Political Writings of Marx and Engels III

This group is reading and discussing original texts by Marx and Engels about their theory of class struggles as the motive force of human social evolution and the modern working class as the political antagonist of the capitalist system. This third and final series takes up articles on India, China, and European colonialism; essays on the Civil War in the United States; documents related to the International Workingmen’s Association; Marx’s classic The Civil War in France and related essays; polemics against Bakunin; and Marx’s correspondence about the rise of the workers’ political party in Germany, including his Critique of the Gotha Program.

All readings are available in the Verso Press anthology Karl Marx: The Political Writings. These writings are also available from many other sources in book form and online.

Moderated 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.