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“~ 1 Contents • — —— ' - j ' *• j j ^ ' ry"‘ : ’ -H.1 . ‘ r*>'T-]v -V " I V *-■? X'is&A*-45 > % & ? ■ ''' • - ' ’ ■' "'* ■ -'• 5 ^ f i / . Introduction ;": r - '■ — - ^ X ;f P age2^;^ - ,••..•••. v v * s "■ . ' I -- . J ~ J i ,••..•••. v v * s "■ - *■ ■ » v » ” Marx the revolutionary .. s V -.. ;• • Vy" - T . By Brian Ingham - '"' y ■ . . ~~:-f - Page 3 •y* ■“ * ■ •- ■ • - • *..-• " • • . * . * - .• *«T '*• f’’’ • • .*■.. • t v •• :•• C - Marx—founder of~ t . •••• : .-S': ' V -.i • v ’-.*. - ' / scientific socialism .T : By John Pickard Page 6 - • . - •.: * '- „ ‘ ...-;J . . - 4» - 'i * • * On, historical materialism ' * • r*- ’ Letter by Friedrich Engels Page 9 The historical destiny of the teaching of K.Marx By V.LLenin v¥ i . The Communist Manifesto today V;.v. By L. Trotsky Page 11 T - • Marxism today By Peter Hadden Page 14 Explanatory Notes Page 15
This a .* sapplament to INQABA YA BASEBENZt journal of tha Marxist Worker*' Tendency af the African National Congress. Readers are urged to make photocopies of this publication and pass then on to other comrades. Subscriptions for readers outside South Africa can be ordered from: BM Bax 1719, London WC1I* 3XX. , \ : ■ ; . - KARL MARX. 1818-1883
Introduction
the working dass under capitalism. Karl Marx, born in Germany in 1818, died a hundred It is the consdous understanding of years ago, on 14 March 1883. Hestruggled throughout the experience of political oppression and. economic exploitation of the his politically conscious life for the liberation of the working dass by the capitalist*, and working class and all humanity from all forms of of. their struggle for political and oppression. ' •- " ' ; v ' social liberation. I - ._ . Together with bis comrade, Friedrich Engels, he For the black SA workers. poCncal rightlessness, pass laws, influx con developed * the theoretical framework of scientific trol, homelessness, poverty, wages, socialism which remains the essential guide in the ongo unemployment, etc., and struggles ing. struggle against capitalism. - - - .. against these evils, are the embodi ment of capitalism. -, It is these social evils that the SA capitalists vow to maintain “with all In this Supplement we reprint ar being imperialist agents!. ..* . the force a t (their)- comman d” . ticles by Marxists outlining aspects of The SA capitalist class, with its The capitalists’ virulent hatred of the life and work of Karl Marx. They backward political habits, marked Marxism reflects the world-wide also explain the continuing relevance the anniversary with an aggressive bankruptcy of their system. It reflects for the working dass and all oppress-. and cynical note: - . ' their fear of the workers and oppress ed people of Marxist theory, and “ Marxism is, and always has been, ed who are today moving into huge method. •’* ■ i a disaster. In the interests of freedom struggles all around the world against The 100th anniversary of Marx’s (?) and prosperity (!?) of ordinary the monstrous barriers of capnalism death has spilled onto the surface the people it most be resisted with all the and Stalinism which stand in the way capitalists’ bitter fear and hatred' of force at our command-” (Financial ’ of human progress.. Marxism—which has continued to M a il, 18/3/83) well up since the publication of the As Lenin explained long agoj no Communist Manifesto in 1848 in other attitude is to be expected from Scien tific which Marx and Engels signed the capitalists or their ‘scientists'! certificate of the inevitabledeath of “The teaching of Marx evokes .... capitalism. the greatest hostility and hatred on All these struggles, however, are In 1983 the spectre o f Marxism is the parr of all bourgeois science (both vindicating the truth and scientific haunting the entire world of official and liberal) which regards . correctness of the teaching of Marx capitalism, and the totalitarian Marxism a5 something in the nature • that.obsolete systems will be thrown bureaucracies ruling the deformed of a ‘pernicious s e a ’. .... A ll official on the junkheap of history. workers’ states of Russia, Eastern and liberal science d e fe n d s wage- The first two articles reprinted Europe, etc in the name of slavery in one way or another, here, outlining Marx’s political ‘Marxismr. whereas- Marxism has declared devdopment and the method that he To exorcise it, the political wit relentless war on that slavery. To ex evolved, are from M ilita n t, weekly chdoctors of the capitalists are piling pect science to be impartial in a sode- Marxist paper in the British labour on their anti-Marxist propaganda. •ty of wage-slavery is as silly and naive / ‘movement (4 and 18 M arch, 1983). In the advanced capitalist coun •as to expect impartiality from The British capitalists and right-wing tries, they argue that Marxism is ir employers on the question as to labour leaders have launched a relevant and outdated. Id the ex- Nwhether the workers’ wages should be furious witchhunt against the sup colonial world, they dismiss Marxism increased by decreasing the profits of porters of M ilita n t predsdy because, as a foreign ideology. ,. capital.” (The. Three Sources and through its application of the Marx Also the Stalinist bureaucracies ac Three Component Parts of ist method and relentless fight for a cuse the Polish workers struggling for M a rxism .) socialist programme, it is gaining a workers’ democracy, which is essen ‘ But what is Marxism? Marxism is growing response among workers tial to the programme of Marxism, of 1 the generalised experience of hfe of and youth. The articles explain that Marx was queraded in its name. not merely spinning out theories in md lasting correctness of tie These developments are placed in the British Museum about the M anifesto'% perspective^ aad perspective in the article here by working-class revolution, but that he simultaneously updates it in the light, Lenin, written in 1913—its arguments was a revolutionary himself. His own o f history since 1843. are confirmed even more profound life showed, as his teachings explain Trotsky's revolutionary leadership ly by the later history of the 20th served to maintain and develop the ed, that revolutionary theory and century. practice are inseparable. Marxist armoury of the working das* Within a year after Lenin wrote These articles are followed by ex through the period of huge defeats ■»- this article, most of the so-called tracts from three other great teachers . flicted on it in the inter-war years. His ‘Marxist* leaden o f the Second Inter of Marxism: Engels, Lenin and writings havei& o provided The*focn- national were supporting their ‘own’ Trotsky. dations on which Marxism since the bourgeois governments in the First Engels's letter to Bloch deals with Second World War has maintained World War—a huge setback for the itself and launched into new growth. the familiar distortion of Marxism, workerV movement. that it is ‘one-sided’ and explains the Marxism a above all a guide to historical development of society as working-class action and struggle. being determined purely by The final article reprinted here b economics, hi reply, Engels shows Confidence - from the Militant Irish Monthly that there is a much more-complex .! • * - * ' / (March 1983), Marxist journal in the and many-sided interaction of forces ; Irish labour movement. It sums up Yet Lema’s confidence in the J the programme of Marxism in reia- which determines social conditions, workers’ revolution was not shaken. although “the determining element in- tion to different parts of the world— ! Through the method of Marxism, be a programme which is the practical history is u ltim a te!? the production was able to comprehend the new and reproduction in real life..:”" conclusion of the painstaking analysis developments and thus prepare the carried out by Marxists of the lessen Since the time of Marx an d Engels, way for the Bolshevik Party to lead history has not moved in a straight o f history an d class struggle up to the the Russian working class in 1917 to ■_ present stage.. . ' x line. The working class has experienc establish the first lasting workers’ ed victories but also defeats. The Concretely working out the tasks state in history. - of national and social liberation in -transition from capitalism to Scarcely ten years later Trotsky, •socialism has been more protracted, Southern Africa is the responsibility together with Lenin the leader of the resting on all militants active in: ocr and taken a more complex course, Russian Revolution, found himself than they could have anticipated. struggle. Reading the articles exiled from Russia and isolated, as a reprinted here, and studying the Each ebb and flow pf the struggle, result of the Stalinist political however, has confirmed the correct classic writings of Marxism, activisa counter-revolution in the USSR, and can help to arm themselves and the ness o f the- Marxist m ethod and the defeats of the working class in enriched it through the labour of working class against disorientation, ternationally. Nevertheless he con those who have understood and ap against the disappointment of set tinued to apply and enrich the Marx plied it consistently. backs,' against the diversions of ist method in brilliant analysesof the At the same time, there have been ‘pacifist’ opportunism, armed adven complex events through which the many Marxists who have lost their turism, etc. working class was passing. ' beanngs, their perspective and their- Unity on this basis is the key to .Reprinted here is his introduction confidence in the working class. The building a mass ANC of the working to the first Afrikaans edition of the traditions of Marxism have also been.’ class that can lead all the oppressed Communist M anifesto, prepared by obscured by the many opportunists, to the armed overthrow of the apar his supporters in South Africa. This imposters and quacks who have mas theid regime and the whole capitalist short piece shows the fundamental system. Marx the revolutionary By Brian Ingham - . "
“ The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The pointy however, is to change it” . After Marx's.death in 1883, Engels, his lifelong friend, a> These now famous words were written by Marx in 1845 They thinker and intimate political co-worker, paid tribute to the theoretical legacy which Marx, “the greatest living thinker”, ^ WWCh he W“ W Uve « “ h“ W e l ^ had left to the workers of the world. “ Marx” , Engels added, *was above all a revolutionary, and his great aim in life was * ° ° “e understood more clearly than Marx theim- ^ co-operate in this or that fashion in the overthrow of capitalist ^ ° 1 10 the workm* cIa» movement and his con- society and the state institutions which it had created, to co mbunon in tile theoretical field has been acknowledged ever operates the emancipation of the modem proletariat, to whom by al! the grear teachers of socialism as second to none. he was the first to give a conaousness of its class position and But Marx was not the white-haired academic recluse which its class needs, a knowledge of the- conditions necessary for its smce his death, -countless historians have attempted to depict’ emancipation. In this struggle be was m his element, and he Me was to his core a revolutionary fighter, an organiser, speaker fought with a passion and tenacity and with a success granted pubbast and pamphleteer, vigorously struggling to free soci^ tO lew ty or class oppression, exploitation, misery and want. When only 24 years old, be had collaborated with sections of the Rhineland liberal capitalist dass in establishing the radical the struggle with feudal despotism. jiMeintsdttZantrrt (‘Rhineland Newspaper"), of which he soon The capitalist >•<«««, however, proved to be contemptible affies, the editor. Engels later commented that the R hem isdtt even in their own revolution! At every serious test they gave Zeitung “wore out one censor after another. Finally it came * way to reaction. - under double censorship...that also o f no avail. lathebcfja* - Marx fought through the Neat Rheinische Zeitung and n,n| Of 184} the government deda*ed that U was impossible through personal activity to stiffen- these temporary to keep thi* newspaper in-check and suppressed it without mote allies, but in vain. The liberal bourgeoisie in general retreated ado”. ______- under pressure from, the reaction, and as they did, thoae con Marx was never intimidated by such acts of oppression. On nected with the paper withdrew their financial suppor so that the contrary, they merely steeled his resolve to continue the Marx was compelled to plough his own meagre savings n o the struggle’ in an even more steadfast manner. On- this occasion paper as the only means of keeping it alive. . be left for France where be was able-to gain more expaiencs M .f. .ftwrtptrH tr> lead the movgnem in the Rhineland back of the socialist and communist idea* emu lating outside Ger onto the ofTen*ve. Special editions of the Neue Rhanoche many. and where he began his lifelong collaboration with Z o n in g fo r a boycott of taxa to the victorious counter Engels. - • • , . revolutionary government: for the arming of the people; and Man aTV* Engels the banc tenets of scientific -for armed resistance “the enemy” . socialism, and they began to work painstakiagly to build the For this stand be faced arrest and trial. But neither Marx nor very first foundations of a party based upon these principles. the Neue Rhantsche Zeitung were that easily silenced. At his Various groupings of inuBactuals existed in Europe at that trial he stood firm, defended the revolutionary movement and time, peddling some utopian socialist scheme, but each mercilessly attacked the forces of reaction. As a result the jury also devoid of any real contact with the working dass. Marx, and y^riin»a him and the foreman even thanked him foe his in Fnp-t« refused to join any of these organisations, most of which structive remarks! ,• • ; - •- . * still cloaked themselves in masonic-type conspiratorial airs. In The Neue Rhanocbe Zeitung continued for ashort time after stead. they formed their own tiny propaganda group^ this until the reaction bad gathered enough strength to dose Marx later explained that in this period: “We issued a series it down altogether and atpd Marx, from Prussian territory- The of pamphlets, some of them printed, other lithographed, mer- last defiant >sue, after 301 issues in all (sometimes appearing dlessly criticising the mixture of Anglo-Frendi lonalam or com 7 day* a week.),- appeared in-red ink on May 19th 1849, warn munism and German philosophy...and putting forward instead ing the-people against any attempt to seize power while the a scientific insight into the economic structure of bourgeois military situation was unfavourable, thanking its readers for society as the only tenable basis, explaining this in a popular tbeir sympathy and support, and declaring that their final word form and pointing out that the task was not to work out a uto always and everywhere would be: “The emancipation of the pian system but to participate consciously in the historical pro working class” . cess of social transformation taking place, before our eyes” . • Marx was again forced into exile, first in France, and then, Tn January 1847 Marx and Kngek were persuaded to join the Compelled to move once more, he settled in London where he ‘League of the Just’, an organisation, mainly, though by no lived for the rest of his life. means exclusively, maHr up of expatriate German artisans, . i n it ia l l y he worked to help re-assemble the Communist which had been formed in a number of European centre*. The League,, in the preparation for the expected renewed revolu leaders of the League had been won round to the ideas and _ tionary upsurge. This upsurge, however, did not materialise. organisational methods of Marx and Engels. ' By 1852.it was dear that the tide of European revolt bad tem Under their influence it changed its name to the ‘Cuiimiumst porarily ebbed. '■...... League’ and re-organised itself for active propaganda work The Communist League began to Break up into mnerent among the working class. It also dropped its old slogan: “ All squabbling sects. Marx and Engels stepped to one side, finding men are brothers” in favour of the battle cry: “ Workers of the the atmosphere of these group* increasingly sterile. Marx began world unite” . *• to devote his enffgies primarily to his important theoretical work It was the Communist League which commissioned Marx and on economics and to earning a precarious living as a correspon Engels to write the Communist Manifesto.'This appeared only dent of the New York Tribune. a matter of weeks before the February Revolution in Paris began Nevertheless, he still kept in regular active contact with the a revolutionary earthquake that reverberated around the whole emerging working class movements; especially in Germany and of Europe. • •» * Britain. He was, for instance, a frequent contributor to The Marx was to emerge as one of the central and most decisive People's Paper, the paper founded in 1852 by the revolutionary leaders of the German revolution of 1848-49. He had been wing of the Chartists. prepared for the epic part he was to play, by his political and It was not until 1864, however, that Marx was able fuEy once revolutionary activity over the previous It) years or so. Now again to pick up the threads of his practical revolutionary ac his painstaking propaganda work gave way to energetic activi tivity. By then,. Engels wrote: "The Labour Movement in the ty in the maelstrom of great historical events. various countries of Europe had. so far regained strength that Having been hounded out of France in 1845, after pressure Marx could entertain the idea of realising a long-cherisbed wish: from the Prussian government. Marx now faced arrest and the foundation of a Workers’ Association embracing the most banishment from his new home in Belgium. Momentarily he advanced coutries of Europe and America, which would returned to Paris, where a representative of the Provisional demonstrate bodily, so to speak, the international character of government elected in February was offering him both refuge the socialist movement both to the workers themselves and to and citizenship. the bourgeois and the governments. ..A mass meeting in favour Thai he moved to the Rhineland as editor of the newly found of Poland...on September 28, 1864 provided the occasion... ed Neue Rheinische Zeitung (‘New Rhineland Newspaper ;, a “TheInternational Working Men’s Association was found paper established mainly with money from liberal capitalist ed; a provisional General Council with its seat in London, was shareholders. elected at the meeting, and Marx was the soul of this as of all In both France and Fnglanrf revolutionary conflict unfolded subsequent General Councils up to the Hague Congress. He between the working class and the capitalists, as foreshadowed drafted every one of the documents issued by the General iathe Communist Manifesto, but in Italy and Germany it was Council of the International, from the Inaugural Address of still necessary for the infant proletariat to ally itself with the 1864, to the Address on the Civil War in France". emerging liberal industrialists in order to successfully conclude t'For 10 yean” , wrote Engels, “the International dominated one side of European history—the side on whids the future Be*” . hostile forces” , wrote Marx..."They should immediately have The International fathered under its banner ai] the various con advanced on Versailles” , in other words spread the revolution flicting tendencies within the Labour Movement of Europe and by taking over the Bank of France, the government buildings America, including French, Swiss and-Bdgian followers of the and advancing to the other cities. anarchist Bakunin, the utopian Proodboo, German followers After the crushing of the Conmmne. the International ***"»» of LassaUe and British trade unionists. voder a savage assault from all the European governments who London was the home of the Central Couadl. Mart con- saw the International's, and Marx’s, guiding h«nH in the sdered’Britain to be the key country i»the struggle for soaahsn, Commune. >. • gives the more -advanced stage that both capitalism the The response of many fainthearts in the International— organ -moons of the working had ■achieved. inriiidrng some of those trade onion asaodated ->i«h rbt' M an therefore tniiflad upoo fypfw wfihmy qu the International—was to denounce the Commune and General Cotuiol for all tn d c uniflm and other wy hny class themselves from the heroic French workers. organisations affiliated from Britain, it was only towards E v« though he had not advocated the formation of the Com the end of the life of the interoatiooai that there was a separate mune, such a stand would never have entered Marx’s head. British Federation. " . Within days of the fall of the Commune he issued his defiant Marx strove to develop the International as a truly movrv defence of the Cemnrane, The Cirti War in Franct, which to - men.. Affiliation was open to jpdifhlmls imt rtf|m in riM i this day remains an inspiration and as an invaluable source of which accepted the need to struggle foe as end to the yoke of guidance foe the .labour movement. capitalist exploitation. But Mare never attempted to Marx and Engels immediately understood the tremendous bureaucratically force his own theoretical views or tactics on historic significance-of the Commune. They studied it careful any section; he believed that it was only through joint action ly to see how the experience of the Commune could enrich fur- ’ and discussion that genuine agreement' and genuine ■ unity ther the working dass movement and help it to be emerge; ' - : •• •••...... prepared for the future. * ...... In drawing up the Inaugural Address, Marx was conscious With this in mind they wrote into the Preface of the 1872 of the different stages of theoretical development reached by German edition of the Communat Manifesto, the following an»- the labour movement in each country. Therefore; while tral lesson: “One thing especially was proved by the Commune, repeating the fundamental ideas e x p iu u l in the C om m unist viz, that *the working dass cannot simply lay hold of the ready M anifesto, the too* was different. 'Tune a necessary” , be wrote made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes’” . to Engels; “ before the movement can allow the oU boldness Throughout the Eft of the International Marx and Engels had of speech. The need of the moment is bold in matter, but milH to contend with political opponents who fought political tat in manner” . tles not with ideas but with manoeuvre and intrigue. After the The practical achievements of the International included defeat of the Commune these intrigues intensified, especially mobilising solidarity during numerous industrial struggles, on the part of thr~foilowers of the anarchist, Bakunin. among them the 1871 Tyneside Engineers’ strike and the Lon With the International facing crippling blows from state don basket makers dispute of 1867. Such was the authority of authorities throughout Europe, the danger existed that the International among British trade unionistsf at one point Bakunin’s followers might wrest cootroL Marx and Engels the Annual Congress of Trades Unions in 1869 urgently called decisively to prevent this and to preserve intact the historical all working class organisations in the United Kingdom to af prestige of the International in the eyes of the world working filiate to the International. .. ■ class. v The authority of the International in Britain was also built - At the 1872 Hague Congress they secured the transfer of the op by its work in the Reform League, the body created to fight General Council to New York, thus effectively bringing to an for the old Chartist demand; “Universal Manhood Suffrage” . ’ end this momentous chapter of working class history. Half the executive of the Reform League were members of the Engds, later explaining the action of himself and Mart at General Council. this time, wrote; .“There are circumstances in which one must Marx personally worked tirelessly behind the to help have the courage to sacrifice momentary success for more im establish the Reform- League, which then rapidly developed as portant things. Especially for a party like ours, whose ultimas a mass campaigning force, dreaded by the capitalist which success is so absolutely certain... saw within it the spectre of revolution. Continual mass pressure “ ...We knew very wdl that the bubble (of the International) from the League bore down upon the ruling Ha« until the • must burn. All the.riff-raff attached themselves to it. The sec government brought in new electoral reform legislation. tarians within it became arrogant and mmivrt the International It was a limited reform, extending the vote only to the mid in the hope that the meanest and most stupid actions would be dle class and to skilled workers, but it was sufficient to mollify permitted them. We did not allow that. Knowing well that the the main trade union leaders and spilt the movement. After this, bubble must burst at some time our concern was not to delay most of the union leaders who had been active in the Interna the catastrophe but to tike care that the International emerged tional began more and more to accomodate themselves to the from it pure and unadulterated” . Liberals, some hoping in this way to find their own personal With the end of the International Marx, once again began to passage into Parliament. give priority to his theoretical work. Though always as long as The final cleavage with these opportunist leaders came after he lived he remained actively involved in the life of the labour the Pans Commune, the finest hour for the working class dur movement, attempting to steer it forward along the most con- ing the lifetime of the International. strudve path. In 1871, after the fall of France in the war with Prussia, Pari- In 1881 Engels commented: “ By his theoretical and practical' »an workers seized control of Paris, forming the first ever achievements Marx has gained for himself such a position that workers* state in history. From ^ a r —and through the best people in all the working class movements throughout intermediaries—Marx made every effort to steer the Commune the world have full confidence in him. At critical junctures they along the path to victory. turn to him for advice and then usually find that his counsd The Commune was to prove, however, to be only a brief if ,is the best.” glorious episode. Tragically, the Commune was drowned in . “This position he holds in Germany, in France, in Russia, blood. >' not to mention in the smaller countries. It is therefore not a “ The Commune gave the mischevious abortion Thiers (the case of Marx forcing his opinion, and still less his will, on peo leadw of the French government—Editor) time to centralise ple but of the people coming to him of tbemsdves. And it is If be -ere active today Marx would be more confJttan ' upon this that Mark's peculiar influence. *o extremdy impor- ever of the future. The working class th ro u ^o u tth e-o rid possesses an absolutely unrivalled strength, way beyond that t o hi, chronic m health. E n d u rin g Mam's lifetime. A l l the social diseases of the J life he-had been placed capitalist world which he fought are returning agamw*h» ^ H e a b o bad to endure desperate poverty and vengeance. But never have there b e e n greater^ objective • .1 But because of hii umhakeable confidence in possibilities for socialism. * ' ■ . . .. . t ^ S t o f u t u r e of mankind he always was a We to summon U t our generation end .forever the nightmare of «nd Stalinism. Let us build the kind of sooety about whidi Marx wrote and to which he dedicated his Bfe. • - - __ At Marx's graveside in 1883. Engel* finishedta; addra* with these worts: “ Marx was the best-hated and s la n d ^ n u n *SteT 9 n tb « the Runj*n wortimda» illk * autocracy and took their destinies into their own hands, they of his age. Governments, both absolutist and rePub^ ° ^ pefled him from their territories, whilst thebouj^eoo, both con- t s i s s i s * .» * - *■■«- - and extreme demooatic, vied with eacbother m a cam r t n Revolution paign of vilification against him. ' . .___ . ,K_ doubt they will also perform elaborate celebranotB thisyor, “ He brushed it all to one side Ukecobwebi, 'grortdthnn ^ 7 h i s h o £ , If only Marx had b e e n ^ a ^ and answered them only when compelledto do so. Andhedied than hinuelfl Their totalitarian police regimejs a honoured, loved and mourned by miUions of ■frmnt to the r*'n r *° which he dedirated his entire hfe. workers from the Siberian mines over Europe and Ajnenca to In Britain.and other capitalist countries, there « many w the coast of California, and I make bold to say that though boast some allegiance to Marx, only to deny his heritage by - he had many opponents h r had bafdly a personal enany. J X S S y t o recondk the septate and irreconcilable interests of the working class with th o s e .o ^ « p « ^ ^ qs worK. , »*. Fortunately, throughout his works, Marx ha t already answered these so-called “ Marxist*" in advance! - l\/larx -founder of sci6ntific socislism
B y John Pickard - Marx, was corn and educated in the Rhine provinc^the most ting on a given body” (the-theory of evolution). Marx and industrialised and economically advanced part oM Engels, applying the dialectical method to human society, were Sections of the Rhenish capitalist class were m the to explain how different social systems had arisen historically movements for democratic rights and for the unification ° f and, as a result of their inner contradictions, had given way in turn to higher social systems in a series of “ leaps, catastrophes many, because the division of Ge™ n'f ° S^ k¥$ method thus differs fundamentally from the was an obstacle to the mode of thought accepted as ‘normal’ in capitalist sooay.wh.ch The Prussian state-bureaucxacy wasdominatedbytbeow o a s confines itself to the horizons of the existing -o f landlords, the ‘Junkers’, particular of ^ which society, and with it the world in general, consists of more When the young Marx went to university to studyJaw, Uk or less fixed, unchanging ‘categories’, without mn«>mpulses m ™ t o « n Z p o ra rie . he came to embrace the philosophy towards transformation. On this b a s i s change m w aety or 'of Heeel whose ideas dominated the German universities. elsewhere becomes understood as something accidental, or as Both M arx^id Engels considered that Hegelian the result of ‘outside’ influences (divine intervention, communist described by Engels as “the science of the general lawsofm non, both of external worl£ and of human I J ep ^How“ 'err t Hegd’s own view of the world. *hitaembracmg sen ted an enormous achievement in modern dialectics, was based on a id 'a h su c framework th ^ t o s a y . The basic idea of dialectics, as Engels later wrote, it was based on the supremacy of ideas, of thoughts, o the world is not to be comprehended as a comp ex concepts—of m ental processes, in other words-overm^ena/ made things, but as a complex of processes, in which the things things. Hegd viewed the historical development of woety, 'of • l-Aarmilv stable no less than their mind images in our head-, the living world, as being due in the final analysis to the devdop- the concepts, go through an uninterrupted change of coming ment of-the human spirit, th e ‘Absolute Idea . His political ideas were out-and-out reactionary. He sought on the Thrte to justify the strong Prussian state as something approaching non Parts of Marxism, described dialectical devdopmentasa the ideal constitutional form. After his death, a fur*ous s g- process “that repeats, as it were, stages that have idready been T c developed between the ‘Old Hegelians’ who followed the £Lsed. but repeats them in a different way. on a ^ g h " old man’s politics and the ‘Young Hegdians who accepted the (^the negation of the negation” ), a development, so to.speak. basis of his philosophy—dialectics but who were radical ■ u T pS S S ta i» spirals, not in a straight >me, a devdopm^t democrats, opposed to the Prussian state. bv leans catastrophies and revoluuons; in continuity; the Marx himself became involved in one of the Yomg Hegdian transformation of quantity into quality; inn® clubs and gained an early reputation as one of ns most able devdopment, imparted by the contradiction andIconflia of the advocates. It was because of his involvement mjh “ e circles v ^o u s forces and tendencies acting on a given body, or within that he was given, in 1842, the job of contributor and then edita a given phenomenon, or within a given society... of the radical-democratic newspaper, Rhemische Zarung, back The practical proof of dialectics lies in nature and also1" ^ ed financially by Rhenish radicals. development of society. D«win. for example, first « p U « d Marx was by this time influenced by another Germai how living things develop and chang< as a result philosopher, the materialist Feuerbach, and in hu Contnbu tradiction and conflict of the various forces and tendencies ac I Hon to the Critique o f Hegel's philosophy o f Law, Marx already outline of their materialist conception of history, the trx* com concluded that legal relations could not be underwood on the plete and general exposition was contained in a later wort by basis of the "general development of the human mind” , as them begun in December 1845, The German Ideology. Mart Hegel believed. He argued, on the contrary, that legal relation* and Engels, it should be noted, had come to the same general originated is the material conditions of life. conclusions quite independently of each other, and their subse During the period of the Rhanischt Zeitung, unlike many quent collaboration was so dose, that it is difficult to donn a of his Young Hegelian contemporaries, Marx hwima more in the work of ooe without disputing the other. volved in the concrete political questions of the day. Through the pages of his paper he furiously attacked the privileges of • In a later reference to The German Ideology, in his Preface the Junkers and the restrictions and oppression of the Pru*- to the first part o f A Contribution to the Critique o f Pahacal _ sian state bureaucracy. . .. , ~ Econom y (1859>, Marx wrote: “ Frederick Engels...arrived by He commented on the debate* in the Rhenish' Diet (parlia inether road at the same result at I and_we drritVri to * t forth ment) where the representatives of the capitalist class fought together our conception a* opposed to the ideological concep out their battles with the state, and at the other end of the scale, tion of German philosophy.” Thu* together, they set to work on the struggles of ordinary workers and peasants even, for on The German Ideology, in order, as Marx phrased k. “to example, in relation to their fight for the right to collect firewood settle accounts with our former philosophical consciences.” in the royal forests. ... x In this work, Marx and Engels described the material bass M an also saw, as he war to see many times in his life, the of all historical development, as opposed to the idealistic view . weakness of these capitalist democrats who were often ‘radical’ held by Hegel and others: . is- words, but who were not prepared to struggle against the “The first premise of all human history is. of course, the ex feudal reaction because they feared the working d a » more than istence of living human idividuals... they feared the Prussian. Jankers.-. ' . “Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas etc., that - > In i later period, after the 1848- revolution was betrayed by. is real active men. as they are conditioned by a definite develop them, he wrote bitterly of the capitalists as a class: ment of their productive forces and of the intercourse corrrspoo- _ “ Without faith in itself, without faith in the people, grumbl- - ding to these... . ing at those above, frightened of those below, egotistical towards “ In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends both and aware of its egoism, revolutionary with regard to the from heaven to earth, here it is a matter of asmylrng from earth _ conservatives , and. conservative with regard-to- the revolu -to heaven. That-is to- say, not of setting out from whm men tionaries. It did not trust its own slogans. uSed phrases instead say. Imagine, conceive, nor from men as narrated, thought of, of ideas, it was intimidated by the world storm and exploited imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in the flesh; but it for its own ends; it displayed no energy anywhere...” setting out from real active men and on the basis o f their real The weakness of the Rhenish capitalist class brought about life processes demonstrating the development of the ideological Marx’s first enforced exile. Despite the increasing circulation reflexes and echoes of this life process...” In other words: “ It of RKeinische Zeitung under Marx’s editorship, when the Prus is- not consciousness that determines life, but life that determines sian government finally decided to suppress or behead the paper conciousness.” in March 1843, the‘radical’ capitalist shareholders meekly sub Although both Marx and Engels were influenced by the mitted. Rather than stand and fight for the paper, they sacrificed materialist philosophy of Feuerbach, they could also see the its editor and M an went into exile in Paris. - . ■ weakness in his ideas. Feuerbach’s materialism was undialec- There, he became involved in the local revolutionary- ticah it contained no element of change and development. ■ democratic movements. He was particularly associated with an Whereas Feuerbach saw the world, as Marx and Engels put it, , organisation of German workers, known as the ‘League of the “as a thing given direct for all eternity, remaining ever the Just’, of whom he wrote, in a letter to Feuerbach, “ ...the same..” The German Ideology presented a view of a world brotherhood of man is no mere phrase with them, but a fact which was “the product of industry. ..a historical product, the of life, and the nobility of man shines upon us from their work- -result of the activity of a whole succession of generations, each hardened bodies.” - - standing on the shoulders of the previous one.” While others of his contemporaries were indifferent to. or “ As far as Feuerbach is a materialist” , they wrote, “ he does underestimated the role of the working class, Marx already saw not deal with history, and as far as he considers history, he is the enormous potential of their struggles and their political not a materialise” organisation. - Marx and Engels, therefore, rejected Hegel’s idealism, while At about this time Marx began a collaboration with another embracing the fitaWrir; they embraced Feuerbach's materialism, former ‘Young Hegelian’, Frederick Engels, and it proved to while rejecting his “ fixed” view of the world. Their view of be a partnersRlp which lasted a lifetime. Their first joint work history was at once dialectical and materialist, a synthesis of was a polemic against the stagnant, sectarian politics of their •the best elements of Hegel and Feuerbach. former associates among the Young Hegelians. The H oly Fami Using the materialist conception of history as the basis, it ly, or Critique o f Critical Criticism was, as the irony in the title was possible to understand the progress of humanity from one implies, a merciless criticism of those Y oung Hegelians who were form of society to another. trapped in the mire of scholastic 'criticism', divorced from the In a later work, his Preface to the first part o f a Contribu realities of life. tion to a Critique o f Political Economy, (1859). Marx summaris Whereas Marx and Engels had moved on from their former ed the basics of historical materialism: days, some of the Young Hegelians had not. They were radicals “The mode of production of material life conditions the in name only, they saw the labouring classes as a more or less general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not inert mass incapable of changing society. They looked instead the consciousness of men that determines their being, bis their to their own intellectual labours, their “ critical criticism” , as social being that determines their consciousness. the only motive force in history, not unlike ail those present- “ At a certain stage of development, the material productive day “ Marxist” professors and academics who have long since forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations written-off the working class. Marx and Engels, in contrast, of production or—this merely expresses the same thing is legal spoke of the workers as the class which “ can and must eman terms—with the property relations within the framework of cipate itself” by the abolition of capitalist exploitation and which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development oppression. ‘ ■ of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Although in The Holy Family, Marx and Engels give an “Then begins an era of social revolution. The changesln the \ 8
man Ideology. -«* if *cales fdl from ^ e s-F o r^ economic foundation la d sooner or later to the tn n t f a n » fir.t time Icould see dearly the logic of w o r l d history and c«kl tion of the whole immense superstructure. In studying such trace the apparently so contradictory phenomena of devetop- . transformations it is always necessary to distinguish beween men! of society and ideas to their material origins. I fdt the material transformation of the economic conditions of pro- dazzled...” __, . duction. which can be determined with the P™cnjon of natural However, despite initial attempts. The German Ideology me legal, political religious or ptalowphic-m never published in the lifetime of either author. “ We s h o r t , ideological focm s-in which men become conscious of abandoned the manuscript” . M an wrote later, “to the lo w this conflict and fight it out.” , ing criticism of th e mice all the wore willingly since we tad yjarx and Engels thus argued that the laws, morals and ideas achieved our main purpose—sdf clarification. cenerally which were dominant in capitalism were only those In the next few yean, Marx was involved with Engriiin oftherulingc l a s s . “Thedas,whichistheruhngmaterudjotvt ^ H irin g “ communist correspondent* committees , fetm g of society is at the same time its ruling wfetfecmay f°r« . The thmreticians of capitalism—economists and philosophers— groups of socialists in Brussels where they now ^ved.to others would attempt, of course, to picture their own system as the biLondon. Paris. Hamburg. Cologne, and other aoes. Ow ing this period. Marx was forced oo many occasions to take most perfect, the product not of their own das. “£ « « b u [ of general human development, progressing from less perfect up the cudgels against a variety of confused semi-utopian, sec forms of society. The capitalist system, they argue, would en- tarian and middle-class trends in the socialist movement Joseph Proudhon, the French utopian socialist, wrote The ^ ^ M i T E n g d s , on the other hand, put capitalism in its Philosophy of Poverty, and when Marx published his h is K ^ ^ o n w * . showing its emergence from feudalism, its devastating reply. The Poverty o f Philosophy, it was the fint flowering and its eventual decay. It was the very development occasion that the general basis of historical materialism, was of the means of production which had forced the breakdowu published, although in a polemical form. of feudalism (and was stffl doing so m Germany and central The most popular exposition of historical matensasm, Europe), overcoming the old property rights, customs and legal however, and the work which still “ dazzles” workers whorod it for the first time today, is the Commwust Manifesto, anccher restrictions standing in its way. ^ a ra ° a n d E n g ^ b h a d both been invited in 1847 to jo« the Where the legal and juridical values of capitalism were ‘League of the Just’ and they very quickly became the thecrracal . established, a* they were in England especially, they provided leaders of that organisation. The League changedits n is e to the framework for the unfettered, growth of industrial the "Communist League” under their persuasion because Marx capitalism. , _ . and Engds wanted to distinguish their group froe the But capitalism alto carried within it the- seeds of its own •Owenites’ in Britain, and other strands of Utopians, on tfceone destruction, in the form of the proletariat, the industrial work ' hand, and the “soaal quacks" and philanthropists on the other, ing dass. Marx and Engels saw the working class, a new soaal who all at that time went under the general title o fso o a ta s class developing alongside the capitalist dass, as the standard- The Communist League, at its congress in late 1W7, in bearers of the future. . __ . structed Marx and Engels to draft a manifesto outline* the As the means of production, the material forces 01 looeiy, philosophy and the policy of the League. This they did asd the developed further, a point would be reached where the proper C o m m u n ist M a n ife sto , published the following F e b r w .t^ d ty, .relations (i.e. the property laws of capitalism) would an immediate and powerful effect on those workers u; reached. themsdves become a barrier to further social devdopment. Written in a popular and accessible style, without vu«aris “ From the forms of devdopment of the productive forces, these ing the ideas however, the pamphlet describes thense™ d relations rum into their fetters.*’ . devdopment of capitalism, as neither an historical acadent Thus Marx and Engds anticipated the present day situation nor as a permanent feature. where world capitalism is in crisis, unable to develop society, They described the role of the working class m production because private property and the nation state, once progressive under capitalism and its future role in forging a new soaety: social features, are now absolute fetters on economic progress. “ not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons tha: bring The authors of The German Ideology thus separated death to itself, it has called into existence the men who are to themselves by a huge chasm from all those various philan widd those weapons—the proletarians.” • thropists do-gooders and social reformers who sought to re The C o m m u n ist M a n ife sto , from the first section that com tain capitalism itself, while satisfying their consciences by try ments- “ the history of all hitherto existing soaety is a history ing to ameliorate the worst aspects of capitalist exploitation. of class struggle” , is at the same time a perspective, a pro They also distinguished themsdves from the ‘utopian’ socialists gramme. a polemic against the Utopians and others, and a call who thought that moral persuasion or the establishment of ‘co to action, ending with the famous lines. “The proletarians have operatives’ would offer a means of changing society. nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Marx and Engels did not run away from the idea of dass Working men of all countries, unite!” struggle; they embraced it, and gave it its historical justifica The prophetic words that opened the C o m m u n ist tion. “Revolution” , they wrote, “is the driving force of history, M anifesto—“A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of corn- also of rdigion, of philosophy and all other kinds of theory. munism”—were given substance a few days a t e it was publish The working class, they explained, through its very condi ed. On February 22nd. King Louis Phillippe of France was over tions of existence under capitalism, would inevitably come in thrown, launching France into a turbulent penod of revolution to conflict with Us ‘masters’, at first partially and spontaneously, and counter-revolution. . and later consdously, as a class. The working dass, overthrow-. Weeks later, other European nations were caught in a c same ing the capitalists, would take bold of the levers of society and whirlwind as insurrections broke out in Germany, Austria. prepare the way for a classless society; private property and the Hungary, Central Europe, Italy and Poland. Marx and Engels nation state would disappear. .__ themsdves were to play no small part in the revolutionary move Socialism was thus given a solid foundation and a scientific ment that devdoped in Germany, in 1848-1849. __ basis for the first time. It was no longer in the realm of ‘dreams’ and‘nice ideas’ but was firmly rooted in the science of material The same “spectre” referred to by Marx and Engds sal haunts Europe, and the world, today. The economic aodsoc social development. . . w , crises in the three main areas of the world-theadvanced Paul I afargue, the French socialist who later married Marx s capitalist states, the Stalinist states, and the underdeveloped daughter, Laura, wrote, on reading the manuscript of The Ger- of Marxism retains its full force today. Even the spokamen world—ire reaching such • stage that the next historical[period and representatives 6 f capitalism acknowledge and employ the promises to be the most turbulent in the whole of bum ^tatory- method of Marx, of etas anatysa (though of course from their Onlythe socialist transformation of soaety. on a world scale, own standpoint) in the their more serious journals and pubbo- can offer a future for mankind. tioos. . ’ r The fundamental idea* of Marxism, of scientific socialism. In the last one hundred and forty yean all kinds of attracts th_ j fun force and validity today. Marxism is at present have been made to suppress Marx’s ideas. S S “ S . »=«. - i. *■ » -• misrepresent them, or to simply write them ofT. But as Marx wut . wYxmme of the enonnou* potential of these iaea» a id . "Life determines condousnes*” . As much as Marx’s «fca> £ £ « S by the frantic attempts of the - p j t t t a r have been an enormous inspiration to the struggles of worten class and their spokesmen in the labour movement to expel the in the hundred yean since his death—the outstanding example iu p p o ^ s from the Labour P a r t y . But the, wJl fail being the October Russian Rerotaboo—the very condmoe that workers will experience in the dead-ends of capitalismand l° S e w u iW h is o w n lifetime. Marx wasforcrim to exfle Stalinism will ensure that the best period for these ideas hes in not once, but four times. His ideas were often ndK^ed by •theoreticians' who unlike Marx, have since sunk into deserv- theo X > £ £ £ on^Marxism is still theM m ^ n £ ^^philosophy a n d the only one to ^ W M e n w t ‘modern’ philosophies have disappeared without trace, leaving no impression on society, the method and outlook On historical materialism Letter by Friedrich Engels to Joseph Bloch a way that the final result always arises from conflicts London, September 21, 1890 rojLny individual wills, o f--h ich e^h M » u h « I According to the materialist conception of history the deter it is by a host of particular conditions of life. *rt mining element in history is ultim ately the innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite w o o reproduction in real life. More than this neither Marx nor I teve parallelograms of forces which give nse to one n = u k ia -th e ever asserted. If therefore somebody twists this mto the state historical event. This again may itself be viewed as theproduca ment that the economic element is the only detennii^one. of a power which, taken as a whole, works he transforms it into a meaningless, abstract and absurd phrase. without volition. For what each individual ^ The economic situation is the basis, but the vanous elements by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one of the superstructure—political forms of the class struggle and willed. Thus past history proceeds in the manner of a natural its consequences, constitutions established by the victorious class process and is also tosentially subject to the same laws ^ move rft^Tsuccessful battle, etc.—forms of law—and then even the ment. But from the fact that individual w ills-of reflexes of all these actual straggles in the brains of the com desires what he is impelled to by his physical consnmnoo;and batants: political, legal, philosophical theories rehgiom id as in the last resort economic, circumstances (otter ms and their ‘urther development into systems of dogma-also ex- own personal circumstances or those of society in 8®*™)— S S l u e n c e upon the course of the historic*! smug do not attain what they want, but are merged into^a “ Becttve gles and in many cases preponderates determining mean, a common resultant, it must not be concluded that tfwar There is an interaction of all these elements in which, amid aU value = 0. On the contrary, each contributes to the resultant the endless host of accidents fi e., of things and events, whose and is to this degree involved in it. . . . inner connection is so remote or so impossible I would ask you to study this theory further from its original we regard it as absent and can neglect it), the economic move sources and not at second hand; it is really much easier. Marx ment finally asserts itself as necessary. Otherwise the »PPlK=»- hardly wrote anything in which it did not play a tion of the theory to any period of history one chose would be 'especially The Eighteenth Bmmaire o f Lows Bonaparte » a most simpler than the solution of a simple equation.... excellent example of its application There are itlso many^illu We make our own history, but in the first place under very sions in C apital. Then 1 may also direct you to definite presuppositions and conditions. Among these the Herr Eugen Duhnng's Revolution m Science and Lud**t Feuer fcconomic ones are finally decisive. But the political ones, etc., bach and the Outcome o f Classical German “ and indeed even the traditions which haunt^ m^ “ IIun^ ^ which I have given the most detailed account of historical play a part, although not the decisive one. The Prussian state materialism which; so far as I know, exists. , . arose and developed from historical, ultimately from Marx and I are ourselves tartly to blame for the fact that causes. But it could scarcely be maintained without pedantry younger writers sometimes lay more stress on the economic side that among the many small stales of North Germany, Branden- than is due to it. We had to emphasize this main principle in burz was specifically determined by economic necessity to opposition to our adversaries, who denied it, and we had not become the great power embodying the always the time, the place or the opportunity to allow the other after the Reformation, also the religious difiTerence elements involved in the interaction to come into tbor nghts. north and south, and not by other elements as well (above aU But when it was a case of presenting a section of history, that by its entanglement with Poland, owing to the possession of is of a practical application, the thing was different and there Prussia, and hence with international, political ndanons-which n i error was possible. Unfortunately, however, it happens on were indeed also decisive in the formation of the Austrian ly too often that people think they have fully understood a dynastic power). Without making oneself ridiculous it would theory and can apply it without more ado from the moment be difficult to succeed in explaining in terms of econonucsthe they have mastered its main principles, and even those not existence of every small state in Germany, past and present always correctly. And 1 cannot exempt many of the more re or the origin of the High German consonant mutations, wtuch cent ••Marxists" from this reproach, for the most wonderful the geographical wall of partition formed by the mountain from rubbish has been produced from this quarter too. the Sudetic range to the Taunus extended to a regular division “r c s s s s . — i-o i»— The historical destiny of the teaching of Karl Marx B* v.i.u™n ..v ■ The main thing in the teaching of Marx is the elucidation of and expands in breadth. The process of sdection and g a tb f the world-wide historical role of the proletariat as the builder mg of the forces of the proletariat and its preparation for the of a socialist society. Has the progress of events in the world basics ahead proceeds slowly but steadily. confirmed this teaching since it was expounded by Marx? The Hinin-nr-t of history is such that Uk theoretical victory It was first put forward by Marx in 1844. Already the Com of Marxism forces its enemies to disguise themselves as Marx munist Manifesto of Marx and Engds, which appeared in 1848, ists. Liberalism, rotten to the core, tries to revive itself in the jave j systematic exposition of this teaching, which exposition form of sodalist opportunism. The period of preparation o f still remains the best even now. World history, since that time, the forces for great battles, is interpreted by them as the renun is dearly divisible into three main periods: (1) From the 1848 ciation of these battles. Improvements in the position of the Revolution to the Paris Commune (1871); (!) From the Paris slaves «-n»hling them to carry on a fight against wagc-slavery Commune to the Russian Revolution (1905); (3) §ipce the Rus is explained by them in the sesu« that the slaves are selling their sian Revolution. - liberty, rights for a penny. In a cowardly-manner they preach Let us cast a glance on the fate of the teaching, of Marx in “ sodatpeace” (i.e., peace with slavo-ownership), renunciation each of these periods.» »•„ of the r*atJ struggle, - They have many adherents among frw-f*ij«t- parliamentarian*, the various- officials in the labovr movement, and-the “ sympathising** intellectuals*.. , .< -I. L- .. - - - - N- • • • • ••• * ■ ■ i ~ ' In the beginning of the first-period Marx’s teaching does not III - by any means dominate. It is only one of very many fractions - or streams in socialism. The forms of socialism which dominate The opportunists hardly had time to finish their hymns, of are those which, in the main, are akin, to our Narodniks-, the praise to “social peace'* and the needlessness of storms under lack of understanding of the materialist basis of the historical “ democracy” , when a new source of the greatest of worid movement, the inability to assign the role and significance of storms opened up in Asia. The Russian Revolution was followed in capitalist society, the masking of the bourgeois by the Turkish, the Persian, and the Chinese. We are now liv essence of democratic reorganisation by various, ostensibly ing in the very epoch of these storms and their “repercussions cnrialia , phrases about “the people’*, “ justice ... right , etc. on Europe. Whatever fate may befall the great Chinese republic The 1848 Revolution struck a fatal blow at all these which various “ dvilised” hyenas are now sharpening vociferous, multi-coloored and noisy varieties ofjjre-Marxian their teeth, no power in the world will re-establish serfdom in socialism. In all countries the Revolution showed the various Asia, or wipe out the heroic democracy of the masses of die classes of society in action. The shooting of the workers by the people in Asiatic and semi-Asiatic countries. republican bourgeoisie in the June Days in Paris, in 1848, finally Some people, inattentiveoo the conditions of preparation and established that the proletariat alone was of a socialist nature. devdopment of mass struggle, were reduced to a state of despair The liberal bourgeoisie, feared the independence of this class and anarchism by the long postponements of the decisive fight a hundred times more than any kind of reaction. Cowardly against capitalism in Europe. We now see how shortsighted and liberalism grovels before the lauex. The peasantry is satisfied pusillanimous is this anarchist despair. with the abolition of the remnants of feudalism and passes over The fact of Asia, with its dght hundred million people, be to the side of order, and only from time to bme wavers bet ing drawn into the struggle for the same European idalsm ust ween labour democracy and bourgeois liberalism. -All doctrines be-a source of courage and not of despair. of dass-Vess socialism and class-iesr politics turn out to be sheer The Asiatic revolutions have shown us the same lack of nonsense. - • • • ••••-■ backbone and baseness of liberalism, the same exceptional im The Commune of Paris (1871) completes this development portance of the independence of the democratic masses, and of bourgeois reforms; it was only the heroism of the proletariat thetnrrt** sharp line dividing the proiesanat from the bourgeoisie. that brought about the consolidation of the republic, i.e., the Anyone who, after the experience of Europe and Asia, speaks form of state organisation in which the class relations appear of dass-iesi politics and class-less socialism, simply deserves to in their most naked form. “ * ' “ be put in a cage, to be exhibited side by side with some In all other European countries a more confused and less Australian kangaroo. finished devdopment leads to the same formation of a bourgeois After Asia, Europe has also begun to stir, but in no Asiatic • society. By the end of the first period (1848-71)—a period of way. The “ pkceful” period of 1872-1904 has gone complete storm and revolution—-pre-M&man socialism dies. Independent ly. never to return. High cost of living and the pressure of the proletarian parties are born: the First International (1864-72) trusts is dancing an unprecedented intensification of the and the German Social-Democracy. economic struggle, which has roused even the British workers who are most of all corrupted by liberalism. Before our eyes, II ' a political crisis is maturing even in the “ die-hard” , bourgeoss- Junker country. Germany. Owing to the feverish race for ar The second period (1872-1904) is distinguished from the first maments, and the policy of imperialism, the "social peace” of by its “peaceful” character, by the absence of revolutions. The modem Europe is more like a barrel of gunpowder. And the West has finished with bourgeois revolutions. The East has not decay of all bourgeois parties together with the maturing of the yet grown ripe for them. proletariat is proceeding steadily apace. The West enters into the phase of “ peaceful" preparation Since the rise of Marxism, every one of the three great epoda for the epoch of future transformations. Socialist parties, pro in world history has provided it with fresh proof and has brought letarian in essence, are formed everywhere, parties which learn it new triumphs. But the coining historical epoch is holding in to use bourgeois parliamentarism, to establish their own daily store for Marxism, as the teaching of the proletariat, a still press, their educational institutions, their trade unions and their greater triumph. . . - ' ,. co-operatives. The teaching of Marx gams a complete victorv % Written in Marcfc 1913 The Communist Manifesto today By Leon Trotsky
Cofamoma, October 30, 1S37. eort o f its reproduction; the appropriation of sarpioa vsaasby tt is hard to halieve IW f ■ l ■ ii f 1 af Ike M m ifm m mf tka capitaliata; oocap»ririnu aa the baaic law of social rahboas; tie CanMMiH fnrty ■ only few yams s en; 1 This psmpkh*. the rr "nation of intrrmaliate classes, * * \ the urban petty boar- fiaplaymg p M tkaa any ether m warU I l f si ms. geoiaM aad the peasantry; the tonrrptr ation of wealth a tha today by ito frritnwa b tootf h f M hands of m ever diminishing D u m b er of property owners at tha i sppsar to- h n » keen n t e yesterday. Amvedty, the cue pole, aad the-numerical growth of tha proletariat, m the ------aathora (M an * n 29, F a p h 27) »■« able to look arbor the preparation of the material and p>^.— lo farther into the future then mmjmmm b d o n then, and porhape tions for the serialiat regime. 4. The proposition ia the Uaxifoto tha lisi ai j Already is their joist pasfete la tk* edition a I 1872, M an of c a p ita ls to lower the living standards of the works**, aad ■ J Eaftk declared dut despise tka fact tkat i to traaafora them into paupers had been subjected to a pesssgee in tka M atU fam were aatiqastod, tkcy iek heavy barrage. Parsons, professors, ministers, journalist*, — -L aa longer had aay right tv alter Aa a d g a d tart i fsaoeistic theoreticians, aad trade union leaden came to the tka U cnifntv had shsndy h frtst agaiaat the sti-nslled “theory of impoverahmant". They daring tha intervening period af t— f j i n jm zn. Sixty-fivs •variably discovered' signs of glueing prosperity a a o ^ additional yean have r lapsed s n th* baa. Iwlo l peosegea toiler*, palming off tha labor aristocracy aa the proletariat, or fa tha U tiajoto have receded rtill farther iato tka paeC We taking a fleeting tendency as permanent. Meanwhile, e s s tha Aall try to eatsMisk mr« iwrlty ja tkia Preface hoik thoae ideaa devdopmot of the nxtghtiert capitalism ia the world, aaanly, ia the Mamifnto which retaia their fall fa m today aad thaaa VS. capitalism has transformed million. 0f p .^ which require important alteration or sflitir^ in n pets who a n maintained at the * ■ <» of federal, »i« uirip,| L The materialist conception of kiatory, discovered by ar private-charity. M an only a short while before a d applied with, r insaai—s - S. A* against tha Ifau/aao, which depicted commercial aad ■kill m the Itm ifaM o, kaa e f M y withstood tka teat of industrial crises aa a aeries of errw men m t a and the blows af hoofiW cxitiasn. It oonatkttea today the revisionista vowed that tha national aad international de coa at the most predooi u tn a e a ta of bsssaa thought All velopment of trust* would sssun control over the market, and ether interpret etioca of tha kiatorical p n e a i haw leet all lead gradually to tha abolition of crises. The cloas of the laat arirntific meaning. Wo cam t a i wick wrtaa ty that it ia im- century aad the beginning of the present one were ia reality poaaible ia our time D o t only to-be marked by a development of capitalism so tempestaoas as to bat m a a literate tibsurvu ia palil ■oake crises seem only “accidental" stoppages. But this speck the materialist interpretabaa of kiatory. kaa gone beyond return. Ia the last nalysia, truth proved to ha 2. The first chapter of tka Um nfeM a opeaa with die follow on M an's side in this question as well. mg words: “The history of all hitherto existmg society is tka 6. “The executive of die modem stats is but a coumsttee history of class straggles.** This pnstalato. tha nost naport l for managing the common affairs of the whole lninigu i n ** enorlasioa drawn fro™ tha taatrrialiw iatarpretabea of binary, This succinct formula, which the leaden of the social dMoe- immediately became aa isaaa aa tka daaa straggle. Especially racy looked upon aa a journalistic paradox, contains ■ fact vitimiwmattack* ware directed by teacbeaary hypocrites, lib- the only scientific theory of tfas state. The democracy faahssned orml doctrinaires and id/-alitrir democrats against tha theory by the bourgeoisie is not, as both Bernstein and K sn d j which replaced “common welfare,1* “national unity” aad “eternal thought, an empty sack which one can undisturbedly fill wfeh saoral troths ” as the driving force by the straggle of material aay kind of claas content. Bourgeois dnaocrscy can serve aaty interest*. They were later joined by recruits from the ranks of the bourgeoisie. A government of the “People’s Front," winter the labor movement itself, by the so-called revisionists, Lc.. the ^"‘dcd by Blum or (Jiamiiups, Caballero or Negrin, is aaly. proponents of reviewing (“revising") Marxism in the spirit of “a committee for meaaging the ...... affair* of the whoie dajs collaboration and daaa conciliation. Finally, hi oor own bourgeoiaia.’* Whatever this “committee” affair* p ^ l j time, the same path has bees followed is practice by tha con the bourgeoisie dismisses it with a boot, temptible epigonea of the Cotmmmi* International (the “Stains- . 7. “Every clsaa struggle ia a struggle." “The or ■ats”) : the policy of die so-called “People’s Front* Sows wholly ganisation of the proletarirt aa a daaa (is) rnaisiapinitlj its from the denial of tha laws of the clsaa struggle 4fa»w H >, it organization mto a political party.* Trade tmiooista, an l b is precisely the epoch of imperialist!, bringing all social con one hand, aad anarcho-syndicalists an the other, have Long tradictions to the point of t which gives to tbs shied away—aad even now try to dry away tioiu the aadv- Commiuuu MmifeUo its snprpnm theoretical triumph. landing of theee historical laws. “Pure” trade nr.i^i— k— 3. The anatomy of capitalism, aa a specific stage,ia the now b e a dealt a crashing blow ia its ehi-f refuge: the Umtod erwynnir development of aodety, waa given by M an in its Stales. Aaareho ayndicalism has suffaed aa irreparable da£nt finished form in Capital (1867). Bat already in the Commanut ia its lart stronghold—Spain. Hera too the Ua»ifm lo pswsed Hm ijcM o tha main lines of the future analysis a n firmly ■hatched: the paynmt for labor power as equivalent to tha & The proletarm conquer power withia tha Isgal framework established by die bourgeoisie. “Communists openly a nature. Had it beea possible ia tbe secood~half of the Nina- declare that their ends can be sttained only by the forcible Iseath Century, to organise economy oa sorislia beginnings, ias avethrow of all existing social condition*.” Reformijn sought tempos of growth would have beea immeasarahiy greater. Ba te explain this postulate of the Manifesto oa the gromxk of tba this theoretically irrefutabls postulate doea not, however, m- namaturiry of the movement at that time, and the jnailni|tala validate die fact that the productive forces kept expanding m development of democracy. The fate of Italian, German, ami • # a world scale right op to the world war. Oaly ia the laat tweacy greet number of other “danooadm” prove* that “immaturity” pears, despite tbe moat modern conqursti of science aad ■a the di«inguiahing trait of the idee* of the reformat* tbaa- •edmoiosy, has the epoch begun of out-and-out agnation sod even decline of world economy. Mankind it beginning to ex 9 . For the sorialirt_tr*nsform*ioa of society, the worthy . pend it! accumulated capital, while tbe next war threaten* to eieea must cw— tn it is its banda aoch power a» c m smrA destroy the very foundation* of rivilitation for many yean to each and every political obstacle barring, the roed. to the new t o m e . Tbe author* of the Manifesto thonghi that capitahsa sjstaat. “The proletariat organised ae the rmling Claes’*—thie ia •ould be scrapped long prior to the time when from a relative the dictatorship. At the aame time it ia the oaly true proletarian ly reactionary regime it would turn into an absolutely reactionary democracy. Id acope and depth depend npoa enact eta bistoricel regime. This transformation took final shape only before the cosntitWaa. The graeter die number of e a ta that t»l~ the path eyes of tbe present generation, and changed our epodilmo die W the eorialiat revolation, the freer and mere flexible' farms epoch of wan, revolutions, and fascism. will the d&atorship samna, the broader aad more deep-gning 2. Tbe error of M an and Engds in regard to tbe historic^ will be worhaa’ democracy. dates flowed, on tbe ooe hand, from aa underestimatioa of 10. The intern stirmal development of capitalists- bae ' future potsibihtie* latent in capitalism, and, on tbe other, aa d*arm mwd the international chanda- of the proletarian r n v to*erestimation of the revolutionary maturity of tbe proletariat l * iiei “United aditat of the. be ding civilised coantriea at *Tbe revolution of 1S4& did not pun into a socialist revolution ia one of the fint cendjtione for the emeadpaion of tbe a . Mamijetto bad calculated, bat opened up to Germany S t proletariat." Tbe subsequent' developeasul of capitaliaa bae as possibility of- a vaat future capitalist sscieaion. Tbe Paris daady knit aQ sectiooa of oar planet, both “dvilisad” aad Commune proved that the proletariat, withast having s tempered “w i i ilised,” that the preblaa of the enrialia revolotiaa bee revolutionary party at its bead, cannot wrest p e n s from As eonspletefy aad deda wfy nisiinj a world dbaiactar. The bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the prolonged period of capitalist ptso Soviet bareaau ecy attempted to liquidate the M aaifaOa with parity that ensued brought about not tbe adaratina of tho revo ra^set to this famlaas ulal qaeaiia The Boaapatat rligmiss lutionary vanguard, but rather tbe bourgeoia degeneratioa of tmu of the Soviet atate ie a t ■kalmi»iQ fllae ratioa of > the labor aristocracy, which became in tare the chid brake aa h b m n a of the theory of sodaHsa in oaa mantry. the proletarian revolution.- la tbe nature of riimg* tbe anther* 11- "When, in the eoane of development, daae datstetiaa* of die Manifesto could not paesibly have foreseen this “dialectic.” heve disappeared, aad all production has beea 3. Tor the Manifesto, capitalism wee the kingdom of free the bands of a vaet aaeoaboa- of tbs whole nation. die pnblic competition. While referring to tbe growing concentration of power will loee its political character.” In other words: the capital, the Manifesto did not draw the necessary condnsian ia Mate withers away. Society remain*. freed from the atraitjackat. regard to monopoly which has become the dombiant capitalist Tbia is nothing else bat socialism. The converse theorem: the form a oaa epoch, aad the moat important peefo ndition for Bankrolls growth of state coercion ia the USSR is clnqma* socialist economy. Only afterwards, ia f*apitol, did Marx estab teaimocy that society is moving away from socialism. lish the tendency toward the transportation of free competitina 12. “The workingmen have no fatherland.” Tbeae words of into monopoly. It waa Lenin who gave a characteri the Manifetio have more than onee been evaluated by phnwimq sation of moaopoly capitaliam ia his Imparmliim, - as an agitational qaip. As-a matter of fact they provided tbe 4 Basing themselves primarily on the example of “indus proletariat with the sole conceivable directive ia the qaestiea trial revolution" ia England, the authors of the Manifesto pie- of die cspitaliat “fatherland." The violatiaa of thie directive by far too unilaterally tbe process of liquidation of the the Second International brought about not oaly foor yean of i rlsisra, aa a wholesale proletarianization of tn fa , devaaatian ia Europe, bat the pitauit of world petty trades and pfaasntif. In point of fact, the elemental culture. In view of the impading new. war. for which the be forces of competition have far froca completed this simul- trayal of the Third Intemational has paved die way, the tsai muly progressive and barbarous work. Cspitalism hat Manifesto remains even now tbe moot reliable coanaellor oa the question of tbe capitals “fatherland.” rained tbe petty bourgeoisie at a much faster rate than it hat proletarian bed it. Furthermore, tbe bourgeoia atata haa loag Thus, we see that the joint and rather brief production of directed its conscious policy toward tbe artificial maintenance two young authors still continuer to give irreplaceable directives at petty bourgeois strata. At tha opposite pole, the gtowth of upoa tbe moat important sad burning questions of tbe struggle technology tad the rationalization of large scale industry ea- for emancipation. What other book could eves distantly be giaduts chronic unemployment and obstructs thr proletariaaixa- compered with tbe Communist Manifesto? But this does not tiaa of the petty bourgeoisie. Concurrently, the development ai imply that, after ninety year* of unprecedented development c»PMalign has accelerated ia the extreme the growth of legioat of productive forces sad vast socisl struggles, the Manifesto af technicians.
DELMAS TREASON TRIAL 1985 - 1989
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