Capitalism Follow

With many unprofitable companies avoiding bankruptcy, can capitalism rise from the dead?

Right wingers usually argue that the state should get out of the way of private capital - that economic problems are caused by an overbearing state or regulation. Jack Farmer argues that the state actually serves to prop up the private sector, a role confirmed by the way that capitalism has evolved in recent years

Marxists are sometimes accussed of being dismissive of oppression, preferring to emphasise the importance of class. Sara Bennett explains why socialists argue for working class unity as the best way to combat, and ultimately abolish, all forms of oppression

Those who suggest that we are witnessing a crisis of "crony capitalism", rather than capitalism itself, are wrong, argues Jack Farmer

Accumulation: the motor of capitalism

Towards the end of last year, unelected "technocrats" were installed in power in both Greece and Italy. John Molyneux argues that while capitalism came into being with grand claims about universal freedom, each expansion of democracy has had to be fought for - and is never completely secure.

Karl Marx's claim that the working class has the power to change the world is perhaps his most important contribution to socialist theory. Before Marx workers were viewed at best as victims of the system or more typically as a rabble whose existence threatened civilisation. Marx challenged these assumptions, arguing that workers' collective struggles for freedom pointed towards a potential socialist alternative to capitalism.

Recent panic in the stock markets has led some commentators to ask whether Karl Marx might have been right after all. Bill Dunn explains some of the core ideas at the heart of Marx's understanding of capitalism and shows how they can be used to explain the system's current crisis

Billions of people regularly struggle to get enough to eat. Mike Haynes argues that the problem isn't a lack of produce or a rising population. It is a system driven by profit

Economist and author Graham Turner talked to Socialist Review about his new book No Way to Run the Economy, why he believes Keynes is misunderstood and what he has learned from Marxist economics.

Chris Harman, Bookmarks Publications; £16.99

Joseph Choonara, Bookmarks Publications; £7.99