Intellectual and Socio-Political Aspects of Laski’s Marxism

Following the discussion in the previous chapter of personal, intellectual and socio-political ways of being a Marxist, this chapter begins by arguing that Laski's reluctant adoption of Marxist tenets reflected a lack of personal commitment to the tradition. He far more often expressed a commitment to the broader socialist tradition, within which Marxism developed. The chapter focuses closely on some of Laski's intellectual and socio-political activities of the 1930s and 1940s, discussing whether they can be considered to have Marxist characteristics, and if so how. Laski, it becomes apparent, was an idiosyncratic Marxist, or perhaps neo-Marxist, in intellectual terms. The continuing influence of American pluralist philosophy, which had helped shape his early pluralism, is significant. In his socio-political activity some Marxist characteristics are in evidence, but he disagreed with some of the prominent British Marxists of the period. His relations with the British Communists are, hence, a feature of the chapter.