Prometheus

On January 14th, Citizen Marx, the first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of Marx’s relationship to republicanism was released in Britain. 

In this audio recording from the event, Bruno Leipold and Barnaby Raine discuss the book, Marxism and republicanism and the political relevance of a liberatory Marxism at this moment.

While it was often neglected by the 20th century left, the republican element of Marxism remains crucial today for addressing questions around political organisation and contesting state power.

Bruno Leipold is a Fellow in Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought (Princeton University Press, 2024)

Barnaby Raine is an intellectual historian writing his PhD at Columbia University. His doctoral research seeks to explain the decline of thinking about the end of capitalism from Marx through to debates in twentieth century Britain, amid the end of formal empire.
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Episode 5 with Prometheus Editors Imogen Woods and Ed Potts, Jack a union organiser and former Deliveroo rider in Leeds and Ed an Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) volunteer and socialist involved in organising drivers and riders in Sheffield.

Episode 4 with Alexander Gallus and Parker McQueeney of the Marxist Unity Slate and Cosmonaut magazine.

Episode 3 with Lucy Parker and Efraim Carlebach of The Platypus Affiliated Society in London.

What sort of an organisation is the Labour Party? Its dominance of the left in Britain for over a century has produced no shortage of activists who are members, without being very enthusiastic about their membership. Various descriptions have been formulated but while all have an element of truth, none quite tell the whole story. Is Labour, as the membership cards would have it, a “democratic socialist party”? Or perhaps Tony Benn had it right when he said that Labour is “not a socialist party, but a party with socialists in it”? Is it a unique phenomenon, defined by its own special philosophy of “Labourism”?

Welcome to the second episode of our new podcast, an irregular podcast from the irregular Marxists of Prometheus, a new journal focused on finding a way forward for the Left through open debate, re-examining our traditions and histories and confronting capitalism as it exists today.

This episode was recorded two weeks ago with two comrades who are at the coal face of organising during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode Prometheus Editors Chris Strafford and Imogen Woods are joined by a stalwart of the Manchester Left, Ali Treacher, she is a care worker for a national mental health service provider and organises with the new Anti-Capitalist Resistance group. Ali's most recent article 'Sympathy Won’t Win Us Better Conditions: Dispatch from the Frontlines of Care' is essential reading for those seeking to understand what is happening and what is at stake in social care today. Imogen works for a national union tirelessly organising care workers across the North West of England and her most recent article 'Eric Blanc "Red State Revolt"'  builds on some of the themes from her widely read and commended article 'The Social Care Factory: The conditions that led to the Covid-19 crisis in Social Care'.

Episode 1 with Ben Lewis author of Karl Kautsky on Democracy and Republicanism