Raya Dunayevskaya's Intersectional Marxism: Race, Class, Gender, and the Dialectics of Liberation (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)

Raya Dunayevskaya is one of the twentieth century’s great but underappreciated Marxist and feminist thinkers. Her unique philosophy and practice of Marxist-Humanism―as well as her grasp of Hegelian dialectics and the deep humanism that informs Marx’s thought―has much to teach us today. From her account of state capitalism (part of her socio-economic critique of Stalinism, fascism, and the welfare state), to her writings on Rosa Luxemburg, Black and women’s liberation, and labor, we are offered indispensable resources for navigating the perils of sexism, racism, capitalism, and authoritarianism. This collection of essays, from a diverse group of writers, brings to life Dunayevskaya’s important contributions. Revisiting her rich legacy, the contributors to this volume engage with her resolute Marxist-Humanist focus and her penetrating dialectics of liberation that is connected to Black, labor, and women’s liberation and to struggles over alienation and exploitation the world over. Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism is recovered for the twenty-first century and turned, as it was with Dunayevskaya herself, to face the multiple alienations and de-humanizations of social life. Titles Published Titles Forthcoming Acknowledgments Praise for Raya Dunayevskaya’s Intersectional Marxism Contents Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction References Part I Hegel and Dialectics 2 Raya Dunayevskaya’s Concept of Dialectic The Present Moment Contemporary Issues in Dialectical Philosophy Dunayevskaya’s Writings on Dialectics References 3 Unchaining the Dialectic on the Threshold of Revolution: Dunayevskaya’s Discovery of Hegel in the Birth of Marxist-Humanism “Why Hegel? Why Now?” The Philosophic Turn Conclusion References 4 The Indispensability of Philosophy in the Struggle to Develop an Alternative to Capitalism Part I: Whither Philosophy? Whither Marxism? Part II: From State-Capitalist Theory to Marxist-Humanist Philosophy Part III: The Self-determination of the Idea of Marxist-Humanism Part IV: Does Marxism Have a Future? References Part II Gender, Race, and Revolution 5 Raya Dunayevskaya’s Marx 6 Women as Force and Reason: Dunayevskaya, Marx, and Revolutionary Subjectivity Marx and “Permanent Revolution” Revolution in Permanence: From Practice to Theory Women as Subjects in Precapitalist Societies Women as Force and Reason Today Bibliography 7 Raya Dunayevskaya on Race, Resistance, and Revolutionary Humanism Identity and the Movements of Black and Brown Masses Black Anti-imperial Resistances Women of Color, Revolution, and Abolition Feminisms Conclusion References 8 The Dialectic in Marxism and Freedom for Today: The Unity of Theory and Practice and the Movement of Today’s Concrete Struggles Philosophy of Revolution A Revolutionary Subject Theory and Practice The “Woman Question” and the “Black Dimension” Spontaneity and Organization in Today’s Movements: Women of Color as Vanguard Conclusion References Part III Connections and Debates 9 Marxism and Freedom: Apropos of Raya Dunayevskaya’s Book 10 Why Twenty-First Century Marxism Has to Be Humanist Introduction How Humanist Was Marx? What Got Lost in the 1890s? What Did Marxist Humanism Add? The Centrality of Marxist Humanism Today Marxism’s Search for the Self References 11 On Capital Accumulation, the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit, and Crisis Theory Dunayevskaya on the Economics of Capitalist Society: Marx’s Humanism as Ground for Our Era Capital, Volume 1, as the Whole of Marx, but Whose Dialectical Structure Is “Anathema” to Rosa Luxemburg Dunayevskaya and Marx: The Dialectic in Production and the Human Subject References 12 The Revolutionary Travels of Marxism and Freedom Reception of Dunayevskaya’s Marxism and Freedom Dunayevskaya’s Trip to Europe, 1959 Philosophical Letters to a Worker: Frank Williams The Italian Left The British Scene Later British Developments Unfinished Business From Lenin to Hegel (via Marx) The “Changed World” References Part IV Freedom and Liberation 13 Why Marx Is More Relevant Than Ever in the Age of Automation 14 Raya Dunayevskaya’s Emancipatory Marxism State Capitalism Against Freedom Dialectic and Utopia The Unity of Theory and Practice Bibliography 15 Beyond Anti-humanism: Alienation, Praxis, and the Dialectics of Liberation Marx’s “New Humanism” The Critique of State Capitalism and “the Negation of the Negation” The Dialectics of Praxis Expanding the Dialectic Conclusion: Toward an Absolute Humanism Bibliography 16 Two Kinds of Subjectivity in Marxism and Freedom: Hegel, Marx, and the Maoist Detour Revolutionary Humanist Subjectivity Dunayevskaya’s Hegel: The Power of Abstraction as Revolutionary Marx as a Revolutionary Humanist Who Concretized the Dialectics of Race, Class, and the State Lenin as a Dialectical Thinker Who Saw Anti-Colonial Movements as a New Form of Subjectivity in the Era of Imperialism Mao Zedong: An Alienated Form of Subjectivity Two Kinds of Subjectivity: Maoist and Revolutionary Humanist References Index Raya Dunayevskaya is one of the twentieth century's great but underappreciated Marxist and feminist thinkers. She developed a unique philosophy and practice of Marxist-Humanism, as well as an original reading of Hegelian dialectics and the deep humanism that informs Marx's thought. From these contributions, along with her writings on Rosa Luxemburg, and on Black and women's liberation, we are offered an indispensable resource for navigating the struggles of today. In this first-ever collection of essays on Dunayevskaya, a diverse group of writers revisits her rich legacy and brings to life her most important ideas. Kevin B. Anderson is Professor of Sociology, Political Science and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Kieran Durkin is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at University of York, UK. Heather A. Brown is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Westfield State University, USA