Istvan Meszaros Economist and philosopher of Hungarian origin, Date of Birth: 19.12.1930 Country: Hungary

Biography of István Mészáros

István Mészáros was an economist and philosopher of Hungarian origin. He was a distinguished professor at Sussex University in the United Kingdom. Mészáros left Hungary after the Soviet invasion in 1956. He is considered to be a representative of contemporary Western Marxism and referred to himself as a post-Marxist.

Mészáros grew up in a working-class family and was raised by his mother. He began working at a factory at the age of twelve, falsifying his birth certificate as the minimum age for employment was sixteen. It was during this time that he first encountered international labor exploitation and the inequality in wages between men and women. Mészáros' adult co-workers, who worked at a radio factory owned by a foreign employer, earned more than his mother, who worked for a Hungarian employer.

Mészáros was only able to pursue his education after the end of World War II and the introduction of free education. He was part of the Budapest School and worked as an assistant to György Lukács at the Institute of Aesthetics at Budapest University. In 1954, he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1956, he became the editor of the Marxist and anti-Stalinist journal "Eszmélet" ("Thoughts"). However, he was forced to leave the country after the defeat of the Hungarian uprising and the introduction of Soviet troops.

In exile, Mészáros first lived in Italy, where he taught at the University of Turin, before moving to the United Kingdom. He worked at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and later at Sussex University in England. Mészáros was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1956, but it was revoked soon after his emigration.

Mészáros offers an alternative perspective to the dominant ideas about capital and capitalism. He engages in debates with representatives of various schools, ranging from Adam Smith to Friedrich Hayek. He views capital as an internally contradictory organic system of social metabolism and argues that it cannot be permanent and eternal. Instead, it must transition into a new quality. Mészáros highlights the deepening structural crisis of capital, which is associated with reaching its limits, such as the contradiction between capital's transnationalization and the nation-state, ecological crisis, structural unemployment, and the inability to achieve women's emancipation. This crisis differs in nature from the cyclical crises of capitalist production. The structural crisis of capital stimulates contemporary imperialism to adopt more aggressive forms of authoritarianism and expansionist tendencies.

According to Mészáros, capital is not a spontaneously coordinating system but has a rigid command structure, hierarchy, and requires control, which becomes increasingly difficult to ensure. Therefore, post-capitalist societies are seen as integral parts of the organic system of capital, not fully overcoming it as a social relation. This emphasizes the importance of the transitional period towards socialism, which involves a social revolution rather than a political revolution that destroys the capitalist class. Mészáros positively assesses the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and was personally acquainted with and a supporter of Hugo Chávez, referring to him as a "trailblazer of 21st-century socialism" even before his rise to power.

Mészáros believes that education should be continuous and last a lifetime; otherwise, it is not true education. He argues that the modern education system, organized by the dominant bourgeoisie, prepares individuals for a life of alienated labor under the control of capital. It does not leave students or teachers time to reflect on the need for changing the capitalist system or teach alternative paths.