Socialist Unity
Summary of a recent conversation with Marxist Chris Cutrone
I recently released a conversation with Marxist
focused on his recent article in Sublation Magazine titled “Socialist Unity!”. This article is addressed to the “socialist intelligentsia” and seeks to argue that we should overcome attempts at “Left Unity”, “Class Unity” or “Marxist Unity”, and instead focus on the dialectic between capitalist politics and socialist politics. You can find the video below:For a summary of the main points:
1. Socialist Intelligentsia and Marxist Tradition
The socialist movement historically emerged from the intelligentsia, not just workers.
Socialism is the highest form of bourgeois ideology, representing the bourgeoisie’s defection to the proletariat.
Platypus views the Left as an intellectual and ideological phenomenon, not a practical one.
Today, working-class movements have collapsed, but socialist intellectuals remain.
Cutrone proposes a challenge to socialist intellectuals: are you serious about socialism or just radical liberals?
2. The Left’s Misorientation
The Millennial Left has tried different kinds of unity:
Left unity = indistinct from progressive liberalism.
Marxist unity = descended into endless academic debate.
Class unity = unclear due to shifting class definitions (e.g., Professional-Managerial Class).
The contemporary Left looks for revolutionary subjects in minorities, identity politics, etc., rather than the working class.
The Left views the working class as an object, not a subject — leading to disappointment and misdirection.
3. Identity Politics = Capitalist Politics
Identity politics functions as internal sabotage of socialist potential.
Cutrone criticizes parties like YourParty (UK) or Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) (USA) as bids to create another capitalist party in the Labour or Democrat tradition.
Embracing identity-based causes weakens class unity and reproduces capitalist dynamics.
Moral purity politics is divisive; unity must cross cultural, religious, and political divides.
4. Capitalism and Neoliberalism in Crisis
We are in a political crisis of neoliberalism, not just an economic one.
Capitalist parties (Left and Right) are in disarray:
Trump = post-neoliberal reaction, not anti-capitalist.
Democrats try to manage contradictions via identity liberalism.
Both parties increasingly marginalize the working class, avoiding it as a constituency.
5. What is Socialist Unity?
True unity is not Left, Class, or Marxist unity, but:
A commitment to socialism: a permanent break with capitalist politics.
Collaborative practice: working together to empower the working class.
Socialist politics of labor: “those who labor must rule.”
We must work out socialism in practice, not just theorize it in advance.
The goal is to build a socialist party, not just a movement.
6. Organizing Around Real Needs
Socialism must start with ground-level community organizing:
Informal childcare
Union work
Mutual aid (but beyond anarchist frameworks)
These efforts already exist (especially in immigrant and religious communities) but they must be generalized to the working class as a whole.
The socialist movement must:
Be culturally neutral.
Avoid moralistic exclusion (e.g., over abortion, religion).
Rebuild working-class capacity to organize society.
7. The Nature of Capitalism and Ideology
Capitalism is not M-C-M’ (money–commodity–money profit cycle) — it’s the failure of that system.
Crisis is inherent to capitalism: contradiction between bourgeois social relations and modern forces of production.
Religion and ideology are bourgeois responses to capitalism — not inherently socialist or anti-socialist.
Base and superstructure are connected and internally contradictory — not separate.
8. Contemporary Opportunity
The crisis of neoliberalism creates an opening for socialism — but only if socialists seize it.
Avoid retreating into Democrat/Labour-style reformism or identity liberalism.
Build working-class power through practical organizing.
Reconstitute the working class as a political subject, not just a sociological category.
For anyone interested in deepening inquiries regarding capitalism and socialism, we will be hosting Michael Downs of
in The Portal this October for a month-long course dedicated to rethinking politics, economics, and society in the context of the technological singularity.