Karl Marx and Republicanism: Reading ‘Citizen Marx’

“… It is still not adequately appreciated that Marx’s principal political value was freedom,
rather than, say, equality or community.” Bruno Leipold, Citizen Marx

A five-session reading group

What better time than the present moment to revisit Karl Marx’s commitment to the democratic republic as a necessary (if not sufficient) step on the path to human freedom? Over five weekly meetings we will read and discuss Bruno Leipold’s recently published Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought. As some of the most powerful capitalists in history are openly disavowing political democracy and calling for the unbridled rule of private wealth, we revisit Karl Marx’s revolutionary republicanism and his ideas about political power and social classes.

Convened by David Worley, a member of the executive committee of the Marxist Education Project and a longtime associate of the Brecht Forum, where he served a term as co-chair of the Board of Directors. David is a nonsectarian socialist, active since the 1960s in support of a wide range of peace and social justice causes.