Writings of J. Sykes

About J. Sykes

J. Sykes is the author of The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism, published by Freedom Road Socialist Organization in 2023, Against Trotskyism, published by Marxist-Leninist Reprints in 2023, and contributed to the volume People’s China at 75: The Flag Stays Red, published by Praxis Press in 2024. He is a regular contributor to Fight Back! News. His articles have been re-published by Monthly Review Online, Marxism-Leninism Today, Friends of Socialist China, Marxists.org, and the Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Sykes draws upon a rich history of activism and organizing in the mass movements going back more than 20 years, when he began organizing against the U.S. war in Iraq in 2003. He was an early organizer in the New Students for a Democratic Society, participating in its first four national conventions from 2006 to 2009. He has also been active in the movement against U.S. wars and interventions, such as those in Afghanistan, Palestine, Colombia, and the Philippines, as well as in the trade union movement and the immigrants rights movement.

This site collects and organizes together in one place all of the writings that have been published under his name, from 2006 to present, along with videos of talks and podcast interviews.

Books

Author
Author
Contributor

Red Theory – 2022 

Published as the book, The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism, FRSO 2023

  1. What is Marxism-Leninism? Introducing a new series on the Science of Revolution
  1. The historical emergence of Marxism
  1. Leninism: The Marxism of the current era
  1. How we learn: Theory and Practice
  1. Learning together: The Mass Line
  1. Idealism or materialism: Two approaches to the world
  1. Dialectics or metaphysics, two methods of analysis
  1. Contradiction, the kernel of dialectics
  1. On identity and antagonism in contradiction
  1. The leap from quantity to quality
  1. On the negation of the negation
  1. What is historical materialism?
  1. The role of labor in the development of human society
  1. The role of the forces of production
  1. The relations of production
  1. The contradiction between mental and manual labor
  1. The contradiction between town and country
  1. The contradiction between base and superstructure
  1. Marxism against pragmatism
  1. Marxism against postmodernism
  1. The revolutionary significance of Marx’s critique of capitalism
  1. The historic emergence of Capitalism
  1. Against Sakai on settler colonialism and the national question in the U.S.
  1. What is a commodity?
  1. Marxism and the Law of Value
  1. Constant and variable capital
  1. Surplus value, the secret of capitalist exploitation
  1. Capitalist accumulation and overproduction
  1. Imperialism, or monopoly capitalism
  1. The National Question in the era of imperialism
  1. What is neo-colonialism?
  1. The party of a new type
  1. The Leninist theory of the state
  1. Against the theory of a peaceful transition to socialism
  1. The united front against monopoly capitalism
  1. Bourgeois Democracy and Fascism
  1. What is socialism?
  1. The socialist transformation of the superstructure
  1. Socialism and bourgeois right
  1. The contradictions of socialist society
  1. Socialism and the national question
  1. Socialism and patriarchy, women’s liberation and LGBTQ liberation
  1. The achievements of socialism in the Soviet Union
  1. On the restoration of capitalism in the USSR
  1. The achievements of socialism in China

Against Trotskyism – 2023

[PDF for online reading]

  1. What is Trotskyism?
  1. Trotsky vs. Lenin
  1. The theory of permanent revolution
  1. Revolution in two stages
  1. Socialism in one country
  1. Trotsky and the Soviet Union
  1. Trotsky and the Chinese Revolution
  1. The united front
  1. Trotskyism and the national question
  1. The Socialist Workers Party and the decline of Trotskyism in the United States
  1. The Shachtmanites and “Third Camp” Trotskyism

Red Reviews

More articles on Marxist theory

Book reviews

Revolutionary Journalism

Audio/Video

Marxist-Leninist Reprints

Images

Writings of J. Sykes