To see economic and political processes in the present and future as simply a continuation, with slight modifications, of the past is analytically mistaken and politically counterproductive. A vibrant, open ended Marxism should take into account discontinuities, changing conjunctures, and new phenomena at the national and global level that emerge in the course of capitalist development and modify, not only the conditions for the production and realization of surplus value, but also class and democratic struggles at the national and global level. When these modifications are deep going and thus possess potential for far reaching economic, social, and political change, adjustments in strategy and tactics in an expansive and flexible direction are usually in order.