Against Capitalism and Bureaucracy

Manuel Kellner is a member of the Fourth International and its German section (ISO). He is the author of books in German, mainly on Trotskyism, and an introduction to critiques of religion.

“Like Mandel himself [...] this is not the kind of study that reduces politics to an academic seminar piece. Kellner grounds Mandel’s work in practice, as someone embedded in and often leading political struggle.” —Ian Parker, Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

• ForewordIntroduction1 Theory and Practice1 Occupational Ban and Refusal of Entry 19722 Captured by the Nazis3 Role Model Abraham Leon4 Political Work in the Belgian Workers’ Movement5 Role in the Fourth International and Contribution to Theory2 Critique of Contemporary Capitalism1 Mandel’s Historical-Genetic Critique of Capitalism2 Mandel’s Contribution to Marxist Crisis Theory3 Late Capitalism4 Long Waves of Capitalist Development5 Worldwide Inequality3 Socialism: The Utopian Dimension in Mandel’s Work1 The Free Association of Producers: A Stateless, Classless Society2 Socialist Council Democracy and Transition to Socialism3 The Material Prerequisites for Universal Emancipation4 Critique of Bureaucracy1 Mandel’s Explanation and Critique of Bureaucracy in the Workers’ Movement2 Critique of Stalinism3 Breaking up Stalinist Monolithism and the ‘Socialist Camp’4 The Temptation of Substitutionism: The Roots of Surrogate Politics5 Socialist Strategy1 Prefigurative Forms of the New Society: Mass Strike and Self-Organisation from below2 Strategy of Transitional Demands3 The Dual Character of the Trade Unions4 Class Consciousness and Building Revolutionary Parties5 Critique of Reformism and United Front Policy6 Permanent Revolution and the International Dimension of Socialist Strategy6 Emancipation and Social Catastrophe1 Mandel on Trotsky’s Theory of Fascism2 Mandel and the Holocaust7 Evaluation and Prospects1 Openness and Coherence: A Field of Tension2 The Revolutionary Potential of Western Europe3 Reaction to Gorbachev4 World Historical Rupture 1989–19915 Weaknesses of the Concept of ‘Bureaucratised Workers’ States’6 Historical Determinism7 Karl Marx’s ‘Categorical Imperative’8 Aporias of Marginality: Mandel’s ‘Last Word’ on Sectarianism9 The Self-Organisation of the Working ClassEyewitness Testimony (Tape Recordings from the Author’s Own Archive)BibliographyIndex