|
In memory of Sue Ying,
who instructed us in the study of Marxism,
inspired us with her relentless pursuit of knowledge,
encouraged us to grow,
and challenged us to forever challenge ourselves.
Marxist Philosophy: A Study Guide for Revolutionaries in the Age of Electronics is both a continuation and an extension of Marxist philosophy. It rests on study and discussion of both the scientific writings of Marx and Engels and the organizational and theoretical continuity of the communist movement since their time. However, today’s scientific and technological changes, as well as the economic and social changes they bring about, also make possible an extension of our understanding of the process of change and the challenges revolutionaries face today.
Much of the study in philosophy summed up here pre-dates the formation of the Institute for the Science of Society. That study was an essential reference point for thousands of revolutionaries in various political organizations over several decades. Many of those discussions began in the 1970s and 1980s under the auspices of the Communist League and the Communist Labor Party and then continued in other forms after the CLP was disbanded in 1993. So the "we" referred to in the Introduction is a much broader group of revolutionaries than the Institute staff itself.
Although the objective economic processes referred to in some of the classes are having an impact on society and politics around the globe, the Study Guide explores the implications for revolutionaries in this country.
The staff of the Institute for the Study of the Science of Society is grateful to have been a part of these discussions over the years. The editors had the privilege of summing up and extending those discussions. To do so, we relied on the collective discussions of the full Staff of the Institute. Special thanks go to Shivaani Selvaraj and Alix Mariko Webb, who helped to edit the editors, and to Nicholas Kim McQuerrey for the creativity and thoughtfulness he applied to the design of the Study Guide.
Many of the readings in the Study Guide are accessible thanks to two websites – www.marxists.org and www.marx2mao.org. We want not only to express our gratitude for the permission to use material from those websites in the creation of the Study Guide, but also to encourage all students of Marxism to make use of those websites as valuable resources.
We learned a lot working on this Study Guide, and we hope it will provide a way for revolutionaries to apply the intellectual energy necessary to meet the actual challenges posed by the revolutionary process in this country in this epoch.
The Editors
Beth Gonzalez
Brooke Heagerty
Sandra Reid
|
