Marxism - will it connect to neo-liberalism?

Having read around the subject of Marxism and seem its' various impacts on an extremely wide range of academic thinking and made attempts to link into related fields of practice through, for example, the SWP it is an area of political thinking that I’ve found to be much of a cornerstone of academia and political life together. The few SWP meetings I attended had only a minute element in the air of religious fervour and while this was almost negligible it did feel real, in the sense that one may sense a degree of atmosphere within a church or during important ceremony. Will the construct of Marxism that remains in society ever be revisited to the same degree as it was during the course of the 20th Century? It does seem unlikely that there will ever be the same degree of social relevance of the construct as there was in Russia and Eastern Europe in the first half of the century and likening Marxism as a doctrine to a religious movement is something I do inadvertantly. This is not intended to be derogatory - while elements of Marxist thinking may have been concerned with freedom from manipulation and a process of liberating the labour force this may no longer be a central element. If it were, surely greater attention would be paid to making activism effective?

Contemporary marxists tends to be concerned with the examination of the social and economic conditions of the time and not the formation of regimes that has taken place over a period of centuries. This may have been an element of the marxism that led to revolutions and could well provide some relevance to the action of Marxist who have such strong commitment to their principles. This will not happen during our lifetimes as far as I can see although there may be more peaceful revolutions planned in the future which appeal to the masses.

It is with some concern that I have to highlight issues connected to Third Way Politics (eg. Giddens, 1998) and it is this that causes some concern as there doesn’t seem to be what I class as a natural transition from the left to the neo-liberalism of present day Britain. Would a revised form of Marxist Communism resurrect the potential of socialism above the nonsense of 'Third Way' Politics? The third way thinkers could pay closer attention to the notion of neo-liberalism as a framework, rather than the notion of neo-liberalism as a right wing concept. For instance, if there were intent for workers to control an organisation in which they work this may be dealt with within a contemporary agenda through rotating management cycles, through sole ownership of the company on the part of an individual or the collective developing through solely worker owned shares.

This could amount to a form of Marxism, bordering on communism, in neo-liberal clothing that is dressed in neo-liberal language. However, with the emphasis on diversity that there is within the economy which may be supported quite readily by the major political parties at present, this potential tends not to be taken advantage of by Marxist bodies and it seems quite abhorrent to try to expand this agenda. It’s interesting that this element of neo-liberalism which I think gets discussed occasionally has never found a stable set of principles academically or political to be recognised but is discussed outside of such forums.