Marx had ever denied he was a Marxist

[Hopes_Guevara]

Professor Isaiah Berlin of the Oxforx University has written in his work on Karl Marx:

"Marx, towards the end of his life, declare that whatever else he might be, he was certainly not a Marxist"

Professor Robert L. Heilbroner, the writer of The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinhkers, has written in the book's preface;

"I am not a Marxist”, Marx remarked toward the end of his life – dissociate himself, Berlin suggests, from the idiocies which were already beginning to be perpetrated in his name"

Is it true?

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Well. he was apparently rather upset with the sorts of things his alleged followers were coming out with -- doctrinaire statements that bore little relation to his scientific and radical stance (but this is disputed -- see below).

This is reported in a letter by Engles:

'Just as Marx used to say about the French "Marxists" of the late seventies: "All I know is that I am not a Marxist."' Engels. letter to Conrad Schidt, 5 August 1890, Collected Correspondence, L&W, 1934 p 472.

But Engels said this many times.

Apologies, the earlier link was wrong: try here:

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/1998/1998-August/005629.html

[bunk]

He was just distancing himself from people who at that time labeled themselves Marxists. He obviously didn't approve of them

[TC]

Marx, like virtually every other commie leader, gets quoted out of context a lot. He was sarcastically refering to a small group of self-identified Marxists he was not distancing himself from either his own work or the communist movement as a whole.

[Hegemonicretribution]

It is something that I essentially did during highschool. I claimed I was neither Marxist or communist so that my point could be more effectively argued, without a long winded explanation about various regimes. The ideas are more important than a label, Marx realised this.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

My earlier link was wrong; try here:

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/1998/1998-August/005629.html

[TC]

Lol if Marx had to listen to the so-called 'libertarian-marxists' and 'anarchist marxists' one would bet that he'd have to joke that he's no Marxist a lot.

[apathy maybe]

As others have said, it was in relation to the actions of self professed Marxists at the time.


“The Social Democratic Federation here shares with your German-American Socialists the distinction of being the only parties who have contrived to reduce the Marxist theory of development to a rigid orthodoxy”, stated Engels. “This theory is to be forced down the throats of the workers at once and without development as articles of faith, instead of making the workers raise themselves to its level by dint of their own class instinct. That is why both remain mere sects and, as Hegel says, come from nothing through nothing to nothing.” (Engels to Sorge, Correspondence, p.474) Marx had nothing but contempt for these sectarians, commenting that if they be “Marxists”, “All I know is that I am not a Marxist.”
From http://www.marxist.com/marxist-international-review.htm

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by [email protected] 28 2006, 01:40 PM
Lol if Marx had to listen to the so-called 'libertarian-marxists' and 'anarchist marxists' one would bet that he'd have to joke that he's no Marxist a lot.
Speculative.

Give a guy like Marx time to evaluate the whole experience of 20th century "Marxism" (Leninism), and who can say what his reaction might have been.

I would rather expect to hear a good sampling of 19th century German profanity, myself. :lol:

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

[Floyce White]

What was Karl Marx's opinion of the October Revolution? He didn't have an opinion. He was dead. Everyone changes his or her opinions over time. There is absolutely no way to know how Karl Marx might have changed his opinions had he lived longer. It is wholly speculative to say that Marx would have opposed Lenin's ideas. We do know that Lenin had some ideas that differed from Marx's take on some issues. However, their opinions were at different points in history.

What is the "Marxist" opinion of the October Revolution? Self-described "Marxists" take every position. It would be hard to imagine a group of more-contradictory and more-fantastic opinions on the same event than the "Marxist" opinions of the October Revolution.

The same can be said of "Leninism," "Stalinism," "Maoism," "Trotskyism," "Titoism," "Castroism," and so on. Petty-bourgeois use these terms the way they use all words: to mean whatever they want them to mean. The petty-bourgeois socialist movement is racked by deep divisions based on personalities and ideologies, "leader-isms" and "idea-isms."

The lower-class movement to end class society is the product of the action of lower-class people. The ideas--the ideology--of the lower-class movement is the product of the discussion of lower-class people. It is not Marx's ideas. It is not anyone's version of "Marx-ism." The lower-class movement existed long before Marx was born, and might have to exist long after he is forgotten.

The fact that the lower-class movement uses the forms that exist in contemporary class society--this says nothing about the lower-class movement. The fact that it takes a unique, specific name--"communism"--and the fact that it uses democratic methods, economic actions, social struggle, and the like, says everything about the political, economic, and social nature of class society. Communism in and of itself is not politics, not democracy, not a form of economics, and not a social group.

Marx's and Lenin's writings were only very bad interpretions of what multitudes of activists were saying about their own activity. There may be a lot to learn in making a comparison of Marx and Lenin, but there is a whole lot more for workers to learn by listening to fellow working-class people. That is the source of all knowledge.