Fundamentals of Marx: Contradictions

How did Marx use the term "contradictions"? How did subsequent Marxists build upon this concept and apply it to their own investigations of social systems? There is no concrete answer to these questions but the topic is nevertheless worth considering if we are to adequately engage with the many works in the Marxist school of thought that employ "contradictions" in some capacity.

Script read by C.
Writing, editing, and visuals by M.

Music by Charles Tristan:

Patreon:

Sources (in order of cited passages):

Harvey, D. (2014). Seventeen contradictions and the end of capitalism. Oxford University Press, USA.

Mao, Z. (1987). On contradiction. Chinese Studies in Philosophy, 19(2), 20-82.

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1992). Capital, volume two: The process of circulation of capital. Penguin Classics, p. 391.

[christopherdaniels]

I really liked the project, so I translated everything to Portuguese, as it may reach more people. Keep up the good work!

[randomserb]

The name "Mao Zedong" follows Chinese naming conventions – Mao is the surname, Zedong the personal name. When citing his work and the citation style demands that only the initials be given, it should be Mao, Z.

[danielvictor]

This should be MANDATORY reading for Western Marxists in regards to how they approach others especially when organising the working class. LARPing tankies and some twisted liberal variation of "communist" drunk on idpol would rather antagonize a member of the working class/petit bourgeoisie who had never learned to process their own contradictions in the first place. For example: a blue collar worker can have progressive ideas about labor relations but have regressive ideas when it comes to gender; a petib but vice versa. Most Western self-proclaimed Marxists would rather alienate these people by approaching them through their secondary contradictions (gender, race, etc.) rather than through their principal contradictions, i.e. which class they belong to and how does the other class affect them (aka class analysis). Contradictions on race and gender are secondary because class relations form the basis that touch upon these contradictions in the first place, making it primary. This is not to say that things such as gender and race are not important matters to discuss. Progressive ideas about race and gender should be discussed ALONGSIDE class relations, since upon closer inspection oppressions on class, gender, and race are interconnected and mutually reinforces each other. Remember: Class relations form the basis of oppression of race and gender, but all forms of oppression should be fought altogether.

TL;DR If you plan to organise the working class don't kick out a powerline worker from your conference just because they are "fatphobic" or don't accuse a small enterprise owner of being a "dirty capitalist". Class analysis is always important, and learning contradictions helps in determining who to antagonize and which ones should be organised.

[breadtheory]

Great one! These videos make it so easy to understand Marxist economics.

[thepajeg]

I see the notification, I click. I’m a simple man.

[surafelgeleta]

Great video. This channel helps me learn a lot about marxism thank you

[kira__RD]

awesome work, I'm being radicalized with your vids no cap, also I'm slowly spreading the knowledge with my fellow left wing politically undefined friends, they seem to agree with almost everything!

[ThePastryChild]

Hi comrades! Thank you so much for your work, these videos are so well done and have helped me learn many times over! However would be great if you subtitled your videos, allowing Deaf & hard of hearing people as well as people with auditory processing issues such as myself to be able to access these important educational resources. Disabled radicals are all over the place and have a lot to contribute to leftist movements, but are continually excluded in ways like this!

(and just fyi, the YT auto-generated captions that are usually on your videos are always inaccurate especially when dealing with the kinds of non-English words and names that come up so frequently when discussing Marxism)

[lito]

Turned on notifications!

- a comrade in Vancouver, Canada

[brendannyman]

Sorry I haven't been watching your videos lately. I lost two of my jobs and I luckily found a new one but I am surprised that this channel has grown as it has.

Congrats comrades ! Solidarity from the epicenter state of the covid outbreak

[sayanbanerjee]

Please make more and more videos on dialectics

[gupyb]

6:19
Marxist project: We exchanged 10 000 pencil for 1 car ✏↔️🚗
Kyle MacDonald: Amateurs 📎↔️🏠

7:36
One dollar is missing, or customer n°4 is a thief.

[dialecticalveganegoist]

Great explanation! Love the new narrator and the visuals

[DC-wgcr]

11:30, and now they want a UBI (which I am not opposed to), but without workplace reforms (ideally cooperativism) marketplace oriented reforms will just subsidize inequality.

[sll]

I really like your videos, definitely learned a lot. Thank you!
I know that you said that you're not going to talk about Marx's value theory but I allowed myself to point out that besides the USE-VALUE and EXCHANGE-VALUE, there exist another form distinguished by Marx, namely VALUE. These three forms are not in a logical opposition but coexist within a commodity.
Exchange Value is the necessary mode of representation of VALUE, The difference between VALUE and EXCHANGE-VALUE is in that what is represented(value) and the mode of representation(exchange value) i.e. the social relation between the labouring activities of the people is represented as surface relation between the products of their labour i.e. commodities.
I'm not going to dig deeper I just find it important to point out.
btw ''Seventeen Contradictions of Capital'' is a must read !
Keep up the great job, Comrade!

[authenticallysuperficial]

Another orwellian term, though not as bad as "exploitation".

[DITOGaming]

I like these videos so much that I've used them as an example to members of the fourth international on good ways to grow class consciousness.

Not everyone is inclined to read theory and myself and other members of the party I am affiliated with think your videos are excellent.

[willm]

Comrade you should make a video just to introduce beginners to communism and Marxism, make the case for both. I think you would be very good at it

[DS-tzlk]

Dialectical materialism and the negation of contradictions. 🏴‍☠️beware of those who try to negate the negation of contradictions.👊🏽🏴✊🏽

[khulekanimsomi]

How can I subscribe to your channel and get notifications for new videos, and, is it possible to request certain work to be analyzed? Khule from RSA. I really love your work.🙏