Marxism out-of-place

This article discusses the difficulties that exist for the development of a Latin American Marxism. This difficulty may flow from Marx and Engels` work itself, and the philosophy of history that emerges in several moments of this work. Nonetheless, the analysis of the situation in Ireland and of the Russian rural commune allowed these writers – and Marx in particular – to go beyond this philosophy of history. We then move on to discuss one attempt to interpret Latin America, and Brazil in particular, based on Marx`s work: one which was developed within the ambit of the “Seminário d’O Capital.” In this seminar, a form of appropriating Marx’s work giving salience to methodological aspects was promoted. In spite of the important contribution of the authors linked to this seminar, among them Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his analysis of situations of dependence, this appropriation of Marx`s work revealed clear limitations. Thus, we end with an argument on the need for Marxism to build a deep link between theory and practice, theoretical and empirical research in order to go beyond existing impasses in the interpretation of Latin America. Keywords: Marxism, Dependency Theory, unequal exchange, Latin America