Introduction

A book that examines the economics, philosophy and social relevance of Marx’s writings at the turn of the twenty-first century requires a certain degree of explanation as to why it remains of importance to our understanding of the contemporary world. After all, one may suggest that capitalism has triumphed over communism, the Soviet Bloc has disintegrated and what is left is dependent upon the finance of the western world. China has begun the process of fully embracing the free market and moving away from the state-led socialist vision of the revolution. Elsewhere, Cuba appears to have serious economic problems, Vietnam has a highly outward oriented trade strategy combined with market exchange and the former Yugoslavia has degenerated into civil war, social dislocation and the atrocities more associated with Nazi Germany. What we knew as State Socialism is no more, and with its demise has come a revisionism of the value of Marx as an important theorist and philosopher, giving way to the idea that capitalism, far from being on the brink of collapse, is in fact the only system that can deliver the efficient and effective allocation of resources within a framework of increasing prosperity and ‘democracy’. Why, then, is it necessary to look again at the writings of Marx and to suggest that he is as relevant today as he was in the second half of the nineteenth century? The answer lies on several planes of theoretical and pragmatic argument, involving a reappraisal of the perceived wisdom of those who would dismiss Marx as simply an essentially interesting, but ultimately ineffectual, critique of capitalism.