The Long Transition to Socialism & Unequal Exchange with Torkil Lauesen

6 snips

Mar 22, 2026

Torkil Lauesen, longtime revolutionary activist and author of works on imperialism and unequal exchange. He discusses the long, historical-materialist transition to socialism. He explains how unequal exchange sustained 20th-century capitalism and how shifting global power and China’s rise change the terrain. He also explores method: identifying the principal contradiction to guide strategic choices for future struggles.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Why The Transition To Socialism Is Long

The transition to socialism is a prolonged historical process shaped by objective world-system conditions, not just revolutionary will.
Unequal exchange created a dynamic capitalist core that resolved realization crises and allowed capitalism to survive the 20th century.

ANECDOTE

How Emmanuel's Work Shaped A Scandinavian Analysis

Torkil recounts discovering Arghiri Emmanuel's Unequal Exchange in 1972 and how it validated his group's 'parasite state' analysis of Scandinavia.
Emmanuel's lived experience in Congo and political activism gave practical credibility to his theory linking wage gaps to global value transfer.

ADVICE

Use Principal Contradiction To Guide Strategy

Use the principal contradiction method to orient strategy: identify the single contradiction that most shapes other conflicts.
Evaluate local struggles by how they affect that principal contradiction, as in Mao's decision to ally with Kuomintang against Japan.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In this episode, longtime revolutionary activist and author Torkil Lauesen returns to the show. Our conversation revolves around two of his recent works published by Iskra Books: The Long Transition to Socialism and the End of Capitalism and Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future. Drawing on a lifetime of political engagement and his close relationship with theorist Arghiri Emmanuel, Lauesen discusses his motivation for writing these books as a means of passing down hard-won knowledge to a new generation of organizers.

We examine the "long transition" from capitalism to socialism, a process Lauesen frames through the lens of historical materialism. He also explains how the transfer of value from the periphery to the core through unequal exchange created a dynamic center, enabling capitalism to survive the 20th century. Now, with the decline of US economic hegemony and the rise of a multipolar world system centered on a resurgent China, Lauesen argues we are entering a new phase where the conditions for a genuine transition may finally be emerging.

We tackle the critical question of revolutionary method, discussing how to identify the principal contradiction to orient our practice and the difficult strategic choices this framework demands. From the revolutionary history of China to the current geopolitical landscape and the intensifying repression of anti-imperialist movements, Lauesen offers a sobering yet urgent call to organize for the decisive struggles ahead.

One quick note, there is a little conversation about Iran in this discussion. This interview was recorded on February 20th so a little before the current war took shape. While you get a little bit of Torkil Lauesen's perspective on Iran and the question of anti-imperialism today, if you want more complete analysis on the topic, there are ten videos up on our youtube page where we've delved into the current war with guests like Adnan Husain, Abdaljawad Omar, Lara Sheehi, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Sina Rahmani, and Hiram Rivera among others. This week we have discussions coming with Bikrum Gill and Nina Farnia from the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective. So make sure you are subscribed and have turned on notifications on our youtube page if you want that current analysis amid this world historical struggle.

Make sure to head over to Iskra Books to buy copies of these texts we discussed with Torkil Lauesen, and even if you want to check out just remember there are always free PDF copies available on Iskrabooks.org.

And of course if you like what we do become a patron of the show to support our work you can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekilingcapitalism I know these are trying times economically, but also remember that our ability to bring you these conversations is based on your ability as an audience to support the work we do. And a huge thank you to all of you who do support the show.

Previously we interviewed Torkil Lauesen about his book Riding The Wave: Sweden's Integration into the Imperialist World System