Marcuse giving a lecture in Berlin, 1967. Photograph Source: Isaactrius – CC BY-SA 4.0

CounterPunch recently republished two compelling articles about Herbert Marcuse.

Charles Reitz’s study, “When Marxist Intellectuals Collaborated With the CIA,” (December 12, 2025); and Michael Yates interview with Gabriel Rockhill, “An Insider Critique of the Imperial Theory Industry” (December 15, 2025).

The Yates interview with Rockhill originally appeared in Monthly Review and reads like a rejoinder to Reitz’s piece. The Rockhill interview is a provocative, if at times incoherent, discussion of what Rockhill calls the differences between “Western Marxism” and “Marxism Leninism.” In the interview, Rockhill argues:

A significant portion of my most recent book is dedicated to an analysis of the superstructures of the leading imperialist countries and the various ways in which they have fostered Western Marxist discourses as a weapon of ideological warfare against the version of Marxism defended by Lenin.

The book he is referring to is his, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (Monthly Review Press, 2025). And the interview may not do full justice to Rockhill’s analysis.

Rockhill spends a goodly portion of the interview arguing that “Western Marxism” has been fully integrated into capitalist society, notably in reformist politics and academia. Other than a handful of passing references to Lenin, he never actually discusses Lenin’s works nor the “Marxism Leninist” movement that followed. In this way, he artfully avoids discussing how the Bolshevik party, the “party of the proletariat,” became the party oppressing the proletariat. Nor how Leninism – let alone “Western Marxism” — gave way to Stalinism and the Chinese Communist state.

Rockhill never defines “Marxism Leninism.” However, Reitz acknowledges, “Rockhill views Che’s legacy as consistent with other leading lights, such as Lenin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh,........

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