Marxism and Freedom: From 1776 Until Today

by Raya Dunayevskaya

In this classic exposition of Marxist thought, Raya Dunayevskaya, with clarity and great insight, traces the development and explains the essential features of Marx's analysis of history. Using as her point of departure the Industrial and French Revolutions, the European upheavals of 1848, the American Civil War, and the Paris Commune of 1871, Dunayevskaya shows how Marx, inspired by these events, adapted Hegel's philosophy to analyze the course of history as a dialectical process that moves "from practice to theory." The essence of Marx's philosophy, as Dunayevskaya points out, is the human struggle for freedom, which entails the gradual emergence of a proletarian revolutionary consciousness and the discovery through conflict of the means for realizing complete human freedom. But freedom for Marx meant freedom not only from capitalist economic exploitation but also from all political restraints.

Continuing her historical analysis, Dunayevskaya reveals how completely Marx's original conception of freedom was perverted through its adaptations by Stalin in Russia and Mao in China, and the subsequent erection of totalitarian states. The exploitation of the masses persisted under these regimes in the form of a new "state capitalism." Yet despite the profound derailment of Marxist political philosophy in the twentieth century, Dunayevskaya points to developments such as the Hungarian revolt of 1956, and the Civil Rights struggles in the United States as signs that the indomitable quest for freedom on the part of the downtrodden cannot be forever repressed. The Hegelian dialectic of events propelled by the spirit of the masses thus moves on inexorably with the hope for the future achievement of political, economic, and social freedom and equality for all.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Politics, Nonfiction, Theory

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Paul Crider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Raya Dunayevskaya's Marxism and Freedom on the heels of a voluminous "Selected Writings" of Marx. The contrast in the quotations of Marx between the two books was fascinating. Dunayevskaya paints a Marx concerned with expanding the possibilities for human beings, with specific attention to their present social contexts. Whatever his economic arguments about the labor theory of value, and the division of labor, and alienation (all of which I find dubious), Marx was centrally concerned about the ability for people to live fully human lives.

This consideration of values comes into play as Dunayevskaya argues forcefully against the planning mentality as seen in Soviet Russia and Maoist China. Referring to them as "state capitalist" systems, Dunayevskaya condemns these governments as betraying Marx's values. This is refreshing given how common it is to see leftists apologizing for these regimes.

As someone still relatively unread in socialist literature, I learned from this book that central planning is not a necessary component of socialism, and indeed stands in contradiction to socialist values, at least for some varieties of socialism.

The book also offers an interesting history, both intellectual and ground-level, of the Soviet and Maoist movements.

[Zanne D'Aglio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent interpretation of Marx. I found Dunayevskaya cited in Adrienne Rich's last collection of essays. Marx is anything but simple, but if you're interested at all in a deeper understanding of the hell so many of us live in 2021, it's worth the effort. Marx "predicted" the demise of post industrial capitalism, that is the enslavement of the individual. What's also useful about this book is that it demonstrates Marxism as utterly separate from "Communism," something Americans have difficulty comprehending.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Freedom in the most fundamentalist way: after you die of exhaustion in the Gulag, you will be completely free.

[Chance Palm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Pretty good.

[Bill Weinberg]

I had to get two different editions of this book 'cuz the early one I found on Amazon didn't have the updated material on the Cultural Revolution. Like a lot of anarchists, she sees some actual revolutionary content to the Cultural Revolution, portraying it as partially outside Mao's control. Not sure how accurate this is, and not sure I buy her thesis that Mao's China was "state capitalist." (Tho contemporary China definitely is.) Still, thought-provoking stuff, and her most accessible work.