Marxian Political Economy PART ONE THE THIRTY years since the Second World War have witnessed events of far-reaching significance: achievement of political independence by colonial peoples; strengthening of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist forces; liberation of China from imperialism and feudalism and its emergence as a powerful socialist country; the great victories of the peoples of Indochina against US aggression; setbacks to western imperialism all over the globe; and for the last six years, the grave economic and political crisis of world capitalism. These years have lent yet further support to the Leninist view that imperialism is the highest and last stage of capitalism, the epoch of its decline and fall. However, the advance of socialism has not been uniform. There have been serious setbacks: dispute between the Soviet Union and China, strengthening of revisionism in many socialist movements, and disturbing economic, ideological and political tendencies in many socialist countries. But the main trend has been one of advance of socialism and relative decline of imperialism and capitalism. It is in this broad historical context that Marxian political economy is discussed in this series of articles.1 The series has the limited objective of providing a simple exposition of Marx's analysis of the capitalist mode of production. The focus of attention is turned mainly on Marxian political economy. Ideological