The Agenda of Marxism in the New Century

It would not be perhaps an overstatement if it is argued that the arrival of the twenty-first century, historically speaking, has some striking similarities with how the twentieth century began its journey. The same feelings of anger, protest as well as frustration of the working people, demanding organization, articulation and leadership, which marked the arrival of the twentieth century, constitute to a large extent the scenario of the new century too. The battle lines are being drawn, the fault lines of capitalism are more and more visible, the truth about the ugly face of imperialism is now impossible to hide after Iraq; but the big difference is that the real possibility of providing an alternative to world capitalism had actually emerged in the twentieth century after 1917, which ended with the unceremonious collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. With no immediate alternative in sight in the face of the triumphant claims of imperialism resistance and struggle, however, continue unabated, assuming new forms and, at times, taking uncharted paths. As large sections of the struggling people have become frustrated with socialism's failure in the twentieth century to live up to its expectations, there are many who are looking for radical alternatives to Marxism in their search for what they call a more meaningful intellectual arsenal (i.e. postmodernism, Post-Marxism), while there are others who are engaged in critical rethinking concerning the past, present and the future possibilities of Marxism in the light of the new questions that now it has to confront.