Mission Statement
Revolutionist noun
rev-o-lu-tion-ist, rev-ə-ˈlü-sh(ə-)nəst
A person who takes part in a revolution.
A person who believes in revolution as a means of bringing about change.
Like so many words in Marx’s writing, the word revolution has a twofold meaning. On the one hand, it refers to the great and sudden social upheavals by which an old status quo is supplanted by a new one. On the other hand, it refers to a continuously unfolding process by which systems and objects improve themselves. On the one hand, revolutions are the result of society in its historical development; its real movement. And on the other hand, revolutions are the motive force of this development. Both instances of the word, however, converge on a single thesis: that revolutions are the locomotives of history.
To be a revolutionist in the Marxist sense, therefore, is to be a student of this movement, and a conscious participant in it. It means comprehension of the social character of revolutions and their social consequences.
To this end, we endeavor to study the burning social questions of our time so that we may uncover the real movement behind them and demystify its workings. We make no effort to conceal the conclusions we draw from this study, and we pull no punches in our presentation of these conclusions.
We do not “believe” in revolution the way one believes in god or creed. We are guided toward belief in revolution through the ruthless critique of all that exists. We are not agents of revolution any more than the average union steward or venture capitalist. We are but witnesses to the social revolution already underway, and with blaring bugles, we herald this social revolution.
More About the Revolutionist
The Revolutionist straddles the line between being a newspaper and an academic journal. We seek to give prescient accounts of contemporary events and treat them with the academic rigor we feel they deserve. We simultaneously seek to be a popular journal, which does not bury its subject matter behind stuffy academic language. We are human beings. We laugh and cry in equal measure, and we endeavor to express this as we interrogate the questions of our time.
We are a Marxist journal. We reject adherence to any particular Marxist tendency, though we are more critical of some than we are of others. We treat Marxism as neither a fixed dogma, nor as merely a set of loose guidelines to be modified as one pleases. We see Marxism as a living science, and we treat it with the same seriousness as any other subject, always trying to hold ourselves to the same standards that Marx and Engels held themselves to. For other examples of this approach, we point, in no particular order, to publications like Historical Materialism, Viewpoint, Cosmonaut, New Left Review, and In Defence of Marxism.
Due to the lofty goals of The Revolutionist, readers will find tremendous variety in the format and subject matter of what we publish. Readers of The Revolutionist will find brief accounts from real organizers of their real struggles to build a better world, short educational pieces meant to initiate those who may be unfamiliar with dissident politics, serialized versions of obscure book which we consider relevant to contemporary politics, and long-form essays analyzing contemporary politics and economics, the flagship of which is our Marxism in Motion series.
Due to the variety of what we publish, The Revolutionist has no definite format for its publications. The Revolutionist has no word or character limit for what it publishes, but a large work may be broken into several smaller ones if deemed appropriate.
For the time being, Bluebird is the sole writer and editor of The Revolutionist.
