30 YEARS WITHOUT ERNEST MANDEL

OKDE (Workers' Struggle) Celebrates a Fourth International Leader

Jun 03, 2025

Photo: Bernhard Thiesing

[The text below was produced by OKDE - Workers’ Struggle, a Trotskyist organisation in Greece, to mark a two-day event hosted to mark the anniversary of Ernest Mandel’s passing. The section of the Fourth International in Greece is OKDE - Spartakos.]

30 YEARS WITHOUT ERNEST MANDEL

HIS LIFE AND WORK

A COMPASS FOR A SOCIALIST SOCIETY WITHOUT WARS – EXPLOITATION – OPPRESSION

TWO-DAY EVENT

GEOPONIKO, ATHENS Iera Odos 86 (Kerameikos Station) MAY 31 - JUNE 1

On 20/7/1995, 30 years ago, Ernest Mandel passed away. He was one of the most important – if not the most important – Marxist theorists after World War II and a leader of the 4th International. In his 72 years of life, he left one of the most significant legacies for understanding contemporary capitalism, analyzing the problems of our era, and the transition to and content of Socialism. He was a combination of an intellectual, political leader, and revolutionary activist, with his core characteristics being his faith in the class struggle, revolutionary optimism, and profound intellectual depth. He contributed immensely to the building and political maturation of the 4th International, and to the struggle for Revolution and Communism.

He was born in Frankfurt in 1923 and grew up in a deeply politicized family and social environment. His parents were members of the German "Spartacus" (of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht), and he grew up surrounded by revolutionary workers. From a very young age, he connected with revolutionary Marxism and the workers' movement in Belgium, where he contributed greatly to organizing workers. At 15, he joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Belgian section of the 4th International. From the beginning of his political life, he experienced capitalist barbarity. Three events marked him and sealed his unwavering commitment to revolutionary Marxism: a) The assassination of Leon Trotsky by the Stalinist agent Mercader. b) The massacre of Belgian coal miners. c) The slaughter of World War II. During the Nazi occupation of Belgium, he developed intense internationalist and anti-war activity, addressing both the Belgian proletariat and the German troops. He was arrested three times; he escaped twice by convincing his guards to help him. The third time, he was transferred to a concentration camp in Germany, where the war ended for him. Characteristic of his revolutionary optimism was his continued activity when he was transferred to the German concentration camp (which meant almost certain death), because he believed in the coming European revolution.

The situation after the war

After World War II, the world would be extremely different and complex. The post-war status quo was being woven. The world was divided into spheres of influence (Yalta Agreement). The hegemony of American imperialism was established, the Cold War began, and the rapid development of colonial revolutions started. The global capitalist system would experience a new long wave of development, which would boost capitalist profits. The "containment of the communist threat" would emerge as the main ideological tool of the bourgeoisie to suppress the workers' movement. This development of capitalism posed a challenge for Marxist economists, who expected an intensification of the crisis and believed that the war would be the prelude to a wave of revolutions in Europe, as happened with World War I. This development would cause significant concerns and would form the basis for the deepening revision of Marxism by Stalinism and Social Democracy. The proletariat, facing this maelstrom, would not have the necessary ideological tools to deeply understand the changes and its class duties. The reformist transformation of Stalinism had by then been completed. The 3rd International had been sacrificed as a gift to the "allied" imperialists. The 4th International, after the death of Trotsky and the assassinations of Trotskyist leaders during World War II, would emerge numerically weakened. The titanic task of interpreting the new world and drawing up a revolutionary program would be undertaken by Ernest Mandel through his theoretical and practical work. For this invaluable contribution, he earned a place in the pantheon of Marxism alongside Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, etc..

His contribution to Political Economy

A) Perhaps E. Mandel's most significant contribution to revolutionary politics is that he brought Political Economy back to the heart of Marxist analysis, which had been abandoned by the two main currents of Reformism (Stalinism – Social Democracy). Against views about the bankruptcy of Marxism, he would prove with a multitude of data the validity of Marx's general laws of Capital in the post-war imperialist system. He would examine and explain the new forms of development of the capitalist system, the difficult-to-understand post-war environment, mainly through 3 works: 1. Marxist Economic Theory. 2. The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx. 3. Late Capitalism. These works, even today, constitute the most complete study of the evolution of post-war capitalism, the long wave of development, and the transition to the long wave of downturn.

B) E. Mandel would supplement and advance Marx's theory of crises. Through persistent work, he would develop the theory of "Long Waves" and elaborate on it until the end of his life. He would prove that the rapid development of capitalism does not signal an overcoming of its contradictions, as various reformists argued. The capitalist system is condemned at regular intervals – approximately every 20 years – to fall into structural crises, which cannot be dealt with in an internal (economic) way and their duration is irregular. On the contrary, they intensify rivalries, inter-imperialist conflicts for the redivision of markets, and the class war against the workers. They lead to convulsions that sow destitution, poverty, and death. This analysis by E. Mandel is confirmed today in the most resounding way.

As a Marxist economist, he would interpret global changes with anti-colonial revolutions, new forms of exploitation of dependent countries by imperialist ones (succeeding traditional colonial relations), and how various countries manage to escape the grip of imperialists and develop a "national" economy. He was invited by Che Guevara to participate in the discussion about the newly established planned economy of revolutionary Cuba.

The building of the 4th International

After the war, he led the Belgian section and became the youngest member of the Secretariat of the 4th International at just 23 years old. Since then and for half a century, he played a decisive role in the building of revolutionary parties, national sections of the 4th International, and the International itself. Under E. Mandel's leadership, it would reach sections in 68 countries (approximately the same number as the 3rd International had). His tireless revolutionary activity cost him entry bans to the USA, France, the two Germanys, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, etc. – and of course, to the USSR and China.

He contributed to the defense and strengthening of anti-colonial revolutions and movements worldwide: In 1950, he participated in the brigade sent by the 4th International to support the Yugoslav revolution and the young workers' state, which Stalin threatened to crush. He supported in every way (materially and politically) the revolutions in Algeria, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc.

He was one of the pioneers of the turn towards building the 4th International, through its autonomous participation in the revolutionary wave of 1965-75, overcoming the "entryism" of the previous period. Until the end of his life, he remained faithful to the cause of building revolutionary parties as necessary tools for the victory of the socialist revolution.

Mandel's socialist vision

The red thread that runs through E. Mandel's work is revolutionary humanism. All his theories and analyses are not connected with abstract schemes, but with the class struggle itself, with the pain of poor people, and lead to the liberating vision of Socialism. He always had a deep faith in the working class and its capabilities; he always connected the fate of humanity with the class struggle itself. From this perspective, E. Mandel did not see the goal of Socialism only as the development of production, but this was a means for the development of the individual and society. Wealth would be measured by free time, which would be connected with the development of abilities. Production, through democratic planning and self-management, would be subject to satisfying the needs of society and not the profit of a handful of rich people and elites.

A profound theorist of Marxism

Through his theoretical work and necessary political directions, the advancement of revolutionary tactics and strategy, he contributed to the building of the revolutionary national sections of the 4th International. He was one of the most prolific individuals of the 20th century. He published approximately 2,000 articles and 30 books in various languages. He left no area of revolutionary politics without contributing to its development:

He would describe the changes taking place in the working class and in the class struggle, the formation of a broad vanguard. This understanding would allow the 4th International to become part of the movements that would break out, to develop a program of struggle, and to emerge as a distinct pole in the workers' movement, especially after May 1968.
He would understand and interpret reformism and its role post-war. He would clash with both Eurocommunism and Stalinism, writing dozens of articles and books. He would predict the developments of 1989-91, perestroika, and the fall of the USSR, making timely analyses of the evolution of the contradictions of the Stalinist regimes.
He would deepen the tactic of the United Front and free it from reformist distortions. He would explain that the "united front" is not simply a unity of organizations, an electoral amalgamation, but a militant unity of the working class, which ensures its class independence.
He would contribute decisively to the content of "Socialist Democracy," to the understanding of what socialism we are fighting for: this contribution would constitute a breakthrough in the trajectory of the Trotskyist and revolutionary movement. He clarified that Socialism has nothing to do with the harsh, one-party, unfree Stalinist dictatorships. He restored its credibility in the consciousness of the masses.
He would place self-organization structures at the center of the revolutionary program. For E. Mandel, they constituted workshops for educating the working class for the establishment of a democratically centralized workers' power. In this context, he would develop the politics of Workers' Control: workers must try to impose their own interests on the enterprise, to exercise veto power over the capitalists' decisions, with the aim of building their own power against the bourgeoisie.
Despite the developments of 1989-91, the restoration of capitalism in the bureaucratically degenerated workers' states, he continued his activity traveling the world (he also visited Greece) defending the ideas of Socialism, analyzing and explaining even then the deep crisis and impasses of capitalism (which then seemed an eternal triumph) and the inevitable rebirth of workers' struggles and anti-capitalist questioning.

The struggle for Socialism, the only solution to the slaughter being prepared for us

At the end of his life, E. Mandel would speak of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" unleashed by the deep and structural crisis of the capitalist system: 1) Nuclear holocaust, 2) environmental catastrophe, 3) the spread of poverty and destitution, 4) anti-democratic retrenchment – violation of democratic and political rights. Today these have been magnified, bringing humanity to the brink of destruction. Inter-imperialist conflicts between the USA and China-Russia are intensifying, and military conflicts are spreading (Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Syria, etc.). The USA and the "willing" of the EU, to maintain their dominance, threaten to plunge the entire planet into bloodshed. The democracies of the rich, to maintain the profits of the elites and increase military spending, have launched a relentless class war against workers, youth, and poor popular strata. They reduce wages, privatize – destroy public infrastructure, increase taxation, and plummet living standards. To remain in power, they are expanding the State of Emergency: anti-democratic retrenchment, repression, police state, violation of democratic rights and freedoms.

In our country, the Mitsotakis regime has declared a ruthless class war against workers, the poor, and the youth. High prices, poverty, anti-worker measures, and repression are culminating, the privatization and commodification of everything – health, education, popular housing – are becoming widespread, while the rich and large business owners are making untold profits. Exorbitant amounts are given to repression mechanisms and armaments. It is involving us deeper and deeper in the war, in the dangerous developments in our region. For humanity to breathe, to be rid of the democracies of the rich, to avoid annihilation, we must fight for the overthrow of the capitalist system, which in its swan song plunges us into destruction. The life and work of E. Mandel show us the way. He was a model of tireless dedication to the cause of Socialism and brilliant optimism for the communist future of humanity. His enormous legacy, theoretical as well as political, practical, and moral contribution to the 4th International, to the workers' and revolutionary movement, are a beacon for every activist seeking answers to the colossal problems of our time.