Actually Existing Socialism Understanding Siege Socialism w/ Gabriel Rockhill
Jul 9, 2024
Gabriel Rockhill, the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop and a leading scholar in Marxism, delves into the provocative concept of 'siege socialism.' He explains the dynamic interplay of historical materialism and dialectics, highlighting how socialist movements navigate external threats. Rockhill critiques Western misunderstandings of the Soviet Union and the complexities of socialist state-building amid imperialism. He draws lessons from history and emphasizes the need for deeper comprehension within the Western left to evolve socialism effectively.
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Understanding Historical Materialism
- Historical materialism rejects both empiricism and idealism as starting points.
- It sees humans as material beings shaping history through class struggle and praxis.
Essence of Dialectics
- Dialectics views nature as dynamic, interconnected, and contradictory, not static or fixed.
- Concepts are limited; dialectics seeks to approximate a complex changing reality.
Siege Socialism Defined
- Siege socialism means all real socialist states have existed under harsh imperialist attack.
- No socialist country has been free to develop unpressured by capitalism.
