Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory is an independent, refereed, scholarly journal founded in 1973. It attempts to analyse contemporary society from a critical Marxist perspective. Critique takes the view that Marxism has been so degraded by the Stalinist period that much of what has passed for Marxism has ranged between incoherent nonsense and empty if complex scholastic schema. Since socialism in one country is a theoretical and practical impossibility, Critique rejected and continues to reject analyses purporting to show this or that country is or was socialist. Furthermore, Critique emphatically insists on the impossibility of an undemocratic socialism.
The aim of Critique is to take part in the restoration of the earlier pre-eminence of Marxist thought by encouraging discussion around the political economy of contemporary capitalist and non-capitalist societies. For this purpose, it regards debate around methodology and as a consequence philosophy to be essential. Inevitably, contemporary political economy must also involve debate around the importance of historical events and so Critique encourages contributions of historical analysis.
The Origins of Critique:
Critique was founded in May 1973 following its first conference in London, at which some 500 people attended. In the initial editorial it declared that its aim was to analyse Stalinism based on the empirical reality, while rejecting an empiricist approach. It sought to discover the laws of motion applying to Stalinism. It rejected the imposition of schema on the analysis, usual both on the left and right. The journal became associated with a new school of thought critical of Stalinism and the Soviet Union, which argued that the USSR was neither actually nor potentially a mode of production. Articles made it clear that it could not last and that the market would be imposed but that it would fail. The theory has been amply borne out by events.
In the second issue the editorial made clear "that we will follow the logic of our enterprise and publish articles on wider aspects of socialist theory, such as problems of the transitional period, the socialist mode of production etc." Debates on the decline of capitalism and the importance of Stalinism for capitalism led to contemporary discussions showing the greater instability of capitalism without the Cold War, the USSR and Stalinist parties. Critique became a more general journal of Marxist theory.
