Wars of Position?

H.F. Pimlott, PhD (2000, Goldsmiths College), is Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University. Her publications cover precarious academics, Stuart Hall, punk politics, and print ephemera in journals such as Media, Culture & Society; Socialist Studies; Democratic Communiqué;, and Journalism.

“Pimlott draws on Raymond Williams’s understanding of the means of communication as means of production and insists on a focus on the material basis upon which ideas are produced and circulated, with an emphasis on processes and practices. This is an energizing point, as we grapple with how to assess a media landscape that seems so radically different from the one that existed in the 1970s and even 1980s and 90s [...] This opens many questions and angles with which to study left media today, and for which she provides a model.”—Nicole Cohen, Associate Professor, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto“Pimlott’s book is full of fascinating material: stories detailing the organizational structure and everyday practice of the Communist Party of Great Britain; finely-grained stylistic analysis of Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm’s writing; a rigorously argued interpretation of Gramsci-the-Marxist-theorist, against the flawed interpretations of Hall and others. The book’s approach in the broadest terms – its exhaustive theoretically-driven historical analysis as a demonstration of cultural materialism – is overwhelmingly impressive. But what jumped out at me from the start, and what has remained for me the book’s key takeaway, is its attention to the fundamental question: Why do leftists write?”—James Cairns, Professor of Indigenous Studies, Law & Social Justice, Wilfrid Laurier University.“Alternatively, for Robin Kelley, solidarity requires building with those you do not recognize or identify with. He suggests that, while empathy assumes immediacy, solidarity requires mediation between theory and practice, a negotiation of the contradictions between them. Can media studies be a space to theorize such a form of mediation, such a connection between theory and practice? [...] Indeed, I believe that this is what Pimlott provides us with in Wars of Position?: the capacity to imagine a radical politics of mediation, a serious interrogation of the relationship between theory and practice.”—Armond Towns, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Williams College“Wars of Position? is ultimately a theory of the failure of Marxian media, and the story she recounts of the demise of Marxism Today is a lesson in the practical dimensions of theory production, the development of socialist and communist class consciousness, and the difficulties faced by party publications in a world of actually existing and thriving capitalism [...] A significant work of contemporary Marxist theory that shows importantly that the success or failure of the party media also bears critical implications for the success or failure of the party, itself.”—Matthew Flisfeder, Professor of Rhetoric and Communications, The University of Winnipeg“Pimlott’s book is a unique cultural materialist study of a Marxist media firm that sheds light on the constraints and opportunities of making anti-capitalist alternative media within the dominant structures of capitalist media. While her book focuses on a specific case of alternative media in a period of history that is not the same as ours, its insights are nonetheless valuable to anyone who wishes to understand the real material opportunities and challenges faced by socialist media creators within a system that deters and frequently neutralizes their politics.”—Tanner Mirrlees, Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, and author of Work in the Digital Media and Entertainment Industries: A Critical Introduction.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsPrefaceList of Tables and IllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroduction: The Left, Cultural Form and Political Practice1 Sign(ifier) of the Times?2 The Production of the 'Marketplace of the Ideas'3 Overview of the Book1 Marxism Today’s Story: An Historical Narrative of a Cultural Form1 The Left, Cultural Form and Political Practice2 The Party and the Party Paper: Leninist Communication Practices3 Leninist Communication Practices: The Party as a Medium of Communication4 The CPGB’s Practice of 'Democratic Centralism'5 Leninist Communication Practices: Agitation and Propaganda6 Leninist Communication Practices: The Party Paper7 A Basic Typology of Communist Party Publications8 The Beginnings of Postwar Reconstruction and Periodical Developments9 Precursors: The Commission on Party Journals 195310 Precursors: Marxist Quarterly (1954–57)11 Precursors: The Commission on Inner Party Democracy 195712 Marxism Today: 'The First Generation': 1957–7713 A Party of Two Wings14 The Brief Rise of 'Eurocommunism'15 Marxism Today’s Transformation: 'Caution & Compromise', 1977–8316 'Reaction & Realignment' 1983–8717 'The Tail Wags the Dog': 1987–8918 'New Times', 1989–9119 Conclusion2 From 'New Left' to 'New Labour': Marxism Today’s Political Project and the 'Retreat from Class'1 'Forward March of Labour Halted?'2 'Thatcherism'3 Thatcherism: Critiques4 Separation of 'The Economic'5 Alternate Political Explanations6 Elections, Polling and Public Opinion7 'Common Sense'8 Thatcherism’s Theoretical Underpinnings: The 'Wrong' Gramsci?9 'Ideology' vs. 'Discourse'10 'Hegemony'11 Social Production of Ideologies12 The Hegemonic Apparatus13 'New Times': From New Left to New Labour?14 Part II: 'From Wars of Position to Cultural Politics'15 'Popular Politics'16 Feminism and the New Social Movements17 'Municipal Socialism'18 The Communist Party, Popular Culture and Marxism Today19 From 'Rock Against Racism' to 'Designer Socialism'20 Conclusion3 The Party Line versus the Bottom Line? The Political Economy of Left Magazine Production1 'Passive' and 'Active' Editorships, 1957–912 'Editorial Control' or 'Cultural Circle'?3 'Who Pays the Piper, Calls the Tune?' Financing Marxism Today4 Advertising5 'Private Enterprise or Political Commitment?' Printing and Subscriptions6 'A Little Help From My Friends': The Process of Magazine Production7 The Production Process8 Conclusion4 From the Party Line to the Politics of Design: Marxism Today’s Cultural Transformation1 The Theory of the Periodical and Magazine Design in the 1980s2 Format: 'From a Journal into a Magazine'3 The First Format: 1957–794 The Second Format: 1979–865 The Third Format: 1986–916 Front covers7 Visual Communication, Advertising and Design8 Editorial Sections: Features9 Features: Alternative Modes of Presentation10 Modes of/for Discussion11 Other Editorial Sections12 Cultural Coverage: From ‘Reviews’ to ‘Channel Five’13 The Politics of Form and the Form of Politics14 Conclusion5 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Publicity, Promotion and Distribution in the Marketplace of Ideas1 Party Distribution2 'Out-of-Party' Distribution3 In the Marketplace of Left Periodicals4 'Cadres to Consumers': Changes in Readership, 1957–915 Contributors6 Book Publishing7 'The Art of Talking': Discussion Groups, Talks, Events, Conferences8 Promotion9 Publicity10 National Press Coverage11 'Thinking the Unthinkable'12 Conclusion6 Write Out of the Margins: Communist Ideology and Accessibility, Rhetoric and Writing Style1 Twentieth-Century Communist Rhetoric2 Accessibility3 Marxism Today’s Defensive Rhetorical Strategy 1957–774 'Solidification'5 Principles of Good Style6 Language7 Plain Style8 Marxism Today’s Top Two Contributors: Eric Hobsbawm and Stuart Hall9 Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetorical Style of 'Realistic Marxism'10 Rhetorical Strategy and Writing Style11 Stuart Hall: Socialist Public Intellectual and Polemical Rhetorician12 Stuart Hall’s Rhetorical Techniques and Writing Style13 Qualification and Conditionality14 Unity and Division on the Left: From ‘Common Sense’ to Caricature?15 Tropes and Metaphors16 Stuart Hall’s 'Realism'17 Conclusion7 W(h)ither the Party Paper? What Lessons for the Left Press1 A Perennial Question2 EpilogueIllustrationsReferencesIndex