At the ISA’s 2022 Summer School hundreds of socialists from around the world met in Belgium to discuss the multifaceted crises of global capitalism and building the forces of revolutionary socialism in this period. As part of this, a discussion was held that focused on the philosophy of Marxism that underpins the perspectives and analysis of the ISA — dialectical materialism.
The first leadoff, given by Sonja Grusch of the ISA in Austria, focused on the key tenets of Marxist philosophy and the significance of these ideas in human history. Sonja explained that under our current system, “philosophy” tends to be treated as the domain of a group of privileged intellectuals, and is taught in a boring, abstract way that it is detached from everyday life.
For Marxists however, dialectical materialist philosophy is a tool that working class people can use to analyse our material conditions, giving us an understanding of capitalism and how world events are unfolding that can aid us in building the struggle against the system.
Dialectical Materialism
Human beings have always sought to understand the conditions of our existence. In the earliest forms of society, proto-religious ideas dominated as humans struggled to make sense of natural phenomena, life and death. Sonja pointed out that, upon the splitting of society into classes and the formation of the state, these ideas became tools of the ruling class to control society. As Marx said, “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas”.
The idealist philosophies of many religions hold that matter is secondary to thought, and that the world is essentially the static creation of one or many gods. Prayer and rituals are presented as being capable of impacting the material world in unknown ways.
Marxist philosophy on the other hand is materialist. As Sonja put it, Marxism holds that any phenomena can be traced back to its material basis. Kevin from Ireland began his leadoff by saying “matter is primary, ideas are the product of matter.” He continued that all matter is in a constant state of change and that the laws of dialectics are what governs that change.
These laws were explained by Sonja, and in the discussion comrades gave a number of examples of these laws in practice.
1. Unity and conflict of opposites
Dialectical logic holds that contradictions are inherent in all things, and that they are the means by which things progress and change. Under capitalism for example, the capitalists can’t exist without workers to exploit for profits. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat are both opposed to and dependent on one another. It is this contradiction that governs the historical development of capitalist society through the class struggle.
Another example discussed at the school was the New Cold War between the Imperialist blocs led by the US and China. These rival blocs are increasingly coming into conflict, but in reality they are both dependent on each other as well, connected by chains of production, consumption and profit-making.
2. Quantity into quality
Nothing is eternal. Dialectical materialism is fundamentally a philosophy of change. But change does not occur in a linear, gradual way. There are leaps, crises, catastrophes, wars and revolutions. Quantitative changes — for example in the rising temperature of water — inevitably give way at a certain point to qualitative changes — i.e. the transformation of water into steam.
One example given by a comrade from the EWS section was that of environmental “tipping points”. As the Earth’s average temperature increases these quantitative changes eventually give rise to a change in quality as a “tipping point” is reached and ecological chain-reactions are set off. Another example given was similar “tipping points” in the consciousness of the working class, that will lead to social explosions in this period, such as in Sri Lanka.
3. Negation of the negation
The processes of change are a series of “negations”, where past conditions give way to new conditions. However the past condition is not completely obliterated. Each new development has elements of the old one within it. For example, capitalism retains elements of feudalism (in many countries royal families still exist for example). New periods are often stamped with the contradictions of old ones.
One example given by a comrade from the US was that of the new “Age of Disorder‘’ that we have entered. While the ISA has made clear that this new period represents in broad terms the end of the era of neoliberal capitalism, this does not mean that governments will not attempt to implement neolberal policies in this period (as we have seen), but rather they will be far less able to do so especially due to the potential for the working class to struggle — as we are seeing in Sri Lanka.
The Marxist Method
As Lenin said, “without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement”. Many comrades in the discussion related key points of Marxist philosophy back to the discussions on world perspectives that took place on the previous days, highlighting how Marxists use philosophy as a living tool.
The “Age of Disorder” that global capitalism has entered is having the effect of revealing all of the contradictions of capitalism around the world. The New Cold War, the economic crisis and the climate catastrophe all stem from the fundamental fact that the capitalist system is in a period of decay and can no longer develop human society. This is the material basis for the struggle for socialism around the world.
One comrade from the US pointed out that, thus far, the consciousness of working class people lags behind the objective conditions of capitalist crisis and that this has lead to many on the left drawing incorrect conclusions, for example assuming that the working class no longer has revolutionary potential. Marxists, on the other hand, understand that there are countless processes occurring below the surface that have the potential to create social explosions and great leaps in working class consciousness. This is what Trotsky called “the molecular process of revolution”.
In the past, those in the socialist movement who have rejected the Marxist method have often ended up making grave political mistakes. In his leadoff Kevin pointed to Trotsky’s debates with Shactman and Burnham in the American SWP in 1939–40, who rejected dialectical materialism which led them to an incorrect political position on the nature of the USSR, rejecting the need for socialists to defend the planned economy.
Another example given by Kevin was Kautsky, who had an undialectical “gradualist” view of how socialism could come about through parliament — leading him to reject the Russian Revolution. In the discussion one comrade from the US related these “gradualist” ideas of the struggle for socialism to much of the reformist left today. For example, Eric Blanc — a leading figure in the DSA in the US — explicitly aligns himself with Kautsky and the “parliamentary road to socialism”. Such views are ignorant of both the dynamics of revolutionary movements in world history, but also a materialist analysis of the capitalist state.
Marxist Approach to Religion
Part of the discussion focused on the prevalence of religious, idealist and superstitious ideas in society. Such ideas are deep rooted in many countries across the world. One member from Ireland made clear that, while Marxists argue for a materialist worldview which is in opposition to religious ideas, we do not take a demeaning approach to members of the working class who hold such views.
Instead, and unlike many “anti-theists” such as Richard Dawkins, we understand the material basis for religious ideas in society. We do not write members of the working class or oppressed off if they hold idealist views and assume they cannot be won to socialism. Instead, we seek to connect our programme of socialist demands to their lived experience of life under capitalism — part of this is upholding the right to hold religious ideas free from state interference, religious discrimination etc.
Building the ISA in the Age of Disorder
For Marxists, dialectical materialism is not a dogma but a method. Our analysis and perspective must always develop in order to understand concrete conditions. In Kevin’s reply to the discussion he mentioned how the building of a revolutionary programme itself is a dialectical process — where revolutionaries take their ideas to the working class and test them in order to sharpen our politics and our approach.
The potential in this period for social explosions, revolts and uprisings to occur was discussed in every commission at the Summer School. Kevin’s sum-up pointed to the need for the ISA to look at the root of society for the shape these explosions could take, as they will be the motor force for pushing forward the radicalisation and reorganisation of the working class.
The “lag” between consciousness and the objective conditions that many comrades identified in the discussion puts the task on revolutionaries to re-double our efforts to reach those sections of society who are open to socialist ideas. For now our propaganda work may be focused on a small, politicised section of the working class and youth, not the mass. It will be this layer that refreshes and strengthens the forces of the ISA, preparing us for the revolutionary movements ahead.
