Understanding ‘Marxist development’ in Marx’s terms in a world of climate change

ABSTRACT This article engages with Ronaldo Munck’s arguments as to what is ‘Marxist development’ and presents the author’s own views. ‘Marxist development’ needs to be understood in Marx’s terms. First, this must be done by centring Marx’s methodology – dialectical materialism. Second, while Lenin, Luxemburg, the dependistas have helped us understand Marx better and the criticisms of post-developmentalists and indigenous environmentalists have made Marxism nuanced, yet neither Lenin, nor Luxemburg nor any response to criticism is the best representation of Marx. Marxist development can be properly understood in the light of Marx’s vision of emancipation and self-realisation. While Marx accepted that domination of nature was needed for human emancipation, his politics of self-realisation rests on recapturing an alienated relationship with fellow human beings and re-establishing creative and sensuous experiences with nature which capitalist industries had rendered distant and opaque. Additionally, the efficacy of Marxist development in the context of climate change and our contemporary economic crisis are examined, and it is argued that there is tremendous productive potential in following Marx’s vision of development as we confront a very uncertain environmental and economic future.