Why I’ve taken to reading the capitalist press

Yep you’ve read that correct I have started looking at the bourgeois press the more quality stuff that is. You may be surprised to hear that but there is a method in my madness. I haven’t suddenly chucked my Marxist principles out the window but in fact I’m taking a greater interest in the global economy for several reasons. As a Marxist reading our own material can be great propaganda and agitation material to win over workers but to find out what is really going on out there in capitalism reading such publications as the Economist and the Financial times and the Wall Street Journal to name just a few. These are in the main well put together papers and magazines. They are often pro market of course and do not tell it how it is from the workers perspective. But that is where I need to apply Marxist analysis to understand what is really going on underneath the surface of society and in the economy at large. There is an old phrase that revolutions start at the top and in many ways this is true the tops of the trees begin to shake at first and this sends shock waves to the very foundations of society. Understanding what is happening at the very top of capitalism and the process’s involved just as Karl Marx did in his excellent analysis of capitalist production in the 1800’s can give us a excellent insight into predicting what will happen next in terms of the class struggle. Understanding if we’re in a period of growth or decline and how the economy is going to develop or contract in the next period. Understanding b bourgeois ideaology can be interesting but can also provide us a glimpse of their thinking. The old phrase keep your friends close but your enemies closer applies here. Understanding the twists and turns of the class struggle is key to applying the correct slogans and understanding of what period we are in and how we can best put forward a programme to change society towards a socialist transformation of society. While I don’t read the capitalist press religiously it does pay all workers if they can to take an interest in the wider economy out there to see where we are going and to independently educate ourselves. Watching our own news and our own material will only tell you so much it’s good to get a rounded out perspective on the world and the way society is heading. Its key for all revolutionaries who have a aim in changing society to understand capitalism and how it works this does not mean agreeing with it but to over throw capitalism we must understand it where its weakness’s lie and when it is most venerable. These tend to be the points just before an incline or just after a crash Trotsky’s curve of capitalist development is an excellent piece to get to grip with this idea of when workers can go on the offensive and will be most confident of wins. But we are now in a huge downturn in capitalism and there will be opportunities for workers to come to power many opportunities. We must learn the lessons to be prepared to take those chances when they arise. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history as they say.