Question about the relationship between Marx's

[Cheung Mo]

When Marx (and Engels, for that matter) wrote political works such as The Communist Manifesto, was he primarily applying his philosophical and economic ideas to the material conditions of Western and Central Europe? And if so, would using the Manifesto as the basis for a political platform without actually doing any sort of Marxian analysis be an inherently reactionary act that reduces Marx to being the centre of a personality cult?

[Demogorgon]

Not really. It probably wouldn't be a particularly good idea given that it is meant to apply particularly to the mid nineteenth century and various things have changed. But it is possible to be a revolutionary without being a philosopher or an economist and the manifesto despite its age has a lot of positive ideas to offer, so no, it would not be reactionary. I repeat that I don't think you would be wise to do it, but that is for simple pragmatic reasons

[sexyguy]

When Marx (and Engels, for that matter) wrote political works such as The Communist Manifesto, was he primarily applying his philosophical and economic ideas to the material conditions of Western and Central Europe? And if so, would using the Manifesto as the basis for a political platform without actually doing any sort of Marxian analysis be an inherently reactionary act that reduces Marx to being the centre of a personality cult?

Yes to both questions. Skipping back through history attempting to find some perfect answers in the philosophers bones, all unsullied by the reality of real revolutions (e.g. Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Korea etc) but giving them all a good kicking on the way, is not a new phenomena as you know, but serves reaction well when it happens.

[mikelepore]

Originally posted by Cheung [email protected] 30, 2007 01:55 am
using the Manifesto as the basis for a political platform
There isn't much in the manifesto to provide the basis for a platform. It covers world history from ancient times up to the point where capitalism gets highly centralized and globalized, and tells the workers to unite. There's no coverage of how to define a goal or how to organize to attain it. What few specifics it does give, Marx and Engels retracted in the preface of 1872. Any specifics we might have in mind, the 29 year old Marx who wrote the manifesto didn't yet conceive of them.

[Whitten]

Originally posted by Cheung [email protected] 30, 2007 01:55 am
When Marx (and Engels, for that matter) wrote political works such as The Communist Manifesto, was he primarily applying his philosophical and economic ideas to the material conditions of Western and Central Europe? And if so, would using the Manifesto as the basis for a political platform without actually doing any sort of Marxian analysis be an inherently reactionary act that reduces Marx to being the centre of a personality cult?
Ofcourse not, the Manifesto doesn't explain how a revolution must occur, what will come after, and makes note of the fact that the material conditions of different times and places will be what makes teh revolution 9hence why there was no point detailing how one would go). As such the manifesto still holds true today.