Originally founded as the theoretical journal of the Communist Party of Great Britain, during the 1980’s Marxism Today was transformed into a 'glossy' left magazine of immense influence on the British Left. Inspired by Raymond Williams’ cultural materialism, H.F. Pimlott explores the connections between political practice and cultural form as she assesses the publication’s successes and failures. This analysis touches on Marxism Today’s political and cultural critiques of Thatcherism and the Left—especially those authored by Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm—its innovative publicity and marketplace distribution, relationships with the national UK press, cultural coverage, design and format, and writing style.
In a political landscape where an emerging left is striving to find its voice, Wars of Position offers insights for contemporary media activists and challenges the neglect of the left press by media scholars.
ISBN: 9781642598247
Publication date: January 31, 2023
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
List of Tables and Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Left, Cultural Form and Political Practice
1 Sign(ifier) of the Times?
2 The Production of the 'Marketplace of the Ideas'
3 Overview of the Book
1 Marxism Today’s Story: An Historical Narrative of a Cultural Form
1 The Left, Cultural Form and Political Practice
2 The Party and the Party Paper: Leninist Communication Practices
3 Leninist Communication Practices: The Party as a Medium of Communication
4 The CPGB’s Practice of 'Democratic Centralism'
5 Leninist Communication Practices: Agitation and Propaganda
6 Leninist Communication Practices: The Party Paper
7 A Basic Typology of Communist Party Publications
8 The Beginnings of Postwar Reconstruction and Periodical Developments
9 Precursors: The Commission on Party Journals 1953
10 Precursors: Marxist Quarterly (1954–57)
11 Precursors: The Commission on Inner Party Democracy 1957
12 Marxism Today: 'The First Generation': 1957–77
13 A Party of Two Wings
14 The Brief Rise of 'Eurocommunism'
15 Marxism Today’s Transformation: 'Caution & Compromise', 1977–83
16 'Reaction & Realignment' 1983–87
17 'The Tail Wags the Dog': 1987–89
18 'New Times', 1989–91
19 Conclusion
2 From 'New Left' to 'New Labour': Marxism Today’s Political Project and the 'Retreat from Class'
1 'Forward March of Labour Halted?'
2 'Thatcherism'
3 Thatcherism: Critiques
4 Separation of 'The Economic'
5 Alternate Political Explanations
6 Elections, Polling and Public Opinion
7 'Common Sense'
8 Thatcherism’s Theoretical Underpinnings: The 'Wrong' Gramsci?
9 'Ideology' vs. 'Discourse'
10 'Hegemony'
11 Social Production of Ideologies
12 The Hegemonic Apparatus
13 'New Times': From New Left to New Labour?
14 Part II: 'From Wars of Position to Cultural Politics'
15 'Popular Politics'
16 Feminism and the New Social Movements
17 'Municipal Socialism'
18 The Communist Party, Popular Culture and Marxism Today
19 From 'Rock Against Racism' to 'Designer Socialism'
20 Conclusion
3 The Party Line versus the Bottom Line? The Political Economy of Left Magazine Production
1 'Passive' and 'Active' Editorships, 1957–91
2 'Editorial Control' or 'Cultural Circle'?
3 'Who Pays the Piper, Calls the Tune?' Financing Marxism Today
4 Advertising
5 'Private Enterprise or Political Commitment?' Printing and Subscriptions
6 'A Little Help From My Friends': The Process of Magazine Production
7 The Production Process
8 Conclusion
4 From the Party Line to the Politics of Design: Marxism Today’s Cultural Transformation
1 The Theory of the Periodical and Magazine Design in the 1980s
2 Format: 'From a Journal into a Magazine'
3 The First Format: 1957–79
4 The Second Format: 1979–86
5 The Third Format: 1986–91
6 Front covers
7 Visual Communication, Advertising and Design
8 Editorial Sections: Features
9 Features: Alternative Modes of Presentation
10 Modes of/for Discussion
11 Other Editorial Sections
12 Cultural Coverage: From ‘Reviews’ to ‘Channel Five’
13 The Politics of Form and the Form of Politics
14 Conclusion
5 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Publicity, Promotion and Distribution in the Marketplace of Ideas
1 Party Distribution
2 'Out-of-Party' Distribution
3 In the Marketplace of Left Periodicals
4 'Cadres to Consumers': Changes in Readership, 1957–91
5 Contributors
6 Book Publishing
7 'The Art of Talking': Discussion Groups, Talks, Events, Conferences
8 Promotion
9 Publicity
10 National Press Coverage
11 'Thinking the Unthinkable'
12 Conclusion
6 Write Out of the Margins: Communist Ideology and Accessibility, Rhetoric and Writing Style
1 Twentieth-Century Communist Rhetoric
2 Accessibility
3 Marxism Today’s Defensive Rhetorical Strategy 1957–77
4 'Solidification'
5 Principles of Good Style
6 Language
7 Plain Style
8 Marxism Today’s Top Two Contributors: Eric Hobsbawm and Stuart Hall
9 Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetorical Style of 'Realistic Marxism'
10 Rhetorical Strategy and Writing Style
11 Stuart Hall: Socialist Public Intellectual and Polemical Rhetorician
12 Stuart Hall’s Rhetorical Techniques and Writing Style
13 Qualification and Conditionality
14 Unity and Division on the Left: From ‘Common Sense’ to Caricature?
15 Tropes and Metaphors
16 Stuart Hall’s 'Realism'
17 Conclusion
7 W(h)ither the Party Paper? What Lessons for the Left Press
1 A Perennial Question
2 Epilogue
Illustrations
References
Index
“Pimlott draws on Raymond Williams’s understanding of the means of communication as means of production and insists on a focus on the material basis upon which ideas are produced and circulated, with an emphasis on processes and practices. This is an energizing point, as we grapple with how to assess a media landscape that seems so radically different from the one that existed in the 1970s and even 1980s and 90s [...] This opens many questions and angles with which to study left media today, and for which she provides a model.”
—Nicole Cohen, Associate Professor, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto
“Pimlott’s book is full of fascinating material: stories detailing the organizational structure and everyday practice of the Communist Party of Great Britain; finely-grained stylistic analysis of Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm’s writing; a rigorously argued interpretation of Gramsci-the-Marxist-theorist, against the flawed interpretations of Hall and others. The book’s approach in the broadest terms – its exhaustive theoretically-driven historical analysis as a demonstration of cultural materialism – is overwhelmingly impressive. But what jumped out at me from the start, and what has remained for me the book’s key takeaway, is its attention to the fundamental question: Why do leftists write?”
—James Cairns, Professor of Indigenous Studies, Law & Social Justice, Wilfrid Laurier University.
“Alternatively, for Robin Kelley, solidarity requires building with those you do not recognize or identify with. He suggests that, while empathy assumes immediacy, solidarity requires mediation between theory and practice, a negotiation of the contradictions between them. Can media studies be a space to theorize such a form of mediation, such a connection between theory and practice? [...] Indeed, I believe that this is what Pimlott provides us with in Wars of Position?: the capacity to imagine a radical politics of mediation, a serious interrogation of the relationship between theory and practice.”
—Armond Towns, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Williams College
“Wars of Position? is ultimately a theory of the failure of Marxian media, and the story she recounts of the demise of Marxism Today is a lesson in the practical dimensions of theory production, the development of socialist and communist class consciousness, and the difficulties faced by party publications in a world of actually existing and thriving capitalism [...] A significant work of contemporary Marxist theory that shows importantly that the success or failure of the party media also bears critical implications for the success or failure of the party, itself.”
—Matthew Flisfeder, Professor of Rhetoric and Communications, The University of Winnipeg
“Pimlott’s book is a unique cultural materialist study of a Marxist media firm that sheds light on the constraints and opportunities of making anti-capitalist alternative media within the dominant structures of capitalist media. While her book focuses on a specific case of alternative media in a period of history that is not the same as ours, its insights are nonetheless valuable to anyone who wishes to understand the real material opportunities and challenges faced by socialist media creators within a system that deters and frequently neutralizes their politics.”
—Tanner Mirrlees, Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, and author of Work in the Digital Media and Entertainment Industries: A Critical Introduction.
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