Introduction to Henryk Grossman's 'A New Theory of Imperialism and the Social Revolution'

Abstract

Characterisations of Henryk Grossman as a theorist of capitalism’s automatic collapse and political passivity are false. Even before the publication of his principal work, Grossman had linked his recovery of Marx’s account of capitalism’s tendency to break down to his own, interventionist, Leninist politics. This is apparent in his substantial critique of Fritz Sternberg’s influential 1926 book, Imperialism. Grossman’s article (doi 10.1163/1569206X-12341756) also restates fundamental aspects of Marx’s value theory, class analysis and account of wages.