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John Molyneux

Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism

(April 1987/July 2005)


Published by Bookmarks (London 1987).
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Preface to the Korean translation from John Molyneux’s blog.
Marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).



Dedication to Albert Holley 1912–1986

‘Bookmarks would like to dedicate this book to Albert Holley, who joined the International Socialists in the early 1970s and remained an activist in the British Socialist Workers Party right up to his death. Albert was always learning: he was for his class, for socialist revolution, and for internationalism. His whole life was an argument for socialism.’



Preface to Korean Edition
(July 2005)

Foreword

1. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SOCIALISM?

‘But you can’t change human nature ...’
Won’t we always need bosses?
Don’t revolutions mean violence?
‘Under socialism they’d make us all the same ...’

 

2. SO HOW DO WE GET TO THIS NEW WORLD?

Why we don’t like Mondays
What do you mean by exploitation?
What is ‘capital’?
How capitalism causes crises
Where is history leading?
Socialism or barbarism?
What puts socialist revolution on the agenda?
What we mean by workers’ power

 

3. GETTING OUR IDEAS RIGHT

‘But socialists are such a tiny minority ...’
Dialectical materialism? What on earth does that mean?
Their truth, and ours
The point, however, is to change it

 

4. STRATEGIES OF THE SYSTEM

‘You socialists would abolish democracy ...’
Isn’t the state neutral?
Whose law and whose order?
So how do they maintain their rule?
Divided we fall ...

 

5. WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY ABOUT ...?

Overpopulation
Religion
War
Terrorism
Class
Crime
The family

 

6. THE SHAPE OF THE WORLD

Surely we must defend the national interest?
What about immigration?
So do socialists oppose national liberation movements?
What do you mean by ‘unconditional but critical’ support?
What happened in Russia?
Is China any different?
But isn’t a simultaneous world revolution impossible?

 

7. STRATEGIES FOR SOCIALISM

‘But we’ve already got a mass workers’ party ...’
Can the Labour Party be changed?
Couldn’t we do without organisation?
Do trade unions have a role to play?
What about nationalisation?
What we mean by revolutionary leadership
Many campaigns – only one war
Why we need a revolutionary party

 

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