A “Capital” Workbook in Slides. There is no alternative: Margaret Thatcher’s words were something of a guiding principle for neoliberalism in recent decades. Whatever the ruling class imposed on the population, their actions were always alleged to have “no alternative.”

In 2008, when numerous major banks collapsed, seemingly overnight, triggering a global financial crisis, the maxim of the free market system’s superiority was shaken. The “Great Recession” caused serious cracks in the ideological hegemony of neoliberalism.

In this sense, the crisis also offered an opportunity – namely, for the critique of capitalism. Suddenly, those who had always emphasized the crisis-prone nature of capitalism were given attention again. “Marx’s critique that capitalism is inherently unjust and self-destructive cannot be so easily dismissed,” wrote Time magazine. “Karl Marx and his analysis of capitalism’s dark, wormy side are back in vogue,” announced the New York Times. In short: “Marxism is cool again” (Smithsonian).

Since 2006, the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung has regularly offered reading groups on Marx’s Capital in Berlin. The team leaders of these courses have now created a publication that summarizes their insights in the form of illustrated and extensively annotated PowerPoint slides. This educational material is intended to accompany and assist reading groups, teachers, and individuals in their reading of Volume I of Capital.

You can download all slides as interactive presentations here.

The entire publication can be downloaded free of charge as a PDF file and is available in German and English.

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT (English)

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT (German)