In this talk at the International Marxist Tendency’s 2021 World Congress, Fred Weston defends the philosophy of Marxism against all the reactionary and counter-revolutionary trends assailed against it: particularly the recent vogue of ‘postmodernism’.

The fight for ideas is a fundamental part of the class struggle. Lenin, citing Engels, said its importance was at least on par with battles on the political and economic fronts.

Marxist philosophy draws on all the most-advanced trends in human thought, all the way back to the great thinkers of Ancient Greece, and develops them to their highest form in dialectical materialism.

Marxist philosophy is not merely a tool of intellectual enquiry, it is a guide to concrete action. This is why the ruling class and its intellectual agents in the universities and mass media hate and fear these ideas: they are a powerful weapon of class warfare.

This is why they slander Marxism, and attempt to swamp workers and youth in the pessimistic morass of postmodernism: to prevent them from drawing revolutionary conclusions.

It is necessary for all Marxists to conquer and defend our philosophy, so as to offer the clearest possible explanation to the working class of the road forward, out of the nightmare of class exploitation towards a decent existence under a socialist society.

If you enjoy this talk, you can pre-order 'History of Philosophy: a Marxist Perspective' here.