The Debate on Marx in the Global South

The geographical term "South" is intended to sum up those debates in theories that build on Marx and neither originate in Western Europe nor in North America, the Soviet Union or the real socialist states of Eastern Europe. The Marxism of the Global South was of course influenced by these two major camps. For instance, the socialist liberation movements of the Global South primarily associated themselves with the Soviet Union, whereas the academic debate was more strongly oriented towards the debates on Marx conducted in the West.

A distinct version of Marxism has developed in the Global South, mainly in the course of "peripheral revolutions" that can be interpreted as offshoots of the Russian Revolution of 1917. This Marxism exerted its influence mainly during the wave of anticolonial and national liberation movements that emerged after the Second World War, particularly in China, India and Latin America, but also in some African countries. The Marxism of the Global South derived its independence mainly from its attempt to understand colonial and imperial exploitation and oppression, the asynchronicity of societal development and the various forms of dependence, as well as from its reflections on political resistance.

In this context, the writings on the philosophy and ethics of liberation by Argentinian philosopher Enrique Dussel, one of the major Latin American thinkers, are of particular importance. Another key protagonist was Ernesto „Che“ Guevara, the Argentinian-Cuban revolutionary who has become a legend.