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Bourgeois idoelogues are continually carrying out post-mortems upon e the supposedly lifeless carpse of "Marxism"' - what is believed to be the first of these appeared in 1869 and they will no doubt continue to appear Ps until capitalism itself is overthrow, The continued creativity of Marxism is demonstrated by the wide range of contemporary works it inspires as well as by the political movements which, in one way or another, draw vitality from it. Here is a list of just some of the additions to Marxist literature which have been published in Britain recently:
(a) "Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities" Piero Sraffa; Cambridge University Press. This book has been hailed as a work of great originality and brilliance by many economists (among them R.L. Meek and Joan Robinson). Using Marx's tools of economic analysis with great subtlety it constructs a model of a capitalist society which enables the critically important variables of aggregate profit and wages to be theoretically isolated and reveals the determination of the latter by the former, Sraffa himself was a one-time colleague of Antonio Gramsci, the founding secretary of the Italian Communist Party.
(b) "The Hidden God", Lucian Goldmann; Routledge. This is a study of French philosOphy and literature in the age of Louis XIV. The author examines the beginnings of dialectical thought in this period as well as himself superbly exemplifying the principles of dialectical analysis. Goldmann is a Rumanian Merxist who has been much influenced by Georg Lukacs.
(c) "Search for a Method" J.P, Sartre; Metheun. In this essay Sartre defends Marxism against the blight of orthodoxy. In the process he provides a lucid exposition of methodology of Marxist analysis and he seeks to show that Marxism is the only real ideology of the present epoch - that is the body of theory and practice which defines the over-riding tasks of humanity at the present time,
(4d) "One Dimensional Man" Herbert Marcuse; Routledge. Marcuse here presents a devasting (though at time too abstract) critique of modern society The apologetic function of most modern sociology, philogphy and psychology is exposed and the terrifying power of the pseudo-rationality of organisation capitalism is examined. Marcuse is the author of "Reason and Revolution", am excellent account (certainly the best available in English) of Hegel's philosophy and of the transition from Hegel to Marx: the American paperback publishers, Viking Press, have recently re-issued it,
(3) Penguin books have significantly added to the availability of Marxist writing by publishing three useful selections: by Wright Mills, Freedman, and Bottomore and Rubel.. They have also published Ernst Fischer's fascinating Necessity of Art as well as other works influenced by Marxisms books by Joan Robinson, E. H. Carr and Gordon Childe. A number of Marxist classics are beginning to appear as paperbacks including "The Accumulation of Capital" by Rosa Luxemburg,Routledées "Stalin" by Isaac Deustscher, OUP; "The Essential Left" and "The Essential Trotsky", Allen and Unwin, Ed. Note: from time to time we shall publish such surveys (including works available in foreign languages) and we welcome suggestions and help from our readerse