Marxist Perspectives On Irish Society

This book involves a conscious attempt to bridge progressive academic scholarship with activist groups and communities in Ireland and beyond. Taking Howard Zinn’s maxim “You can’t be neutral on a moving train” seriously, the book attempts to examine Irish society, as much as it is possible to do so, from the point of view of those who are actively fighting against ongoing attacks on the pay, conditions, rights and protections that were won by working people through the decades of the twentieth century. This effort comes at a time when the predatory nature of the capitalist system is being revealed on a daily basis, and its consequences exacerbated simultaneously across the globe. The chapters deal with the various impacts of world capitalism in Ireland, from the revolutionary upheavals of the early twentieth century, to the current economic crash. The individual perspectives of contributing scholars and activists differ substantially; they would not usually be found within the same publication. Nonetheless, they collectively manage to highlight the capitalist character of Irish society, and provide an analysis of its features that is specifically Marxist. They demonstrate that there are alternative ways of looking at Irish history, Irish political economy and the issues currently impacting on the working population and various marginalised or vulnerable groups. They show that the class struggle continues unabated and that progressive social change, now more than ever, requires the development of an organised resistance.

Reflects recent social developments with new chapters on Civil Society, Popular Culture and Everyday Life Has a strong central argument related to the nature of Irish society Looks at Ireland's positioning in a globalising world Considers a wide range of aspects of the social structure and culture Written in an accessible and interesting style Includes a comprehensive bibliography of Irish and overseas references Suitable for Sociology courses in Irish universities and Institutes of Technology at both undergraduate and postgraduate level including general arts programmes, applied social studies, social studies/social work.

In Marx at the Margins, Kevin Anderson uncovers a variety of extensive but neglected texts by Marx that cast what we thought we knew about his work in a startlingly different light. Analyzing a variety of Marx’s writings, including journalistic work written for the New York Tribune, Anderson presents us with a Marx quite at odds with conventional interpretations. Rather than providing us with an account of Marx as an exclusively class-based thinker, Anderson here offers a portrait of Marx for the twenty-first century: a global theorist whose social critique was sensitive to the varieties of human social and historical development, including not just class, but nationalism, race, and ethnicity, as well. Through highly informed readings of work ranging from Marx’s unpublished 1879–82 notebooks to his passionate writings about the antislavery cause in the United States, this volume delivers a groundbreaking and canon-changing vision of Karl Marx that is sure to provoke lively debate in Marxist scholarship and beyond. For this expanded edition, Anderson has written a new preface that discusses the additional 1879–82 notebook material, as well as the influence of the Russian-American philosopher Raya Dunayevskaya on his thinking.

In Marx Matters noted scholars explore the way a Marxian political economy addresses contemporary social problems, demonstrating the relevance of Marx today and outlining how his work can frame progressive programs for social change.

What does the development of a truly robust contemporary theory of domination require? Ashley J. Bohrer argues that it is only by considering all of the dimensions of race, gender, sexuality, and class within the structures of capitalism and imperialism that we can understand power relations as we find them nowadays. Bohrer explains how many of the purported incompatibilities between Marxism and intersectionality arise more from miscommunication rather than a fundamental conceptual antagonism. As the first monograph entirely devoted to this issue, »Marxism and Intersectionality« serves as a tool to activists and academics working against multiple systems of domination, exploitation, and oppression.