Scholars discuss Marxist economics at WAPE Forum

Nearly 300 scholars from more than 40 countries gathered online and offline for the 15th WAPE Forum that aimed to further develop the contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy and boost exchanges between the political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and other political economy schools around the world.

Themed "Rethinking Global Economic Analysis: Perspective of Political Economy", the forum was hosted by the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) and the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) from Dec 18 to 19.

WAPE is an international academic organization founded by Marxist economists and related groups around the world. The organization aims to utilize modern Marxist economics to study the world economy and explore approaches to promote economic civilization, social progress, and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

The forum consisted of six main sessions and 30 panel discussions about topics such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the methodology, theories and policies of modern Marxist economics, and the reform of the curriculum of economics.

At the opening ceremony, Jiang Feng, Party secretary of SISU, said he hopes the university would become an important front for the development of the world political economy.

Cheng Enfu, president of WAPE and a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, proposed strengthening education and research on Marxist economics and deepening the study of new changes in the world economic system and the relevance between the control of COVID-19 outbreaks and basic system and governance capacities.

The organizers said that the forum helped provide “an important ideological weapon” to unite working people around the world against the unjustified systems of capitalism and hegemonic practices of neo-imperialism and build a community with a shared future for humanity.

WAPE had held 14 international forums around the world between 2006 and 2019.