Since beginning publication in1964, The Socialist Register has been one of the most important sources of engaged, critical, and influential theoretical interventions on the socialist left. Released as an annual with a focus on publishing rigorous, sustained pieces that take up particular themes, it has always been committed to developing an independent, nonsectarian relationship with Marxism.

This volume—the Register’s first-ever reader—grapples with the question of whether political organization is a necessary part of the struggle by the working-class to overthrow capitalism. In pieces published over the course of publication’s entire history contributors, from Ralph Miliband to Jean-Paul Satre, examine various aspects of this theme.

Includes:

Class, Party, Revolution: An Introduction

Reform and Revolution by André Gorz

The May Events and Revolution in the West by Lucio Magri

Marx and Engels and the Concept of the Party by Monty Johnstone

The Principle of Self-Emancipation in Marx and Engels by Hal Draper

Lenin’s The State and Revolution by Ralph Miliband

Some Problems Concerning Revolutionary

Consciousness by Harold Wolpe

Theory and Practice in Gramsci’s Marxism by John Merrington

Gramsci and Lenin 1917–1922 by Alastair Davidson

Class and Party by Rossana Rossanda

Masses, Spontaneity, Party by Jean-Paul Sartre

Marx and Engels on the Revolutionary Party by August H. Nimtz

Class, Party, and the Challenge of State Transformation by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin

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Leo Panitch is a Distinguished Research Professor, renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and editor of the Socialist Register. He received a B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Manitoba in 1967 and a M.Sc.(Hons.) and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1968 and 1974, respectively. He was a Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor at Carleton University between 1972 and 1984. He has been a Professor of Political Science at York University since 1984. He was the Chair of the Department of Political Science at York from 1988-1994. He was the General Co-editor of State and Economic Life series, U. of T. Press, from 1979 to 1995 and is the Co-founder and a Board Member of Studies in Political Economy. He is also the author of numerous articles and books dealing with political science including The End of Parliamentary Socialism (1997). He was a member of the Movement for an Independent and Socialist Canada, 1973-1975, the Ottawa Committee for Labour Action, 1975-1984, the Canadian Political Science Association, the Committee of Socialist Studies, the Marxist Institute and the Royal Society of Canada. He is currently a supporter of the Socialist Project.

Leo Panitch's profile page

Greg Albo is associate professor of political economy in the Department of Political Science at York University and co-editor of the Socialist Register.

Greg Albo's profile page

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