Marxism out-of-place

Abstract

This article discusses the difficulties that exist for the development of a

Latin American Marxism. This difficulty may flow from Marx and Engels`

work itself, and the philosophy of history that emerges in several moments

of this work. Nonetheless, the analysis of the situation in Ireland

and of the Russian rural commune allowed these writers – and Marx in

particular – to go beyond this philosophy of history. We then move on to

discuss one attempt to interpret Latin America, and Brazil in particular,

based on Marx`s work: one which was developed within the ambit of the

“Seminário d’O Capital.” In this seminar, a form of appropriating Marx’s work

giving salience to methodological aspects was promoted. In spite of the

important contribution of the authors linked to this seminar, among them

Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his analysis of situations of dependence,

this appropriation of Marx`s work revealed clear limitations. Thus, we end

with an argument on the need for Marxism to build a deep link between

theory and practice, theoretical and empirical research in order to go

beyond existing impasses in the interpretation of Latin America.

Keywords: Marxism, Dependency Theory, unequal exchange, Latin

America.