Marx and Politics

The election of Barack Obama brought hope for change to many. However, multiple crises have deepened since the election: a now-Great Recession, an expanded permanent war and an impending ecological catastrophe. Many who worked for Obama's election are now disillusioned and wondering if it is possible to get out of the present total threat to human survival through politics. Some are looking again at Marx's concept of revolution as a process that doesn't stop at politics or political emancipation but continues to human emancipation--overcoming alienation and achieving self-determination in everyday life activity. Marx's view of politics speaks to recent ICSS debates, between those who hold true to Marx's vision of overcoming alienation, rejecting bourgeois politics, and those who see coalition building within bourgeois politics as a way to achieve a Marxist agenda.