Ernest Mandel Archive

This paper first appeared in a collection of essays from the Cavtat Conference in Yugoslavia, Socialism on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century, Milos Nicolic, ed., London 1985.

Originally published in: Ossip K. Flechtheim (ed.), ’Marx Heute. Pro und Contra’ (Hamburg, 1983). This translation is based on the version published in Ernest Mandel, Karl Marx–Die Aktualität seines Werks (Frankfurt am Main, 1984).

Only by starting from the centrality of class struggle can we explain the development of nationalism. However, that the theory of historical materialism gives class struggle a primary place in history does not mean class struggle is the only factor in history. In fact, at different times in history other factors can become primary. But whenever we ask why other factors can become primary, we are lead back to the question of class struggle. The development of nationalism is a case in point.

Writing in the aftermath of May 68, this was a discussion that for Mandel had direct political implications.

This is the text of Ernest Mandel’s contribution to a symposium on the Nazi genocide held in Brussels in 1988. It was first published in French in Yannis Thanassekos and Heinz Wismann, eds., Révision de l’Histoire: Totalitarisme, crimes et génocides nazis, Editions du Cerf, Paris 1990, pp. 169-74.
The English translation was published in Gilbert Achcar. ed., The Legacy of Ernest Mandel, Verso, London 1999, pp. 225 - 232.

“Historical materialism elevates the principle of the dialectical relationship between the particular and the general, which reveals the essence of phenomena, to the theoretical foundation of the dialectical understanding of history.”- Leo Kofler, Geschichte und Dialektik

Ernest Mandel wrote this study of the nature of social democracy twelve years ago. Many of the references in it are a little dated, but the article gives valuable insights into the basic character of reformism.

During the Second World War, revolutionary socialists argued, in the face of huge repression, that the German-Japanese ‘Axis’ and the US-British ‘Allies’ were fighting an imperialist war; and that working people should support neither side.

Ernest Mandel outlines the orthodox Marxist view of the stages of transition after the fall of capitalism.

What do marxists really mean by ’vanguard parties’? How are they built?