Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (Pelican) Book

KARL MARX MAN AND FIGHTER by BORIS NICOLAIEVSKY and OTTO MAENCHEN-HELFEN Translated by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher METHUEN CO. LTD. LONDON 36 Essex Street W. C. 2 First published in any language in 1936 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN FOREWORD STRIFE has raged about Karl Marx for decades, and never has it been so embittered as at the present day. . He has impressed his image on the time as no other man has done To some he is afiend, the arch-enemy of human civilisation, and the prince of chaos, while to others he is a far-seeing and beloved leader, guiding the human race towards a brighter future. In Russia his teachings are the official doctrines of the state, while Fascist countries wish them exterminated. In the areas under the sway of the Chinese Soviets Marxs portrait appears upon the bank-notes, while in Germany they have burned his books. Practically all the parties of the Socialist Workers International, and the Communist parties in all countries, acknowledge Marxism, the eradication of which is the sole purpose of innumerable political leagues, associations and coalitions. The French Proudhonists of the sixties, the followers of Lassalle in Germany of the seventies, the Fabians in England before the War produced their own brand of Socialism which they opposed to that of Marx. The anti-Marxism of to-day has nothing in common with those movements. He who opposes Marxism to-day does not do so because, for instance, he denies the validity of Marxs theory of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Similarly there are millions to-day who acknowledge Marx as their leader, but not because he solved the riddle of capitalist society. Perhaps one Socialist Jn a th9u and ha. s ever read any of JMarx s ecpnpinic vyrritingsrand of a thousand anti-Marxists notjrvtffl one. The strife no longer rages round the truth or Talsehood of the doctrine of historical materialism or the validity of the labour theory of valfce or the theory of marginal utility. These things are discussed and also not discussed. The arena in which Marx is fought about to-day is in the factories, in the parliaments and at the barricades. In both camps, the bourgeois and the Socialist, Marx is first of all, if not exclusively, the vi KARL MARX MAN AND FIGHTER the leader of the proletariat in its struggle to overthrow Capitalism. This book is intended to describe the life of Marx the fighter. We make no attempt to disguise the difficulties of such an undertaking. Marxism to use the word in its proper sense, embracing the whole of Marxs work is a whole. To divide theory from practice was completely alien to Marxs nature. How then, can his life bejmderstood cxcegt as a unity j f thought and action The man of science was not even half the man Engels said in his speech at the grave-side of his dead friend. For Marx science was an historically moving, revolutionary force. Marx was above all a revolutionary. To co-operate in one way or another in the work of bringing about the downfall of capitalist society and the state institutions which were its creations, to co-operate in the liberation of the modern proletariat, to make it conscious of its situation and its needs, and conscious of the conditions for its own emancipation that was his real life-work. 3 Marx was a Socialist before he reached real and complete understanding of the laws of development underlying bourgeois society. When he wrote the Communist Manifesto at the age of thirty he did not yet appreciate the many different forms which surplus value could assume, but the Communist Mani festo contained the whole doctrine of the class-war and showed the proletariat the historical task that itiiad to fulfil. We have written the biography of Marx as the strategist of the class struggle. The discoveries made by Marx in the course of his explorations of the anatomy of bourgeois society will only be mentioned in so far as they directly concern our subject. But the word directly need not be taken too literally...Read More