Traduction de "‘Now, things are different, we must not look to the past’. Lenin in 1917 and 1922, applied to the present" de Branko Milanovic
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
[1] Written in Zurich in January-June 1916. Lenin began to take note of new developments in capitalism long before the outbreak of the First World War. In several of his writings from 1895 to 1913—”Draft and Explanation of a Programme for the Social-Democratic Party” (1895-96); “The War in China” (1900); “The Lessons of the Crisis” (1901), “Review of Home Affairs” (1901); “Concentration of Production in Russia” (1912); “The Growth of Capitalist Wealth” (1913) “Backward Europe and Advanced Asia” (1913); “The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx” (1913); “Concerning Certain Speeches by Workers’ Deputies” (1912), and others—Lenin pointed out and analysed some characteristic aspects of the imperialist epoch— the concentration of production and the growth of monopoly; the export of capital; the struggle for new markets and spheres of influence; the internationalisation of economic relations; the parasitism and decay of capitalism; the growth of contradictions between labour and capital and the sharpening of the class struggle; and the creation of the material conditions for the transition to socialism. He devoted special attention to exposing predatory colonial policy, the fight for a division and redivision of the world, and the preparation of imperialist wars of aggrandisement. In his article, “Marxism and Revisionism”, written in 1908, he came out against the attempts to revise Marxism and undermine it from inside under the pretext of amending and correcting the theory in particular, Marx’s theory of crises. Lenin wrote: ‘The forms, the sequence, the picture of particular crises changed, but crises remained an inevitable component of the capitalist system. While uniting production, the cartels and trusts at the same time and in a way that was obvious to all, aggravated the anarchy of production, the insecurity of existence of the proletariat and the oppression of capital, thereby intensifying class antagonisms to an unprecedented degree. That capitalism is heading for a breakdown—in the sense both of individual political and economic crises and of the complete collapse of the entire capitalist system— has been made particularly clear, and on a particularly large scale, precisely by the new giant trusts” (see present edition, Vol. 15, pp. 35-36). Lenin kept abreast of all the latest writings on capitalism, as will be seen from his review of Hobson’s The Evolution of Modern Capitalism. In August 1904, Lenin began a translation of Hobson’s Imperialism, the manuscript of which has not yet been found. It was on the outbreak of the First World War that Lenin undertook a comprehensive study of the monopoly stage of capitalist development This was required by the working-class revolutionary struggle in Russia and other capitalist countries. In order to provide correct leadership for the revolutionary movement and combat the ideology of imperialist reaction and the reformist policy of conciliation with imperialists, it was necessary to see one’s way in the key economic question without a study of which there was no understanding of the assessment of modern war or modern politics, namely: the economic essence of imperialism”. Lenin must have started his close study of the writings on imperialism in mid-1915, when he was in Berne, for his first indexes of literature, plans, extracts, notes and summaries date to that period. The preparatory materials for Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (Notebooks on Imperialism) make up about 800 printed pages. They contain extracts from 148 books (including 106 in German, 23 in French, 17 in English, and 2 translations into Russian), and 232 articles (of them 206 in German, 13 in French, and 3 in English) from 49 periodicals (34 German, 7 French and 8 English). In early January 1916, Lenin accepted an order for a book on imperialism from the legal Parus Publishers, founded in Petrograd in December 1915. Lenin wrote to Maxim Gorky on December 29, 1915 (January 11, 1916): “I am getting down to the writing of a pamphlet on imperialism” (see present edition, Vol. 35). In the early part of February 1916, he left Berne for Zurich, where he continued to collect and work on materials on imperialism. He worked at the Zurich Cantonal Library and ordered books from other towns. On June 19 (July 2), 1916 Lenin wrote to M. N. Pokrovsky, who was then living in France and editing for Parus a series of pamphlets about West-European countries during the First World War: “Today, I sent you a manuscript by registered mail” (see present edition, Vol. 35). The manuscript, which was mailed with the letter, did not reach Pokrovsky, and another copy had to be sent. Besides, the publishers suggested that the finished manuscript should be shortened from eighty to fifty pages, but Lenin objected because “it is absolutely impossible to cut it down once again and squeeze it into fifty pages” (ibid.). When the book reached the publishers, Menshevik elements among the management deleted from the book parts sharply criticising Kautsky and Martov, and made corrections in the text which not only distorted Lenin’s style but also his ideas. Thus, Lenin’s terms pererastaniye (capitalism growing into imperialism) was altered to prevrashcheniye (transformation); reaktstonny kharakter (reactionary nature of the theory of ultra-imperialism) to otstaly kharakter (backward character), etc. In mid-1917, the book was published under the title Imperialism, the Latest Stage of Capitalism(A Popular Outline) with a preface by Lenin, dated April 26, 1917.
annotations: Un bref essai sur les différences entre Marx et Keynes
Traduction française de "A short essay on the differences between Marx and Keynes" de Branko Milanovic
Comment les « vertus » de la mondialisation néolibérale ont ouvert la voie à son effondrement
Traduction française du billet "How the virtues of neoliberal globalization paved the way to its demise" de Branko Milanovic
Lenin und seine Imperialismus-Broschüre – Kommunistische Organisation
Paul Oswald setzt sich im folgenden Beitrag mit Teilen des Quellenmaterials von Lenins Imperialismus-Broschüre auseinander. Anhand eines vergleichenden Blicks zwischen Lenins Broschüre und vorangegangenen theoretischen Auseinandersetzungen innerhalb der Arbeiterbewegung sowie der bürgerlichen Wissenschaft wird das Alleinstellungsmerkmal von Lenins Untersuchung herausgearbeitet. Durch diesen Vergleich wird insbesondere Lenins Entwicklung des Begriffs des Imperialismus aufgezeigt und damit ein Zugang zur Imperialismus-Broschüre eröffnet wird, der in der Debatte unterrepräsentiert ist.
Ni Dieu Ni Maître : L’histoire secrète de l’anarchisme mondial – Documentaire Politique - AT
Marx et l’histoire de la nature
À propos de : Frédéric Monferrand, La nature du capital. Politique et ontologie chez le jeune Marx, Éditions Amsterdam
What Francis Fukuyama Is Seeing at 'The End of History'
Francis Fukuyama's essay “The End of History?” was published in the summer of 1989, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The essay's argument — that liberal democracy would not…
Nouveau regard sur la décroissance
Le philosophe japonais Kōhei Saitō, qui publie Moins, La décroissance est une philosophie (Seuil, 2024), propose un nouveau regard sur la décroissance[1]. D’autant plus nouveau qu’il s’appuie sur les travaux méconnus du vieux Marx que l’auteur étudie dans le cadre de l’édition complète des « œuvres de Marx et Engels » (MEGA).
Le nouveau capitalisme (1/3)
Traduction de "New capitalism in America. Richest capitalists and richest workers are increasingly the same people" de Branko Milanovic
annotations: L’idéologie de Donald Trump
Traduction française de "The ideology of Donald J. Trump" de Branko Milanovic
L’histoire par les textes - APHG
Antiquité Moyen Âge Période moderne Période contemporaine Thèmes transversaux Historiographie Liens utiles N.B. Les documents portant sur les séquences intermédiaires entre plusieurs ères (antiquité tardive, transition Moyen Âge / première modernité, période révolutionnaire) peuvent se trouver dans les deux pages concernées. Principes du projet et avertissements Pour valoriser et partager ces efforts conséquents, cette page […]
« La transition alimentaire est indispensable à la survie de l’espèce humaine »
TRIBUNE. Les pouvoirs publics seuls sont en mesure de favoriser un changement profond et généralisé dans les habitudes des citoyens par la promotion de solutions de remplacement à l’alimentation carnée, relèvent, dans une tribune au « Monde », les philosophes Florence Burgat et Jean-Claude Monod.
« La transition alimentaire est indispensable à la survie de l’espèce humaine »
TRIBUNE. Les pouvoirs publics seuls sont en mesure de favoriser un changement profond et généralisé dans les habitudes des citoyens par la promotion de solutions de remplacement à l’alimentation carnée, relèvent, dans une tribune au « Monde », les philosophes Florence Burgat et Jean-Claude Monod.
Polanyi, un auteur pour mieux comprendre ce qui nous arrive
Quand l’idéologie du marché n’a plus de limites, le pire peut arriver sur la scène. C’est, grossièrement résumée, la thèse de « la Grande Transformation », de Karl Polanyi, parue en 1944. Un livre d’histoire qui est aussi une alerte.
Sollte der Krieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine die Epistemologie der Osteuropäischen Geschichte verändern und wenn ja, wie?
The short article argues for revitalizing historical research to questions of the longue durée and, in analogy to the New Imperial History, considers the emergence of a New National History possible. Above all, the article calls for a continued decolonialisation of Russian history and, in this context, also for a strengthening of the Ukraine and Belarus focus in research, teaching and language mediation as well as in the form of a German Historical Institute in Kyiv.
Frédéric Le Moal, Histoire du fascisme, Paris, Perrin, 2018, 425 p.
Frédéric Le Moal, spécialiste de l’Italie, propose une nouvelle histoire du fascisme. Son projet ne consiste pas à livrer des faits inédits, ceux-ci étant généralement bien établis, mais à donner u...
