This introduction to Marxism is the result of numerous experiences in giving  education to young militants at various times in the last 15 years. It arises out of such pedagogical needs as we have noticed, and these can vary from country to country, from milieu to milieu. This introduction in no way pretends to be a ‘model’.

Though it contains the basic elements of the theory of historical materialism, of Marxist economic theory, of the history of the workers movement and the problems of strategy and tactics for the workers movement in our times, it also contains an ‘innovation’ which might at first sight appear rather staggering: both the chapter on materialist dialectics and the chapter which systematically explains the theory of historical materialism are to be found at the end and not the beginning of the book.

This is not, of course, a ‘revision of method’ but a pedagogic formula drawn from practical observation: an explanation of dialectics in Marxism is more fitted to a course for the education of cadres than for the first initiation of militants, who assimilate theory better when it is presented in the most concrete form possible. It is therefore preferable to start off with notions which are immediately verifiable – social inequality, the class struggle, capitalist exploitation – and to come to the more abstract and fundamental concept of dialectics as the universal logic of motion and contradiction once we have clarified the movement of contemporary society and the contradictions which tear it apart.

This is not a final option, as it is based on personal teaching experience. It goes without saying that other experiences could lead to different conclusions. We are ready to return to the more traditional structure of an ‘Introduction to Marxism’ if it can be shown, from the evidence of practical experience, that such a method of explanation allows inexperienced militants to assimilate more easily the essence of Marxism. For the moment, we take leave to doubt it. 

Ernest Mandel (1977)