THIS IS REVOLUTION＞podcast Ep. 197: Unlearning Marx w/ Steve Paxton and the Saturday Crüe

For many on the political right, the collapse of the Soviet Union has been posited as evidence that Marx was ‘wrong’ and that Marxism ought to be consigned to the “dustbin of history”. To many in the capitalist west, this argumentation makes intuitive sense, given the intimate association between the Soviet experiment and Marxism. However, Steve Paxton has a different argument. In his new book, Unlearning Marx, he makes the counter-intuitive case that the history of Russia and the USSR is, in fact, a vindication of Marxian theories of historical development. How does Paxton’s reframing of Soviet history build on Marxist theory? What does this mean for our understanding of the Soviet experiment? And what does this mean for Marxism today?   Steve Paxton In addition to an academic career culminating in doctoral research with GA Cohen at Oxford, Steve Paxton has worked on building sites and in betting shops, been a PHP programmer and a T-shirt designer, been employed, self-employed and unemployed, blue-collar, white-collar and no-collar. He was a contributor to The Communist Manifesto: New Interpretations as well as the author of Unlearning Marx and the forthcoming How Capitalism Ends, both from Zer0 books.   Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron-only programming, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/BitterLakePresents   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well (especially YouTube!)!   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: www.youtube.com/thisisrevolutionpodcast   Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets   Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   The Dispatch on Zero Books (video essay series): https://youtu.be/nSTpCvIoRgw   Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here: www.thisisrevolutionpodcast.com   Get the music from the show here: https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions