The Incompatibles? Socialism, Academia, Populism

Abstract

Traced here is the historical role of academia in the way revolution and socialism have vanished from the leftist agenda, together with its political and ideological effects and implications. Thus a similar path was followed from the late 19th century onwards by the reformism/revisionism of katheder-socialists, and from the 1980s onwards by the ‘new’ populist postmodernism in academia. Both privileged culture and reified peasant and ethnic identity, thereby replacing Marxist theory and concepts (class, revolution, socialism, state capture) with other forms of empowerment (parliamentary, resistance-to-the-state) that did not involve a transcendence of the accumulation process. In each instance, reformist/revisionist compromise with capitalism, together with a failure to address both the presence of the industrial reserve army labour and the resulting intensification of labour market competition, has helped to pave the way for the rise of the far right.