War

[Rage Against Right]

This may sound elementary but i was wondering did marx have a view on war, other than the class war. Such as war between countries and did he have a proposed solution to them?

I was reading a depak chopra artile on stopping was one person at a time and this made me think, what was marx' perspective on war and a solution to it?
cheers

[Whitten]

put simply, get rid off all nations and they cannot fight wars.

[Rage Against Right]

yes i understand that but surely without peace within ourselves their will always be conflict, if not between nations but factions, race. or is this an assumption of human nature?

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by Rage Against [email protected] 28, 2007 08:49 pm
yes i understand that but surely without peace within ourselves their will always be conflict, if not between nations but factions, race. or is this an assumption of human nature?
There will always be conflict. Hopefully, it will no longer be about what kind of non-existant abstraction should be worshipped, who rules this or that piece of land, or who is going to eat the last piece of bread.

Luís Henrique

[Hit The North]

Originally posted by Luís Henrique+March 28, 2007 09:57 pm--> (Luís Henrique @ March 28, 2007 09:57 pm)
Rage Against [email protected] 28, 2007 08:49 pm
yes i understand that but surely without peace within ourselves their will always be conflict, if not between nations but factions, race. or is this an assumption of human nature?
There will always be conflict. Hopefully, it will no longer be about what kind of non-existant abstraction should be worshipped, who rules this or that piece of land, or who is going to eat the last piece of bread.

Luís Henrique [/b]
Really? What kind of conflict will exist in the future communist society?

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by Citizen [email protected] 28, 2007 09:05 pm
Really? What kind of conflict will exist in the future communist society?
Chess games, literary contests, who-is-going-to-date-the-beautiful-redhead, whose-theory-of-atomic-decay-is-correct, for instance.

Conflict is a good thing; the problem is how we solve it, and about what do we clash.

Luís Henrique

[Jimmie Higgins]

Originally posted by Rage Against [email protected] 28, 2007 08:49 pm
yes i understand that but surely without peace within ourselves their will always be conflict, if not between nations but factions, race. or is this an assumption of human nature?
What are most fights about?

Between nations it's about resorces - in earlier societies because of scarcity and now because of imperialist competition. Iraq isn't about Bush or any disquite inside himself: it's about reshaping the middle east in favor of US dominence of the region and cutting off future copetatoors like China, Russia and the EU.

Between induviduals - gernally, you can say it's about the same things. People fight over the scraps and for respect and so on. If some hot-head feels dissed, he acts out, but that's because he lives in a world where he probably gets paid shit and treated like a surf at work and by the cops. Money=respect in the US, so if you don't have money, you have to either take it and get it or fight the people that disrespect you. When society changes so that people are no longer powerless and fighting for the scraps off the ruling class's table, then there will be no engine behind things like racism (if everybody's got a good job, it would be hard to blame immigrants for taking jobs) and common violence/

Fighting is only human nature when fighting means surviving.

[bezdomni]

i was wondering did marx have a view on war, other than the class war.

"No War but the Class War!"

[BobKKKindle$]

Marx believed that patriotism, especially during times of war and national conflict, was not conducive to an improvement in the position of workers in every country, because as a result of patriotism, workers fail to recognize that they have interests in common and should work together to overthrow Capitalism instead of being set apart by nationality and nationalism - something that is really somewhat arbitrary and only conducive to the interests of the Bourgeoisie.

[MrDoom]

I think Mao put it quite well in the Little Red Book. There are unjust wars that benefit imperialism and are waged in the name ofthe capitalists, and there are just wars that are progressive and advance the proletariat.

Communists are against the former, and support the latter.

[Lenin II]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 12:57 pm
I think Mao put it quite well in the Little Red Book. There are unjust wars that benefit imperialism and are waged in the name ofthe capitalists, and there are just wars that are progressive and advance the proletariat.

Communists are against the former, and support the latter.
Hear hear! Unjust wars to benefit capitalists are against the principles of Marxism. Easy examples: Iraq and Vietnam. But wars to benefit the populace, such as one against a government by the people are just.

[Ander]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 02:40 pm
Hear hear! Unjust wars to benefit capitalists are against the principles of Marxism. Easy examples: Iraq and Vietnam. But wars to benefit the populace, such as one against a government by the people are just.
Unless said war manages to topple the government and replaces it with a new tyrannical government. In which case, it may be just, but overall was a waste of time and may have hurt the people more than it helped. Many wars for national liberation and for the people have ended this way.

Only genuine struggle of the people should be recognized as something progressive.

[Janus]

This may sound elementary but i was wondering did marx have a view on war, other than the class war. Such as war between countries and did he have a proposed solution to them?
I'm assuming that you're asking about a sociological perspective of warfare? Marx never went into a lot of depth on it but he did discuss it in some of his letters.

Letters on war and military science (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/subject/war.htm)

[Question everything]

Here is something not mentioned much here, it is Marx's theory that capitalism inevitably leads to communism, and is through it's own qualities it does so... War is in no way good, but it is what Marx believed would lead to communism. So we have to look at all angles here.