Open Marxism

Open Marxism is a school of thought which draws on libertarian socialist critiques of party communism and stresses the need for openness to praxis and history through an anti-positivist (dialectical) method grounded in the "practical reflexivity" of Marx's own concepts. The "openness" in Open Marxism also refers to a non-deterministic view of history in which the unpredictability of class struggle is foregrounded. The sources of Open Marxism are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, from anarchism to elements of Autonomism and Situationism. Intellectual affinities with Autonomist Marxism were especially strong, and led to the creation of the journal The Commoner (2001–12), following in the wake of previous Open Marxist journals Arguments (1958–62) and Common Sense (1987–99). In the 1970s and 1980s, 'state-derivationist' debates around the separation of 'the economic' and 'the political' under capitalism unfolded in the San Francisco-based working group Kapitalistate and the Conference of Socialist Economists journal Capital & Class, involving many of the theorists of Open Marxism and significantly influencing its theoretical development.

Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. Recent work by Open Marxists has included a revaluation of Theodor W. Adorno. Those commonly associated with Open Marxism include John Holloway, Simon Clarke, Werner Bonefeld, Ana C Dinerstein, Richard Gunn, Kosmas Psychopedis, Adrian Wilding, Peter Burnham, Mike Rooke, Hans-Georg Backhaus, Helmut Reichelt, Harry Cleaver, Johannes Agnoli, Kostas Axelos, and Henri Lefebvre.

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