MACMILLAN Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)

The level of popular discontent―in the United States as elsewhere―has shown a dramatic increase in recent years, but has yet to crystallize into a cohesive anti-capitalist political force. Socialist Practice aims to contribute to a popular movement for socialism. It does so by 1) revisiting, under present conditions, longstanding questions of Marxist theory and revolutionary history, and 2) illustrating the range of issues, activities, and forms of expression that can both inform and be informed by a Marxist approach. Essays spanning a range of national experiences address the crying need to generate a society-wide awakening, grounded in purposeful discussion among all those (the vast majority) whose interests are ill-served by continuation of the status quo. Review “The left needs to guard against utopianism in the form of a wish list of changes that the revolution will allegedly bring. Some suggest that dialectics in its idealistic form encourages this tendency when the focus is on extrapolating into the future rather than analyzing the present. Wallis avoids such wishful thinking in this fascinating study of leftist theory and practice from Marx to the present.” (Steve Ellner, Monthly Review, April 1, 2021) “In this set of careful, critical essays, interfacing between Marxist theory and economic, social and environmental praxis, Wallis offers much for American activists and thinkers seeking to move beyond the current degraded state of politics in their country. … [I]n bringing together historical-theoretical perspectives on Marxist theory and more focused examinations of particular social movements, Wallis provides further insights into the opportunities and constraints facing those seeking to act for change.” (Steph Marston, Marx and Philosophy, marxandphilosophy.org.uk, December 3, 2020) Review “ Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories is critical reading for all who care about the future sustainability of humanity. At a time of planetary dystopia, Victor Wallis offers a sweeping intellectual contribution to understanding the global economic, political, and ecological fissures threatening humanity. Drawing on impressive knowledge of Marxist and socialist discourse, Wallis masterfully unifies essential themes of the production of material and cultural resistance to the impending cataclysmic future through socialist transformation. Essential reading for all students of the politics and history of socialism.” ―Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, USA, and author of Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class (2016) “Wide-ranging, eloquent, accessible and inspiring, Victor Wallis’s collected essays in this volume embody an optimism about future political action, along with a fierce realism about the challenges we face as a planet. This is required reading for Marxists, socialists, organizers, feminists, Black Lives Matter folk, and anyone else who still hopes to avert the ecological/capitalist catastrophe now bearing down on us.” ―Hester Eisenstein, Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA “Victor Wallis, an exemplary activist-scholar whose solidarity work with prisoners has lasted for decades, brings to light the political orientation that guides his efforts. He notes that ‘the oppressed knows the oppressor better than vice versa’ and that oppression cuts all of us off from our full humanity. His book seeks to illuminate ways to restore balance to the earth and to all our lives. His history of liberation movements’ theory and practice is instructive. I hope his call for ‘action on a massive scale’ resonates widely.” ― George Katsiaficas, former Visiting Professor of Sociology, Chonnam National University, South Korea, and author of The Global Imagination of 1968 (2018) and Asia’s Unknown Uprisings (2012, 2013) “Today socialism is