Vocabulary

The following is a list of frequently used terms and words, with translation in the three languages used in the school: English, French, Castillian. The translation given is not necessarily the most literal translation, but rather the commonly used term.

(political) activism - militantisme - militantismo

Accumulation by dispossession - Accumulation par dépossession – Acumulación por desposesión

Articulation - articulation - articulación (mostly used in the technical sense of 'joining segments')

(Materiel) base - Base (matérielle) / L'infrastructure – base material / infraestructura

Bonapartism – Bonapartisme – Bonapartismo

Comrade – Camarade – Companera

Caesarism – Césarisme – Caesarismo

Commodity - Marchandise – Mercancía

Demand - revindication - revindicación

Economism – economisme – economismo

FI: Fourth International – QI: Quatrième Internationale – CI: Cuarta Internacional

Hegemony – Hégémonie – Hegemonía

IC: International Committee - CI: Comité International - CI: Comite Internacional (body of the Fourth International)

Labour power - Force de travail - Fuerza de trabajo

Long waves (expansionary phase followed by depressive phase) - Les Ondes longues (phase expansive ou ascendantes, suivi par phases descendantes) – ondas largas (fases ascendentes y luego descendentes)

Means of production - Moyens de production – Medios de producción

Mode of production - Mode de production – Modo de producción

Popular front – Front populaire – Frente popular

Primitive accumulation (or: original accumulation) - Accumulation primitive (ou: accumulation originaire) – Acumulación primitiva (o acumulación originaria)

Productive forces - Forces productives – Fuerzas productivas

Relationships of force - Rapports de force – Relaciones de fuerzas

Social formation – formation sociale - formación social

Socially necessary labour (time) – (Temps de) travail socialement nécessaire – (Tiempo de) trabajo socialmente necesario

Squadrismo – Squadrisme(?)/ l'utilisation de bandes armés - Escuadrismo (not to be confused with ‘squaddism’, a term mostly used in Britain to describe the use of violence by anti-fascists)

Struggle - lutte - lucha

Subaltern classes - classes subalternes - Clases subalternas

Superstructure - Superstructure – Superestructura

Subsumption ('formal' and 'real') - subsomption (formelle et réelle) - subsunción (formal y real)

Surplus labour – Surtravail – Plustrabajo

Surplus product – Surproduit – Plusproducto

Surplus value – Plus-value (ou survaleur) – Plusvalía

trade-union – syndicat – sindicato

trade-unionism – syndicatisme - sindicalismo

Transitional demands - Revendications transitoires – Reivindicaciones transitorias

Ultra-left – gauchiste – ultraizquierda

Uneven and combined (development) - (développement) inégal et combiné – (desarrollo) desigual y combinado

United front – Front unique - Frente Único

Vanguard party - Parti d'avant-garde - Partido de vanguardia

Workerist - ouvriériste - obreroista

Working class - classe ouvrière - classe obrera

Names of political leaders and authors (beyond Marx and Engels):

Arruzza, Cinzia

Bakunin, Mikhail - Bakounine, Mikhaïl - Bakunin, Mijaíl

Benjamin, Walter

Bensaïd, Daniel

Bhattacharya, Tithi

Gramsci, Antonio

Harvey, David

Hobsbawm, Eric

Jameson, Fredric

Kautsky, Karl

Kollontai, Alexandra

Lenin, Vladimir

Löwy, Michael

Luxemburg, Rosa (and Karl Liebknecht)

Mandel, Ernest

Miliband, Ralp

Poulantzas, Nicos

Samary, Catherine

Shaikh, Anwar

Tanuro, Daniel

Thompson, E. P. (The Making of the English Working Class / La formation de la classe ouvrière anglaise / La formación de la clase obrera en Inglaterra)

Toussaint, Éric (CADTM – Committee for the abolition of illegitimate debts / Comité pour l’abolition des dettes illégitimes / Comité para la abolición de las deudas illegítimas)

Trotsky, Leon

Traverso, Enzo

Expressions (speakers should avoid using expressions as much as possible) & confusing terms:

'Labour aristocracy': a priviliged layer of the working class.

'Les Trente Glorieuses': post-war period of strong economic growth, 1945-1973. In English often referred to as 'post-war boom'.

Economism – economisme – economismo: when used as an -ism, this refers not to the study of economics, but to an interpretation of Marxism that takes into account only a narrowly defined 'economic' field. So an 'econominist' in this context is not someone who studies economic science, but a kind of Marxist who tries to reduce everything to 'economic' factors.

Workerist - ouvriériste - obreroista: 'workerist' is a term to criticize interpretations of Marxism that only consider a certain type of worker. Confusingly, there is also certain stream of Marxism that is called 'operaismo' (in Italian as it originates from Italy) and sometimes called 'workerist' in English. To avoid confusion in English, an alternative term for this current is 'autonomist Marxism' (French: 'marxisme autonome').

In English, 'syndicalism' can refer to a specific radical ideology (often 'anarcho-syndicalism'), rather than trade-union activity.

Gauchiste: not to be translated into English as leftist: 'gauchiste' is a critical term for a certain kind of leftist, not a designation for leftists in general.