Theories of Surplus-Value by Karl Marx

By Gene Ogorodov

Nothing shows the hard work and impressive genius of Karl Marx as well as Theories of Surplus-Value. Every academic worthy of being called an academic is intimately familiar with the work and major hypotheses of their contemporaries and most influential predecessors, and economics is a field of study no less professional than any other academic field, but few economists have gone through the Sisyphean task of describing and deconstructing every idea in the field. That is what Marx does in Theories of Surplus-Value. Only Marx, Schumpeter, and Wolff and Resnick have presented what may be truly called detailed comparisons of economic theories and theorists. However, Theories of Surplus-Value also gives an excellently detailed picture of the underlying logic behind Marxian Economics. Alongside Capital and the Grundrisse, Theories of Surplus-Value ranks as one of the most essential economic works of Karl Marx and the Marxian Tradition.

Pine Flag Books has published this seminal work in ebook format for Kindle and Nook. This edition is based on the edition published by Progress Publishers in the 1970's and edited by Gene Ogorodov.

A Great Love by Alexandra Kollontai

By Gene Ogorodov

Alexandra Kollontai is an interesting figure that emerged out of Russian Revolutionary politics. A child of a Finish peasant and a Russian General, reared in luxury, she was an early member of the Russian Social Democratic Party that opposed both Martov and Lenin in the Bolshevik/Menshevik split who, like Trotsky, joined Lenin's Bolshevik's in the eleventh hour rising to prominence in the early Soviet Union. She shattered the glass ceiling as a Peoples' Commissar (Soviet equivalent of a Cabinet Secretary) in 1917 and Ambassador in 1923 half a century before Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, or Golda Meir became Prime Ministers in there respective countries.

Outspoken and fearless Kollontai relentlessly pursued social and economic equality for women in the Soviet Union, going toe-to-toe with anyone including Lenin when ever she felt the need. She vehemently opposed prostitution and marital infidelity as exploitative for women. (In fact A Great Love was itself written as little more than a thinly veiled attack on Lenin's extra-marital affair with Inessa Armand). Nevertheless, Kollontai was one of the first proponents of "free love." Marriage was, she believed, a relic of the patriarchal domination of women and would vanish along with the state in a perfectly free and communal society.