Karl Marx 'myth'.

[Fiskpure]

Hey there,

I read a discussion about this subject quite a long time ago and I've been searching it forever. The subject being "Marx didn't belive in the Communist Manifesto", which sounds very far fetched to me. I haven't personally studied Marx myself, could someone debunk this theory or give me the link to a thread where this has already been done?


Yours,
Fiskpure.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

It's not a theory, it's just a belief, and such it will remain until the person propounding it provides evidence to support it.

Is there any?

I rather doubt it.

[Yehuda Stern]

Given the fact that Marx took the time to revise the political conclusions of the Manifesto in later editions, it's a belief that doesn't really have anything to do with reality, either.

[Fiskpure]

Alright, thanks. There was an article someone from revleft presented in a thread dealing with this issue.

Anyways, thanks for the quick response.


Yours,
Fiskpure.

[chicanorojo]

Maybe the poster was referring to something else. I think one comment is that Karl Marx didn't mean for the CM to be the final word on a communist movement.

[Yehuda Stern]

I've heard before that Marx was actually not a communist but believed in a peaceful transition to socialism. That claim, of course, can be made only be someone completely illiterate or stupid.

[chegitz guevara]

Marx wrote in The Critique of the Gotha Programme (iirc) that it was possible in the UK, the USA, and maybe the Netherlands, for the worker class to come to power peacefully through elections. Most people see this and stop right there, but Marx continued, it was only possible becuase the state was not fully formed in these countries. That era has long passed. Considering the Peterloo Massacre and the Great Labor Uprising of 1877, I think Marx was wrong at the time as well.

No matter. Marxism isn't such a brittle and weak theory that one wrong idea by its founder brings the whole thing down.

As for not believing in The Communist Manifesto, I suspect that's a misinterpretation of the introduction for the 1873 German edition, in which Marx said that if he could write it again today, he'd revise it, but that being an historical document, he lacked the right to do so. I wish he had. Too many people take the CM for gospel instead putting it in its historical context and realizing Marx was writing that at the beginning of his career.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Marx wrote in The Critique of the Gotha Programme (iirc) that it was possible in the UK, the USA, and maybe the Netherlands, for the worker class to come to power peacefully through elections. Most people see this and stop right there, but Marx continued, it was only possible because the state was not fully formed in these countries.

Comrade, I would emphasize that, within the state, parliamentarism hadn't fully formed (even in the US), mainly due to the absence of universal suffrage.


No matter. Marxism isn't such a brittle and weak theory that one wrong idea by its founder brings the whole thing down.

As for not believing in The Communist Manifesto, I suspect that's a misinterpretation of the introduction for the 1873 German edition, in which Marx said that if he could write it again today, he'd revise it, but that being an historical document, he lacked the right to do so. I wish he had. Too many people take the CM for gospel instead putting it in its historical context and realizing Marx was writing that at the beginning of his career.

The ten-point program and the "bourgeoisie vs. proletariat" come to mind, considering his mention of labour credits and of "functioning capitalists," respectively.