If we think about the world in terms of lots of things constantly reciprocally determining each other, how do we study and understand them? That's the subject of this episode.

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Drone in D by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0)

In this episode we introduce the core concepts of dialectical materialism: the interpenetration of opposites, transformation of quantity into quality and negation of negation, before seeing the role they play in understanding history in the next video.

For the YouTube version of this video, see Marx 101: Dialectics of Contradiction and Revolution | Red Plateaus - YouTube

Since the footnotes way excede the YouTube video description character limit, please find them here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qhtm_uvTRB0nuphETB757ITSPHPHzqk_60XHkhgFn-E

To follow future episodes in this series, "Marx thoughts on History, Praxis and Social Change", see:

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Find our series "Marx on Human Development, Freedom, Alienation, and Socialism" here:

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In this video we introduce the general idea of dialectical materialism, before moving on to more specific aspects in the next video.  Since the footnotes way excede the YouTube video description character limit, please find them here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GjSdZwUaQx1lVew98TPmuRREf-ycd7f-h41tVgmcc4U

To follow future episodes in this series, "Marx thoughts on History, Praxis and Social Change", see:

Find our series "Marx on Human Development, Freedom, Alienation, and Socialism" here:

Consider supporting us on Patreon:

Join our Discord:

Check out the podcast version:

And follow us on Twitter :)

In this episode, we respond to PragerU's video "Who Is Karl Marx?" (https://youtu.be/UhEkJ4noN68)

Part 1: Karl Marx on Why Capitalism is not Unjust

Thanks to Cuck Philosophy for reading out quotes from Paul Kengor's book, thanks to our patreons over at patreon.com/redplateaus, and thanks for listening.

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In this episode we discuss direct action in brief.

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Background music by by RoyaltyFreeTube

In this video we discuss some common arguments for and against taking state power as a strategy for achieving free socialism.  

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Footnotes:

1. For more detail on these and related arguments, see and for a more in-depth di Raekstad, P. and Gradin, S. 2019. Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today. Cambridge: Polity, ch. 6.

2. Blanc, E. 2019. Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. London: Verso and his article here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bernie-sanders-teachers-strikes-movement-building, where he writes that “Bernie’s 2016 primary run played a crucial role in legitimizing class-struggle politics and inspiring strike leaders in each of the red states that experienced illegal statewide walkouts in early 2018 – West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona.”

3. See Michael Mochaidean and Erin Dyke’s article here: https://blackrosefed.org/movements-gave-rise-to-teachers-revolt-not-bernie/?fbclid=IwAR3ItmT8eIVGClwzPFLuuWbHRik-qeC-ewlbeh_0V5rsppRjvE_UpQUlWJY

4. For more on this, see Anarchopac’s essay here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchopac-means-and-ends and in video format here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsRyTWBj84E

5. Some argue that there’s a version of this in Engels’ “On Authority” here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm, but I think a careful reading shows it not to be the case, since at no point does that evoke minority control, but explicitly points out that the binding decisions made over how to e.g. organise complex production processes can be made either by majority votes or by sufficiently empowered delegates (as Engels points out that his opponents, like him, agree on).

6. There’s arguably a version of this in Engels’ “On Authority” here:  https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm  and another in “The Bakunists at Work: An Account of the Spanish Revolt in the Summer of 1873” here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1873/bakunin/

7. https://roarmag.org/essays/zapatistas-announce-major-expansion-of-autonomous-territories/?fbclid=IwAR3WAATSQgQGH_oD55MsbtOaSIx9ZiZUhrGGd5mf-inR3S2FSDHyP94zDog

Our resident Paul chats with Sam about Karl Marx, his enduring ideas, and their connections to things like democratic socialism and prefigurative politics – suitable for absolute beginners and veterans alike.

This is a mirror of Southpaw’s episode 57. Check out the Southpaw podcast for a great show that combines martial arts and leftist politics! Hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed guesting it!

Find out more about Southpaw at https://www.patreon.com/southpawpod

To find out more about Sam, find him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam

This episode is about how we might create the social change we want through the movements we develop.

For a full bibliography, see the video description on our YouTube channel.

We're proud to present this talk by David Graeber and David Wengrow, entitled The Myth of the Stupid Savage: Rousseau's Ghost and the Future of Political Anthropology.

Originally presented at the PPA+ Conference at the University of Amsterdam in May 2019.

Article: http://www.journaldumauss.net/?La-sagesse-de-Kandiaronk-la-critique-indigene-le-mythe-du-progres-et-la

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Consider supporting our work on patreon [https://www.patreon.com/redplateaus] or follow us on twitter @rplateaus.

Good strike, and good luck.

Footnotes:

For details, see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10269/University-staff-balloting-for-pension-strikes-240000-worse-off-as-costs-rise-and-benefits-cut?list=1676

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/11/britain-strike-higher-education-uk-university-college-union-ucu

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10342/Value-of-university-staff-pay-has-plummeted-in-last-decade-employers-own-research-reveals?list=1676

For the numbers, see https://www.ucea.ac.uk/library/stakeholder-briefings/newjnchespaypointsrealterms.pdf

See our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5EReau1cjA and more discussion of this strike in https://jacobinmag.com/2019/01/la-teachers-strike-contract-arlene-inouye?fbclid=IwAR1jU0CcNjNRuZJzsl9sLE6V3UJcTUKDhdBKI5HJkw3HrOMfvJurTJfpUag