Excerpt: /352/ Cold War Marxism, East & West ft. Sean Sayers

On China, Russia, the US and UK.

Professor Emeritus and one of the founders of ‘Radical Philosophy’, Sean Sayers, joins us to talk about Marxist philosophy, how it’s developed and changed over the course of the twentieth century and into this one. We talk about Sean’s background and experience in the radical academy of the 1960s, and how the New Left fed through into the founding of ‘Radical Philosophy’, and more recently, the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. Sean talks about what’s happened to academic philosophy, and what it might take to defend the humanities in the modern Western academy.

 

Sean also talks to us about the significance of Hegelian Marxism, the American red diaspora in the UK, his visit to China during the Cultural Revolution, the state of intellectual debate and dissent in China today under Xi Jinping, and how radical politics unfolded from the 1960s over to the new millennium. Plus, he talks about his personal connection to Sacco and Vanzetti, the two Italian-American anarchists executed in 1927.

 

Readings:

• Radical Philosophy turns 50, Jonathan Rée, Sean Sayers, Christopher J. Arthur, Kate Soper, Diana Coole, Stella Sandford
• Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America (review), Ruth Kinna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
• Marx and Progress, Sean Sayers, International Critical Thought (pdf)