Mariátegui and the Decolonization of Marxism: A Latin-American Perspective

Underlining the constant reconfiguration of the senses of and connections between Marx and Europe, in particular as incarnations of the idea of universality, Alfredo Gomez-Muller explores the fluid, decentred and decolonial perspective of the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui. He studies how Mariátegui valorised myth over “scientific socialism”, reconsidered the human dimension of the “spiritual”, and elaborated “Inca communism” against the eurocentrist idea of “primitive communism”. Gomez-Muller thereby suggests that Mariatégui already, half a century before the emergence of post-colonial studies, started decolonizing Marxism, both from within and without.