Theory

Spectres of Marx

Prodigiously influential, Jacques Derrida gave rise to a comprehensive rethinking of the basic concepts and categories of Western philosophy in the latter part of the twentieth century, with writings central to our understanding of language, meaning, identity, ethics and values. In 1993, a conference was organized around the question, 'Whither Marxism?’, and Derrida was invited to open the proceedings. His plenary address, 'Specters of Marx', delivered in two parts, forms the basis of this book. Hotly debated when it was first published, a rapidly changing world and world politics have scarcely dented the relevance of this book.


The Communist Manifesto
With an introduction by A J P Taylor

The complete text of the political tract which has exercised so great an influence on the world in the last century. In a special introduction to this edition A.J.P. Taylor charts the progress of the manifesto from persecuted obscurity to global reverence and examines the relevance of Marx's nineteenth-century ideas to the realities of modern politics.


The Floodgates of Anarchy

This polemic approaches the subject of anarchism in relation to class struggle. It presents an argument against class-based society and hierarchy and advocates for a free and equal society based on individual dignity and merit.

Drawing from the authors’ experiences as activists and documenting the activities of other 20th-century anarchists—including clandestine activities and social change by any means—this fundamental text asserts that government is the true enemy of the people and that only through the dissolution of government can the people put an end to exploitation and war, leading to a fully free society.


The Question of Palestine

This original and deeply provocative book was the first to make Palestine the subject of a serious debate—one that remains as critical as ever. With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential Orientalism and an exile's passion (he is Palestinian by birth and has been a member of the Palestine National Council), Edward W. Said traces the fatal collision between two peoples in the Middle East and its repercussions in the lives of both the occupier and the occupied—as well as in the conscience of the West. He has now updated this landmark work to portray the changed status of Palestine and its people in light of such developments as the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the intifada, the Gulf War, and the ongoing Middle East peace initiative.

For anyone interested in this region and its future, The Question of Palestine remains the most useful and authoritative account available.


The State and Revolution

The State and the Revolution: The Marxist Doctrine of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution (1917) is a book by Vladimir Lenin describing the role of the state in society, the necessity of proletarian revolution, and the theoretic inadequacies of social democracy in achieving revolution to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.


Writing Palestine

Writing Palestine marks the tenth year of the Palestine Book Awards which was established to honour and endorse the best books written in English on Palestine.

The book, with Arabic and English texts, uniquely brings together revered names: Rima Khalaf, Salman Abu Sitta, Ramzy Baroud, Ilan Pappé, Richard Falk, Karen Abu Zayd, Salim Vally and Eugene Rogan, all of whom were either keynote speakers at our annual receptions or recipients of Awards, including Lifetime Achievement Awards. What unites them is their deep belief in the power of books and their commitment to Palestine.

As writers, academics, poets and artists, theirs is a passionate journey to disseminate knowledge about Palestine and its people. Together, they weave past and present struggles to present in writing the Palestinian Watan (Homeland) where nothing like what’s happening now takes place.

This book also contains the powerful poem Identity Card by Najwan Darwish and paintings from Award winning books by renowned Palestinian artists, Samia Halaby’s Drawing the Kafr Qasem Massacre and Nabil Anani’s Palestine Land and People. The cover is a lyrical painting from 1971 by the late Kamal Boullata – Memory of Silwan from his book with Finbarr Barry Flood, There Where You Are Not.


Zombie Capitalism
Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx

We've been told for years that the capitalist free market is a self-correcting perpetual growth machine in which sellers always find buyers, precluding any major crisis in the system. Then the credit crunch of August 2007 turned into the great crash of September–October 2008, leading one apologist for the system, Willem Buiter, to write of "the end of capitalism as we knew it."

As the crisis unfolded, the world witnessed the way in which the runaway speculation of the "shadow" banking system wreaked havoc on world markets, leaving real human devastation in its wake. Faced with the financial crisis, some economic commentators began to talk of "zombie banks"–financial institutions that were in an "undead state" and incapable of fulfilling any positive function but a threat to everything else. What they do not realize is that twenty-first century capitalism as a whole is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals.