Early Marxism and the racial issue

Abstract

Marx and Engels wrote on the racial problem in a very generalized way. Since then, marxists precursors such as Bauer, Lenin and Mariátegui, by the end of  nineteenth century, beginning of the twentieth, tried to deepen this materialistic dialectical analysis. Nowadays, these may seem out-of-date approaches. Nevertheless, bringing back this debate is crucial for political and scientific purposes. On the one hand, these authors, among many others, have challenged imperialistic ideology, which tried to legitimate a new colonial expansionism on racial bases. On the other hand, from this political challenge, it was necessary to improve marxist theory of national and racial oppression. Finally, the little we know today about the role racism fulfills in capitalism economies, is due to the de-bate that this paper tries to recall.