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Introduction to Marxism
LESSON SIX: The interpenetration of opposites
Dialectical thinking is based on the idea that change takes place through struggle between conflicting tendencies. People and processes always have contradictory sides to them. This is what is meant by the law of the “interpenetration of opposites”.
As discussed already in Lesson Four, the outlook of different individuals, political parties and social movements can often be contradictory. A trade union leader might be a respected left-winger but may capitulate when faced with a determined onslaught from a strike-breaking employer. Moderate trade union leaders may surprise themselves and become much more ‘militant’ when faced with mass pressure from an angry membership demanding action.
The seeds of the next economic slowdown are present in a period of capitalist growth, and vice versa. It would also be wrong to draw an automatic, direct link between economic slump and a rise in workers’ struggle – and, similarly, to expect that it will automatically diminish during an economic upturn. A severe recession can lead to workers feeling intimidated by the threat of losing their job and widespread unemployment, thus creating a period of apparent semi-passivity. In a boom on the other hand, workers can gain confidence to go onto the offensive, not only to recapture past economic gains, but also to win new victories around pay and conditions.
It is not slump alone that causes workers to rebel against capitalism, but the permanent insecurity they face in their lives. Sudden changes from prosperity to poverty, from boom to slump, and back again, can have the greatest effect on changing consciousness.
In his lectures on the ‘Logic of Marxism’ 15, George Novack tells the story an imaginary US auto-worker, ‘John’, and how his class consciousness develops through a series of contradictory processes. John starts out as a naïve employee who hopes that, through hard work, he might also become a millionaire like his factory owner. He is not yet aware of the contradiction between the reality of class society and his misplaced hopes in the ‘American dream’. But bitter experience in the workplace teaches John that his bosses’ interests are definitely not the same as his, nor those of his workmates. John gets active in his union and takes strike action. He now starts to generalise his understanding to seeing that all auto bosses as exploiters – if not yet understanding that this stems from the nature of capitalism itself. He has become a militant trade unionist, but he still places his hopes in the promises of the parties of US capitalism. Disillusionment with the failure of the Republicans and Democrats to support the working class means John and his workmates then turn away from politics altogether, deciding that all politicians are as bad as each other. But this turn away from ‘politics’ is just the first step in these militant workers realising the need for independent working class politics, for the building of a mass workers’ party – and, from there, for John to conclude that he should join the revolutionary party, in order to organise the global struggle needed to change society.
Trotsky also famously illustrated the ‘interpenetration of opposites’ in his analysis of the class forces which made the Russian revolution in 1917. This ‘combined and uneven development’ illustrates the complex manner in which societies develop and change.
In short, the application of the ‘law of interpenetrating opposites’ is crucial in our clarification of the stage reached by capitalism, its future direction and our understanding of the ‘balance of class forces’ at any given moment.
Recommended books & references
15. George Novack (1971) Introduction to the Logic of Marxism is available at Pathfinder Books: https://www.pathfinderpress.com/products/an-introduction-to-the-logic-of-marxism_by-george-novack (Accessed 24 February 2026)
16. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1915) On the Question of Dialectics. Available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/misc/x02.htm (Accessed 24 February 2026)
17. Leon Trotsky (1930) The History of the Russian Revolution. Available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch01.htm (Accessed 24 February 2026)