Theoretical quarterly of the International Marxist Tendency In defence of 34 £3 � €3 In this issue: When the Communists ruled in Bavaria “Left narratives” or class struggle? MARXISM VERSUS POSTMODERNISM Editors: Alan Woods Theoretical (editor in chief) quarterly of the Rob Sewell International Hamid Alizadeh Marxist Francesco Merli Tendency Daniel Morley Contact: @ editor marxist.com In defence of Marxism 50525 14 6 PO Box , London, UK, E WG +44 0 207 739 2544 Contents ( ) p6 p3 Marxism versus Postmodernism Editorial: A word to In the first of a series of articles, we look at post- our readers modern philosophy, a species of subjective ideal- We are proud to relaunch the new look In ism, which today exerts a baleful influence that ex- Defence of Marxism as the theoretical organ tends beyond the walls of universities. of the International Marxist Tendency. p22 p15 When the Communists “Left narratives” or ruled in Bavaria class struggle? 100 years ago, a Soviet Republic was declared in Ba- Many on the left argue that what we need is varia amidst a revolutionary wave that swept Ger- a “new narrative” to counter the dominant many. Contained in its brief, heroic existence are narrative of the ruling class. But can this numerous lessons for revolutionaries today. idea take the workers’ movement forward? Front page image: andrés dEAN, flickr In defence of A WORD TO OUR READERS “A journal that sets out to be a militant mate- presentation. However, the new maga- As Lenin pointed out in his classic of rialist organ must be primarily a militant or- zine will now appear in several languages Marxism, What is to be done?: gan, in the sense of unflinchingly exposing and apart from English (Spanish, Portuguese, “Without revolutionary theory there can be no indicting all modern “graduated flunkeys of German and Swedish translations are al- revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be clericalism”, irrespective of whether they act as ready planned, and other languages will insisted upon too strongly at a time when the representatives of official science or as freelanc- follow) It will be published in dozens of fashionable preaching of opportunism goes ers calling themselves ‘democratic Left or ideo- countries around the world, either in pa- hand in hand with an infatuation for the nar- logically socialist’ publicists.”1 (Lenin, On the per or digital format. rowest forms of practical activity.”2 Significance of Militant Materialism) We trust that our existing readers will Revolutionary class struggle cannot be re- continue to give us the same enthusiastic duced to the immediate bread and butter elcome to the latest edition support as ever and look forward to wel- struggle of the working class. Among the of In Defence of Marxism, coming a large number of new readers, innumerable squabbling sects who falsely which represents a new convinced that the ideas of Marxism will claim the title of Marxists, we frequently and exciting point of de- continue to be a never-ending source of find a thinly veiled contempt for theory Wparture for our magazine. inspiration to revolutionary workers and and a slavish worship for what they con- In the nine years since it first com- youth everywhere. sider to be “practical issues.” menced publication, in the Spring of The newspapers of the sects are full 2012, the In Defence of Marxism maga- THE IMPORTANCE OF THEORY of cheap agitation, written in a “popular” zine (IDoM) has established a firm rep- The first number of the revamped IDoM style, as though the workers were little utation for serious Marxist analysis and is a special issue devoted mainly to the children incapable of grasping “difficult commentaries on both theoretical ques- subject of Marxism versus postmodern- ideas.” This merely shows a snobbish con- tions and burning issues of the labour ism. Some people may be surprised at tempt for working-class men and women, movement. this decision. Why waste time discussing a typical feature of the petty bourgeois Although it was initially launched as a abstract and obscure ideas that have no mentality and characteristic of people British journal, it has always had a strong relevance to the working class? that have no real knowledge of the work- international orientation and audience. But this criticism misses the point en- ing class. It closely followed the political line of tirely. Marxism does not confine itself to In fact, the workers soon tire of being marxist.com, the well-known website agitation on issues of immediate interest told things they already know very well. which has gained a well-deserved reputa- to the mass of the working class. Marxism They are well aware that they’re exploited tion for its consistent and uncompromis- is much more than a political programme by the bosses, living in bad houses, paid ing defence of the ideology and principles and an economic theory. It is a philoso- too low wages, that they pay too much for of revolutionary Marxism. phy, the vast scope of which covers not water and electricity, and so on and so We have felt for some time that the In- only politics and the class struggle, but forth. But the thinking workers – those ternational Marxist Tendency needed a the whole of human history, economics, who have already understood the need for theoretical journal, and the obvious can- society, thought and nature. It is too often a fundamental change in society – will not didate for this role was IDoM, which had forgotten that Marx and Engels started be nourished by such stale crumbs. the advantage of being “ready-made” and as philosophers and that a revolution- The most advanced and militant work- well established. ary philosophy, dialectical materialism, ers seek a more satisfactory diet. They The political line of the journal will not stands at the very heart of their thinking. wish to acquire a serious understanding change, apart from the new layout and of the world in which they live. Far from 3 return to contents being put off by theory, these workers have a thirst for knowledge and ideas. It is the task of genuine Marxists to help them In its youth the bourgeoisie was acquire those ideas. Without theory, we would have no rea- capable of producing great son to exist as a separate political tenden- thinkers: Locke, Hobbes, Kant, cy. It is what distinguishes us, on the one hand, from the reformists of both the left Hegel, Adam Smith, and Ricardo. and right variety, and on the other hand from the sectarian blockheads. The role In the period of its decline, it is only of our magazine is not to tell the workers what they already know, but to provide capable of producing what Marx them with the necessary theoretical ar- aptly described as flea-crackers. moury to prepare them for the great tasks that impend. The struggle for theory is a fundamen- In the period of its historical ascent, of a precipice is not capable of rational tal prerequisite for preparing the workers the bourgeoisie played a most progressive thought. In a vague way, the ideologues of for the struggle for power. Whoever does role, not only in developing the produc- the bourgeoisie sense that the system they not understand this has no understand- tive forces, and thereby mightily expand- defend is reaching its end. The spread of ing of what Marxism is. Alongside the ing humanity’s power over nature, but irrational tendencies, mysticism, and re- economic and political struggles, as En- also in pushing back the frontiers of sci- ligious fanaticism reflects the same thing. gels explained, the working class must ence, knowledge, and culture. The postmodernist craze that pass- also wage war against the dominant ideas Luther, Michelangelo, Leonardo, es for philosophy in our time is itself a in bourgeois society. Engels’s Anti-Dühring Dührer, Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, and a confession of the most abject intellectual and Lenin’s book on Empirio-Criticism, host of other pathfinders of civilisation bankruptcy. The mere fact that this post- were classic examples of that struggle. shine like a galaxy, illuminating the broad modernist “narrative” could be taken se- It is our duty to go on the offensive highway of human cultural and scientific riously as a new philosophy is in itself a against the reactionary bourgeois ideas advance opened by the Reformation and crushing condemnation of the theoretical that are being continuously churned out Renaissance. bankruptcy of capitalism and the bour- by the universities. We must mercilessly In its youth the bourgeoisie was capa- geois intelligentsia in the epoch of impe- expose the bourgeois professors for what ble of producing great thinkers: Locke, rialist decay. they really are: ‘graduated flunkeys of Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, Adam Smith, and Postmodernism denies the concept clericalism’, to use the phrase by which Ricardo. In the period of its decline, it of historical progress in general, for Joseph Dietzgen describes the university is only capable of producing what Marx the simple reason that the society that professors – the idealist apologists of the aptly described as flea-crackers. spawned it is incapable of any progress. capitalist system. Marx once observed: “Philosophy and the This is no accident. Millions of people are Dialectical materialism remains one of study of the actual world have the same relation faced with an uncertain future. The gen- the most important weapons in our rev- to one another as onanism and sexual love.”3 eral ruin does not affect only the working olutionary arsenal. And since dialectical Modern bourgeois philosophy prefers the class, but extends to the middle class, the materialism is the basis and foundation former to the latter. In its obsession with students and professors, the researchers of Marxism, it is quite logical that of all combatting Marxism (and materialism in and technicians, the musicians and art- the theories of Marx, no other has been so general), it has dragged philosophy back ists, lecturers and doctors.