Is history just a series of events unfolding randomly and lawlessly? Is it a straight line of development and progress – with liberal capitalist democracy as the endpoint? Or is it something else entirely?
A scientific understanding of history is an irreplaceable tool for every communist. In this talk, Josh Holroyd will set out the fundamental principles of historical materialism, which looks at history as a dialectical process, driven not by the ideas of ‘great men’ but by the development of the productive forces and the class struggle.
Rather than a straight line or an endlessly repeating cycle, history moves through contradiction. Periods of progress are followed by decay, and new, higher forms of society are eventually born out of the old, which have exhausted their progressive role.
To understand this struggle of new against old, and our own role in it, is an essential task for communists today.