In the 100 years since Marx’s death in 1883, the theory and practice of the ruling and subaltern classes have evolved radically, introducing new unforeseen forms and problems in the struggle for a truly liberated society. The Marxist heritage, however, has rarely been the object of a systematic critical analysis by those working within the Marxist tradition, and it is the purpose of Rethinking Marx to propose a new critical reading of Marx in light of -or in dark of – current problems. This book contains the principal papers presented at the “Internationale Konferenz Aktualisierung Marx” held in Berlin in February 1983. The contributions range from questions on historical materialism, the State, economic and class analyses, culture and ideology, new social movements, politics and socialist perspectives, and the renewal of Marxism.

“With Antonio Gramsci’s ground-breaking work over fifty years ago, Louis Althusser’s recent Ideology and Ideological State Aparatuses (1970), and the present world economic and political crisis, the need to formulate a theory of ideology is increasingly posed as a central element in an analysis of existing society as well as in a political project for its transformation. Developing on the analyses of the research group PIT (»Projekt Ideologie-Theorie«), begun in 1977, Rethinking Ideology contains the principal papers presented at the International Seminar on Problems of Research on Ideology held in West Berlin in 1982. The contributions. by researchers from Australia, Denmark, Finland, France Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and West Germany, range from highly conceptual texts to those on politics education, aesthetics, fascism, and feminism; all together they offer a rare confrontation between a wide spectrum of theoretical positions on questions of ideology.”

This collection of texts is the first English presentation of a selection of the work of the West German Marxist philosopher Wolfgang Fritz Haug. It brings together 10 essential essays written between 1970 and 1983, and sets forth a multi-dimensional analvsis of culture integrating three interrelated theories: a theory of commodity aesthetics or the phenomenon and function of the realization of the value of commodities; a theory of the cultural as an omni-present dimension of everyday life, especially “culture from below”; and a theory of the ideological, particularly concerned with ideological powers “from above”. Published on Seth Sieglaub’s imprint International General/IMMRC.

“This collection of texts, by authors from Nicaragua and the U.S., is the first critical anthology on the media and culture in Nicaragua, where concern for the “freedom of the press” has become a veritable fetish for the international news media. In analyzing numerous aspects of the subiect – journalism, the press, the radio, film, video, mural expression, literacy and social movements – in their social-historical dimension, the authors attempt to assess the cultural achievements, problems and future of Nicaragua in its struggle to tevelop a practice of democratic participation despite he siege conditions of U.S. imposed warfare: economic and psychological as well as military.” Published on Seth Sieglaub’s imprint International General/IMMRC.

An Anthology in 2 Volumes. Edited by Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub. “Communication and Class Struggle, a two-volume work, is the first general marxist anthology of writings on communications, information and culture. Its purpose is to analyse the relationship between the practice and theory of communication and their development within the context of class struggle. Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub, the editors, have selected more than 120 essential marxist and progressive texts originating in over 50 countries and written since the mid-nineteenth century to explain three interrelated phenomena: (1) how basic social, economic and cultural processes condition communication; (2) how bourgeois communication practice and theory have developed as part of the capitalist mode of production; and (3) how in the struggle against exploitation and oppression, the popular and working classes have developed their own communication practice and theory, and a new, liberated mode of communication, culture and daily life.” Published on Seth Sieglaub’s imprint International General/IMMRC.

An Anthology in 2 Volumes. Edited by Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub. “Communication and Class Struggle, a two-volume work, is the first general marxist anthology of writings on communications, information and culture. Its purpose is to analyse the relationship between the practice and theory of communication and their development within the context of class struggle. Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub, the editors, have selected more than 120 essential marxist and progressive texts originating in over 50 countries and written since the mid-nineteenth century to explain three interrelated phenomena: (1) how basic social, economic and cultural processes condition communication; (2) how bourgeois communication practice and theory have developed as part of the capitalist mode of production; and (3) how in the struggle against exploitation and oppression, the popular and working classes have developed their own communication practice and theory, and a new, liberated mode of communication, culture and daily life.” Published on Seth Sieglaub’s imprint International General/IMMRC.