THRISSUR: The activities of civil society groups that are directed against the encroachment of the state on citizen’s right have to be promoted, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has said.He added that the activities of NGOs that are inclined to political parties should be discouraged. Karat was presenting a paper on ‘Challenges faced by Marxism in the contemporary world’ as part of the national seminar on ‘Marxism - A Rereading’ at the Sahitya Akademi Hall on Thursday. “Marxism is passing through a number of challenges. The collapse of Soviet Union and the dismantling of Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe have triggered challenges to Marxism. This has given way to the rise of neo-liberalism, theories and ideologies that are opposed to Marxism and socialism”, Karat said.He added that theoretically and practically Marxism faced difficulties in the last three decades.To seize with the changing capitalist world, he urged to look at Marxism in a new way ie, to get an authentic understanding of Marxism. “It has to be understood as a developing theory instead of a given corpus of knowledge”, he said. Karat said it was necessary to get out of the Soviet style of theorizing and practise Marxism to make it a living theory and an accurate guide to practise.“Identity politics has acquired a new edge in India and class politics has to be brought to the centre-stage”, he said. Karat added that re-thinking was required in certain areas to strengthen Marxian theories. “It has to be understood how the globalised finance system works today, the nature of imperialism in the early period of the 21st century and the changing nature of class relations”, he said. The CPM leader added that the theory of Marxist politics had to deal with the question of democracy and socialism, how to develop class politics which takes into account the diversity of identities spawned by bourgeois politics in the era of globalisation. “Post-modernism and post-Marxism emerged only to thwart Marxism. Post-modernism is a bourgeois movement that arose out of capitalism and retreat from socialism”, he said.“Instead of political programmes based on universal and common issues and principles, what is possible is taking up of local issues,” he said. To surpass the challenges posed to Marxism in the political sphere, politics based on Marxism has to show how the struggle against class exploitation encompasses the struggle against various forms of social oppression.
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