Founder of Western Marxism: the Hungarian thinker who reoriented 20th-century Marxist philosophy with History and Class Consciousness
“Now, after the collapse of actually existing socialism, his questions look like the only surviving form of Marxism.” — from a late-life interview
Hungarian Marxist philosopher who founded Western Marxism with History and Class Consciousness (1923), establishing the concepts of reification and class consciousness. Served as commissar/minister of culture in the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic and the 1956 Imre Nagy government.
Career timeline
- 1902–1906Graduates Budapest law faculty; doctorate in law from Kolozsvár University
- 1909PhD in philosophy from Budapest University with The Form of Drama
- 1912–1918Lives in Heidelberg, studying with Simmel, Weber and Bloch
- 1918Joins the Hungarian Communist Party (KMP)
- 1919.03–08Deputy People's Commissar for Culture; political commissar, Hungarian Red Army
- 1919–1929Exile in Vienna; elected KMP CC General Secretary 1928, removed for right deviation
- 1923Publishes History and Class Consciousness; denounced as revisionist by Comintern
- 1929–1945Resides in Moscow; Marx-Engels Institute and Literary Critic journal
- 1941Arrested by NKVD; released after 2 months on Dimitrov's intervention
- 1942Defends The Young Hegel dissertation, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1945–1958Professor of aesthetics, University of Budapest; member of parliament
- 1956.10–11Minister of Culture in Imre Nagy government; interned in Romania
- 1957–1967Expelled from party; reinstated 1967. The Specificity of the Aesthetic
The Trinidadian Trotskyist and Pan-Africanist intellectual who revived the Haitian Revolution for Marxist historiography
“What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” — Beyond a Boundary preface, inverting Kipling
Trinidadian Marxist historian. The Black Jacobins (1938) reframed the Haitian Revolution as liberation from below. He debated Black self-determination with Trotsky, co-developed the state-capitalist theory of the USSR, and analysed empire through cricket in Beyond a Boundary.
Career timeline
- 1901Born in Tunapuna, Trinidad, first child of schoolteacher Robert Alexander James and Ida Elizabeth
- 1910–1918Wins scholarship to Queen's Royal College; later teaches English and History there (Eric Williams among his pupils)
- 1932Moves to Lancashire; cricket correspondent for The Manchester Guardian; begins anti-colonial writing
- 1934–1936Joins ILP; Trotskyist activism; play Toussaint Louverture staged with Paul Robeson; publishes Minty Alley
- 1937–1938Publishes World Revolution and The Black Jacobins — praised by Trotsky, Orwell, and E.H. Carr
- 1938–1939US speaking tour at SWP invitation; debates the 'Negro Question' with Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico
- 1941–1951Forms Johnson–Forest Tendency with Dunayevskaya; state-capitalist analysis of USSR; Notes on Dialectics
- 1953Deported from US; writes Mariners, Renegades and Castaways on Melville while detained at Ellis Island
- 1957–1960Visits independent Ghana, writes on Nkrumah; edits The Nation, PNM party paper in Trinidad
- 1963Publishes Beyond a Boundary — cricket memoir exploring colonialism, class, and race
- 1970–1980Teaches at Federal City College (UDC), Washington D.C.; four volumes of selected writings published
- 1989Dies of chest infection in Brixton, London, aged 88; buried at Tunapuna Cemetery, Trinidad
From Trotsky's secretary to founder of Marxist Humanism
“My real development only began after my break with Trotsky.” — from a 1980s interview
Born to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire, she emigrated to the US as a child. Starting as Trotsky's secretary, she broke with him over the nature of the USSR and co-developed the theory of state capitalism with C.L.R. James. She went on to found Marxist Humanism, fusing Hegelian dialectics with Marx's early writings, and led the News and Letters Committees.
Career timeline
- 1922Emigrates with family to Chicago, USA
- 1928Expelled from CPUSA youth organization for defending Trotskyism
- 1929Joins independent Trotskyist group in Boston led by Antoinette Konikow
- 1937–1938Serves as Trotsky's Russian-language secretary and stenographer in Mexico
- 1939Breaks with Trotsky over the character of the Soviet Union
- 1940Participates in SWP split → formation of the Workers Party
- 1941–1943Forms Johnson–Forest Tendency with C.L.R. James; state-capitalist analysis of USSR
- 1947Returns to the SWP
- 1951Leaves SWP over Korean War; forms Correspondence Publishing Committee
- 1953Studies Hegel's Phenomenology; advances interpretation of absolutes as 'philosophic moment'
- 1955Splits with C.L.R. James; founds News and Letters Committees
- 1958Publishes Marxism and Freedom (preface by Herbert Marcuse)
- 1973Publishes Philosophy and Revolution
- 1982Publishes Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's Philosophy of Revolution
- 1987Dies in Chicago aged 77
Marxist feminist philosopher who theorised the prison-industrial complex, co-founder of Critical Resistance
"I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." — courtroom declaration, 5 January 1971
American Marxist-feminist philosopher and foundational theorist of prison abolition. Joining CPUSA in 1968, she ran for Vice President in 1980 and 1984. Her 1970 arrest and sixteen-month imprisonment, ending in full acquittal, sparked a global solidarity campaign. Her landmark Women, Race & Class (1981) established intersectional analysis of race, gender and class; she went on to theorise the prison-industrial complex. In 1997 she co-founded Critical Resistance to advance abolition democracy. Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, she has stood at the crossroads of radical thought and practice for over five decades.
Career timeline
- 1944Born in Birmingham, Alabama; raised in the 'Dynamite Hill' Black middle-class neighbourhood
- 1965Graduates Brandeis magna cum laude; studies under Herbert Marcuse
- 1968Joins CPUSA; directs political education for Black Panther Party's LA chapter
- 1969Appointed assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA; fired for CPUSA membership, reinstated by court order
- 1970–1972Arrested, placed on FBI Ten Most Wanted list; acquitted of all charges after 16 months' imprisonment
- 1979Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union
- 1980CPUSA vice-presidential candidate, running mate of Gus Hall
- 1984CPUSA vice-presidential candidate, running mate of Gus Hall
- 1981Publishes Women, Race & Class, a classic of intersectional analysis
- 1991Leaves CPUSA; co-founds Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
- 1991–2008Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz; retires as Distinguished Professor Emerita in 2008
- 1997Co-founds Critical Resistance, institutional anchor of the prison abolition movement
- 2003Publishes Are Prisons Obsolete?, a popular manifesto for abolition democracy
