=Pitts | first1=Frederick Harry | last2=Gunn | first2=Richard | last3=Bonefeld | first3=Werner | last4=Vela | first4=Alfonso García }}
• Moishe Postone{{Cite web| title=Book review: Werner Bonefeld, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion: Wealth, Suffering, Negation | url=https://antipodeonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Book-review_Meier-on-Bonefeld.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214154830/https://antipodeonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Book-review_Meier-on-Bonefeld.pdf | archive-date=2023-12-14}}
• Kosmas Psychopedis
• Helmut Reichelt
• David Roediger
• Mike Rooke
• Isaak Illich Rubin{{cite book | chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315149608-58/isaak-illich-rubin-1886–1937-riccardo-bellofiore | doi=10.4324/9781315149608-58 | chapter=Isaak Illich Rubin (1886–1937) | title=Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism | date=2020 | last1=Bellofiore | first1=Riccardo | pages=495–502 | isbn=9781315149608 | s2cid=228850347 }}
• Victor Serge{{cite web | url=https://leftunity.org/serge-and-trotsky-left-unity-in-the-1930s/ | title=Serge and Trotsky – Left Unity in the 1930s | Left Unity }}
• Gáspár Miklós Tamás{{cite web | url=https://www.frederickharrypitts.com/corbynism-a-critical-approach | title=Corbynism: A Critical Approach }}
• Sergio Tischler{{cite web | url=https://www.plutobooks.com/author/sergio-tischler/ | title=Sergio Tischler }}
• Adrian Wilding{{Cite web | title=Open Marxism 3: Emancipating Marx {{!}} libcom.org | url=https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-3-emancipating-marx | access-date=2025-04-27 | website=libcom.org}}

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Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. A fourth volume, again published by Pluto, appeared in 2020. The authorship of the latest volume showed how far the influence of Open Marxism has spread from Europe to Latin America.{{Cite web |title=Open Marxism 4 |url=https://www.plutobooks.com/9781786805423/open-marxism-4 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Pluto Press |language=en-US}}

Some scholars discuss the existence of an open Leninism,{{Cite web|last=Hancox|first=Alfie|title=Red Fightback’s Final Crisis|website=Ebb Magazine|date=2023-03-02|url=https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/red-fightbacks-final-crisis|access-date=2025-05-28}} or a neo-Leninism,{{Cite web |title=For a Neo-Leninism |url=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/5152-for-a-neo-leninism |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Verso |language=en}} that is, a critical{{Cite web |date=2023-05-05 |title=The Need for Post-Leninism |url=https://againstthecurrent.org/atc008/the-need-for-post-leninism/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Against the Current |language=en-US}} or post-structural Leninism that is critical of Marxism-Leninism{{Cite journal |last=Bahro |first=Rudolf |date=1977-12-01 |title=The Alternative in Eastern Europe |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i106/articles/rudolf-bahro-the-alternative-in-eastern-europe.pdf |journal=New Left Review |issue=I/106 |pages=3–37}} as it existed in the 20th century.{{Cite web |last=Levant |first=Alex |date=2009 |title=Rethinking Leninism |url=https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=coms_faculty}}{{Cite web |title=Red Fightback's Final Crisis |url=https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/red-fightbacks-final-crisis |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Ebb |language=en-GB}} The work of Lars T. Lih,{{Cite web |title=The Lies We Tell About Lenin |url=https://jacobin.com/2014/07/the-lies-we-tell-about-lenin |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US}} Kevin B. Anderson,{{Citation |last=Anderson |first=Kevin B. |title=Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism: A critical Study |date=2021-12-20 |url=https://brill.com/display/title/31969 |work=Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism |access-date=2023-12-14 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-47161-0}} Kai Heron,{{Cite web |title=Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition |url=https://spectrejournal.com/climate-leninism-and-revolutionary-transition/ |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=Spectre Journal |language=en-US}} Jodi Dean,{{Cite web |title=Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition |url=https://spectrejournal.com/climate-leninism-and-revolutionary-transition/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Spectre Journal |language=en-US}} Andreas Malm,{{Cite web |title="To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism" |url=https://jacobin.com/2020/06/andreas-malm-coronavirus-covid-climate-change |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US}} Antonio Negri,{{Cite web |title=The Common Before Power: An Example - Journal #87 |url=https://www.e-flux.com/journal/87/169460/the-common-before-power-an-example/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}} Alberto Toscano{{Cite web |title=With Lenin, Against Hegel? 'Materialism and Empirio-Criticism' and the Mutations of Western Marxism {{!}} Historical Materialism |url=https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/blog/with-lenin-against-hegel-materialism-and-empirio-criticism-and-mutations-western-marxism |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.historicalmaterialism.org|date=28 April 2018 }} and Slavoj Žižek{{Cite web |title=Lenin: Remembering and Repeating |url=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/3470-lenin-remembering-and-repeating |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Verso |language=en}} have been representative of this trend.

Some critics have alleged that open Marxism is too open{{Cite web |title=The Limitations of |url=https://herramienta.com.ar//the-limitations-of-quot-open-marxism-quot |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=herramienta.com.ar}}- a charge of 'subjectivism' {{Cite web |last=Dyer-Witheford |first=Nick |title=UI Press {{!}} Nick Dyer-Witheford {{!}} Cyber-Marx |url=https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p067952 |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.press.uillinois.edu |language=en}} and 'voluntarism'{{Citation |last=Jessop |first=Bob |title=Chapter Twenty-Two. States, state power, and state theory |date=2008-01-01 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789047423607/Bej.9789004145986.i-813_023.xml |work=Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism |pages=413–429 |access-date=2024-01-11 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004145986.i-813.123 |isbn=978-90-474-2360-7|url-access=subscription }} is sometimes levelled, though its authors, particularly John Holloway have responded to this.{{Cite web |title=In the Beginning Was the Scream - John Holloway {{!}} libcom.org |url=https://libcom.org/article/beginning-was-scream-john-holloway |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=libcom.org |language=en}}

Others claim that open Marxist accounts tend to treat the national capitalist state abstractly, without reference to uneven and combined development and international forms of class struggle in the capitalist "world-system".Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D., 2010, pg. 28.

Like other forms of Marxism, it has been criticised for being totalising, universalising and Eurocentric.{{Cite journal |last=Bruff |first=Ian |date=May 2009 |title=The Totalisation of Human Social Practice: Open Marxists and Capitalist Social Relations, Foucauldians and Power Relations |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2009.00366.x |journal=The British Journal of Politics and International Relations |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=332–351 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-856X.2009.00366.x |s2cid=145147658 |issn=1369-1481|url-access=subscription }}

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• Antipositivism
• Anti-Stalinist left
• Autonomism
• Centrist Marxism
• Democratic confederalism
• Humanist Marxism
• Hegelian Marxism
• Neozapatismo
• Parametric determinism
• Post-Marxism
• State derivation
• Third camp
• Value criticism
• Western Marxism

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{{reflist|22em}}

• Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). [http://libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Dialectics%20and%20History.pdf Open Marxism, vol. 1: Dialectics and History]. London: Pluto Press ({{ISBN|978-0-7453-0590-5}}).
• Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). [http://libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%202%20-%20Theory%20and%20Practice.pdf Open Marxism - vol. 2: Theory and Practice]. London: Pluto Press ({{ISBN|978-0-7453-0591-2}}).
• Bonefeld, W., Holloway, J., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1995). [http://libcom.org/files/Bonefeld%20et%20al%20(Eds.)%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20Volume%20III%20-%20Emancipating%20Marx.pdf Open Marxism - vol. 3: Emancipating Marx]. London: Pluto Press ({{ISBN|978-0-7453-0864-7}}).
• Bonefeld, W., and Psychopedis, K. (Eds.).(2005). Human Dignity: Social Autonomy and the Critique of Capitalism. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Clarke, S. (1983). [http://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/pubs/kapstate.pdf "State, Class Struggle, and the Reproduction of Capital"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120084441/https://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/pubs/kapstate.pdf |date=2022-01-20 }}. Kapitalistate. Vol. 10 (11): pg. 118-33.
• Clarke, S. ed. (1991). [http://libcom.org/files/statedebate.pdf The State Debate.] London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Cleaver, H. (1977). Reading Capital Politically. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
• Dinerstein, A., Garcia Vela, A. Gonzalez, E., Holloway, J. (2020). Open Marxism 4: Against a Closing World. London: Pluto.
• Holloway, J., Matamoros, F., Tischler, S. (2009). Negativity and Revolution: Adorno & Political Activism. London: Pluto Press ({{ISBN|978-987-22929-2-8}})
• Holloway, J. (2002). [http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today]. London: Pluto Press.
• Memos, Christos (2025). Open Marxism: Critical Theory as Militant Enlightenment. Bloomsbury Academic.

• [http://commonsensejournal.org.uk/ Common Sense journal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230180751/http://commonsensejournal.org.uk/ |date=2016-12-30 }}

Category:Autonomism

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Category:Neo-Marxism