Marxism

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Marxism is the name of a social theory established by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. Its goal is to create a classless society in place of the existing class society through revolutionary transformation .

Karl Marx (1818–1883), steel engraving from Le Capital , Paris 1872
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), photo: W. Hall, Brighton 1877
Karl Kautsky (1854–1938)
Lenin (1870-1924)

The Marxism is an influential political, scientific and intellectual historical flow that both the socialism which as well as communism is attributed. The followers of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have been called Marxists since the second half of the 19th century . In a broader sense, Marxism is a collective term for the economic and social theory developed by Marx and Engels as well as for related philosophical and political views. Even people and schools of thought that connect in a specific manner to the work of Marx and Engels are expected to Marxism.

Well-known Marxist currents are the Orthodox Marxism of the early social democracy (essentially late 19th / early 20th century), Leninism , Marxism-Leninism , Maoism , Trotskyism and various forms of Western or Neo-Marxism , including the Frankfurt School and French Structuralist Marxism , Italian Operaism , Yugoslav Titoism, and Post- Marxism .

Marxism has its theoretical roots in the critical examination of classical German philosophy ( Kant , Hegel , Feuerbach ), classical English economics ( Smith , Ricardo ), French early socialism ( Fourier , Saint-Simon , Blanqui , Proudhon ) as well as the historians of the French restoration ( Thierry , Guizot , Mignet ). Above all, Engels, Karl Kautsky and Lenin , but also Plekhanov , Labriola , Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg had a lasting influence on the further development of Marxism. In a second phase after the First World War up to the 1968 movements, Marxism experienced a further differentiation by Karl Korsch , Georg Lukács , Antonio Gramsci , Ernest Mandel , André Gorz , Herbert Marcuse , Theodor W. Adorno and Louis Althusser .

Over time, a self-developed Marxist philosophy and in many science fields own corporate citizenship Marxist currents - such as a Marxist sociology , a Marxist economic theory , a Marxist literary theory or in the psychology of Freudo-Marxism .

overview

Concept history

The term “Marxism” was not initially a self-designation of a party or group, but was brought to them from outside. As early as the 1850s, Weitling's followers were using the term “Marxian”. Within the International Workers' Association (1864–1876), conflicts arose between anarchists (“ Bakuninists ”) and the “Marxists” they then dubbed. At this time, the term Marxist was also increasingly used by supporters. In the late 1870s, Marx distanced himself from a youth group of French socialists around Paul Lafargue and Jules Guesde , who called themselves Marxists because, in his opinion, these "boys" were too decisively opposed to the idea of reformism . In this context, according to Engels, Marx said that he himself was not a Marxist. The term “Marxism” can be identified from the 1880s onwards. B. in the 1882 published work Le Marxisme et l'Internationale by Paul Brousse .

Marx and Engels, in turn, introduced the pair of terms “ Scientific Socialism ” as an alternative to “Marxism”. In doing so, they set themselves apart from other drafts of state and society, which they classified as “ utopian socialism ” or anarchism . However, Engels did not succeed in enforcing the term "scientific socialism" for their views. Thus, after the death of Marx, there are many letters from Engels in which he expresses himself disparagingly about the term “Marxism” and its representatives. In a letter to Lafargue in 1890, he wrote about the young academics within the SPD who “are all into Marxism” but are actually looking for a career, “and of whom Marx said: 'All I know is that I am not a Marxist! ' And he would probably say of these gentlemen what Heine said of his imitators: I sowed dragons and harvested fleas. "Elsewhere he writes to Lafargue:" We have never called you anything other than 'the so-called Marxists', and I don't see how you should be called otherwise. If you have another, just as short name, make it known and we will use it with pleasure and without fuss. ”At the same time, however, Engels increasingly had to recognize that the term Marxism would probably prevail:“ Well, we were victorious, we have proven to the world that almost all socialists in Europe are 'Marxists' (they will go mad that they gave us this name!) ”So he wrote in Ludwig Feuerbach and the outcome of classical German philosophy (edition from 1888) : “In the meantime, Marx's worldview has found representatives far beyond Germany's and Europe's borders and in all the educated languages ​​of the world.” And later adds in a footnote: “Without him [Note: Marx], the theory today would by far not be that what she is. It therefore rightly bears his name. "

In addition to the term “scientific socialism”, synonyms such as dialectical materialism , historical materialism , philosophy of practice , scientific communism or Marxism-Leninism and similar groups of words and similar groups of words could not assert themselves against the term “Marxism”.

Theory building

Marx and Engels dealt “scientifically and critically” with different traditions of thought. Her basic ideas were systematized only after her death. Such a canonization of Marxism into a uniform doctrine can be found to some extent in the writings of Franz Mehring , Karl Kautsky, Antonio Labriola and Georgi W. Plechanow . The classification of the views of Marx and Engels in a consistent theory is subject to a double reservation:

  • Marx initially understood his work as a constantly verifiable and revisable analysis of the respective conditions and as a prognosis derived from it.
  • Engels wanted to spread the theory in a generally understandable form and contributed influential concrete studies. According to some points of view, he also contributed to their schematization and vulgarization, according to others, as the more concrete, he was quite a match for his friend as a researcher.

In the last years of her creative period in particular, Engels increasingly conducted a public debate with critics of her theories, especially with newspaper articles, and advocated the dissemination of her ideas in the labor movement. In return, Marx worked - often in poor health and in the last years of his life - on his late and major economic work Das Kapital . Due to their close cooperation and mutual knowledge of their writings, it can be assumed that this “division of labor” was wanted by both sides.

Above all, the " orthodoxy " of classical social democracy and, subsequently, Marxism-Leninism understand Marxism as a theoretical and practice-oriented system and as a worldview . For a better understanding, the Marxist theory can be divided into three large core areas, which, however, are inextricably linked in Marx and Engels:

In order to better understand the foundations of Marxism, Lenin proposes a classification of the most important theoretical debates with thinkers who essentially influenced Marx and Engels:

In his well-known essay Three Sources and Three Components of Marxism , Lenin writes:

“The whole genius of Marx consists precisely in the fact that he gave answers to the questions which the advanced thinking of mankind had already posed. His teaching emerged as a direct and immediate continuation of the teachings of the greatest representatives of philosophy, political economy and socialism. "

The consequent continuation of Marxism through social democracy and Marxism-Leninism is controversial. Marx and Engels say they rejected nationalist concepts . In contrast to the nation-state thinking of many contemporaries, they represented internationalist positions. For example, the German Social Democrats agreed to the war against the Tsarist Russian Empire in 1914 . Since capitalism with its world market is an internationally operating system, according to Marx and Engels its complete overcoming can ultimately only be achieved within an international framework ( world revolution ). However, this view was later finally suppressed or deferred by Marxism-Leninism in the 1930s by the theory of building socialism in one country (Soviet Union). The situation in Central and Western Europe was assessed in such a way that the revolutionary endeavor had failed there and a world revolution had failed to materialize. In the Communist International all countries submitted to the new doctrine.

Currents

Since the founding of Marxism by Marx and Engels, various Marxist-influenced directions have developed, each claiming the legacy of the “classics” and distinguishing themselves from one another. Today very different currents operate under the name “Marxism”, some of which are only vaguely connected to the foundation of the works of Marx and Engels. These currents of Marxism were in turn represented and further developed by various theorists who approached the multi-layered work of Marx and Engels from different approaches and established their own currents of Marxism or had a lasting influence on existing currents. Marxism is currently most strongly anchored within university science in the USA (as of November 2006).

Orthodox Marxism

The orthodox Marxism of classical social democracy (roughly up to the First World War ) was closely based on the writings of Marx and Engels. With the split in Russian social democracy into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks and the establishment of the "Marxist Center" ( centrism (Marxism) ) around Karl Kautsky at the beginning of the 20th century, orthodox Marxism split into a reformist and a revolutionary wing. The latter, as revolutionary Marxism, focuses on the further development and revolutionary implementation of Marxism. A special form of orthodox Marxism is Austromarxism , which vacillates between social reform and revolution and thereby prevented the development (and separation) of a strong revolutionary-Marxist wing in Austria during the interwar period .

Revisionism / Reformism

In contrast to orthodox Marxism, revisionism or reformism around Eduard Bernstein rejected all radical and revolutionary aspects of Marxism and, due to the changed economic conditions ( imperialism ), considered a moderate path to socialism possible. At the latest after the split of the social democratic parties into socialist and communist parties after the First World War, revisionism with its political practice of reformism became the mainstream within the Socialist International , whose sections in most countries have meanwhile completely renounced a Marxist worldview.

Soviet Marxism

The Soviet Marxism or Marxism-Leninism (1924) (by critics mostly as Stalinism called) appealed to orthodox Marxism and claimed, connect it to the new situation (imperialism and monopoly capitalism have adjusted). Trotskyism makes the same claim , which with its theory of permanent revolution rejects the theory of socialism in one country and maintains a critical distance from real socialism . Both Marxism-Leninism and Trotskyism see themselves in the succession of the Bolsheviks under Lenin . Many liberation movements in the “ Third World ” also referred to Marxism-Leninism , from which independent political systems often developed, such as the systems of China ( Maoism ), North Korea ( Chuch'e ideology ), or Cuba Vietnam .

Neo-Marxism

Western Marxism and neo-Marxism are collectivetermsfor theories, especially those of the New Left , which, in contrast to real socialism, attempt to adapt the core statements of Marxism to the social and economic conditions that have since changed. There are various forms here, such as those of the British New Left group ( EP Thompson , Perry Anderson ), one of the earliest developed after the Hungarian uprising , the reform and eurocommunism of Western European communist parties, the Italian operaism and the Frankfurters School . Anti-Germans and value critics gatherunder the concept of post- Marxism . Occasionally Titoism is alsocounted as neo-Marxism. Central to neo-Marxism were the writings of Karl Korsch , Antonio Gramsci , Georg Lukács , Ernst Bloch , Ernest Mandel , Louis Althusser , Roman Rosdolsky , Leo Kofler and others.

theory

philosophy

GWF Hegel (1770-1831)
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872)

Although Marx and Engels primarily pursued a criticism of philosophy and ideology that aimed at the emancipation of man, Marxism itself is sometimes understood as a philosophical doctrine with a humanistic character . In terms of epistemology and the theory of science , Marxism is shaped by two essential elements: by Hegel's dialectics and by epistemological materialism ( Feuerbach's ). Lenin calls materialism the philosophy of Marxism . As early as 1845, Marx criticized the philosophers in his now famous sentence:

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways ; it depends on changing it . "

In contrast to philosophical idealism , Marxism takes the view that all ideas, conceptions and thoughts grow out of the complex, especially social reality and the power relations that contain them, which develop “in the last instance” from the historical-geographical production conditions and material circumstances would. Influenced by the Young Hegelians , Marx and Engels took over Feuerbach's materialistic worldview and added the dialectic and the associated idea of ​​constant development from Hegel's work.

Marx and Engels thus overcame what they saw as the one-sided view of the mechanical materialists , who understood the world as unchangeable . In 1843 Karl Marx von Hegel took over the thought figure of dialectics and the assumption of a regularity of history . Unlike Hegel, however, he does not attribute this to the development of the “world spirit”, but to material, social conditions and conflicts within society.

Lenin called the philosophical views of Marx and Engels dialectical materialism , although they did not use the term themselves. Lenin refers to the materialist dialectic of Marx and Engels as

"The doctrine of the relativity of human knowledge, which gives us a reflection of ever-evolving matter ."

Lenin sees the discovery of radium , the electron and the transformation of the elements as confirmation of these views, which would refute the idealistic postulate of eternal standstill. According to the Hegelian dialectic, the image of the world in the active comprehension of its interrelationships is shaped by related opposites - theses and antitheses - which mutually develop into syntheses in three dialectical steps . These syntheses drive “objective reality ” forward and thus “determine” the future until it no longer contains any contradictions and is “canceled” in the concept of the “absolute”. For the idealistic philosopher, this progress, which pervades the material world as a whole, is a product of the human spirit, which in its understanding of itself becomes identical with the absolute “world spirit”.

Marx looks at Hegelian dialectics from the perspective of materialism: He turns it "upside down" and postulates that objective reality can be explained from its material existence and its development and not as the realization of a divine absolute idea or as a product of the human Thinking.

“My dialectical method is fundamentally not only different from Hegel's, but its direct opposite. For Hegel, the thought process, which he even transforms into an independent subject under the name of an idea, is the demiurge of the real, which only forms its external appearance. For me, conversely, the ideal is nothing else than the material implemented and translated in the human mind. "

The universe , as in the universal historical philosophy of Hegel as a totality seen so as objectively coherent whole. But Marx understands the opposites, which are merely spiritual in idealism, as the expression and image of real, material opposites: These too depend on one another and are in a constant movement of mutual influence. This is overall in ascending order, i.e. In other words, as a whole, it comes from the simple to the complex and in the process passes through certain levels to which certain qualitative changes correspond, so that they drive the development forward.

According to this view, an objective reality also exists outside and independently of human consciousness in material movements, on which people (even part of the material) consciously react. This in no way means that people objectively understand their environment correctly; Marx and Engels want to escape the ideological self-deception, the false awareness of the environment, hence the problem of the subject-object split :

  • The correct understanding of the laws of motion of phenomena and events can only ever start from the analysis of practice and never from an idealistic “quirk”, since the latter cannot derive a phenomenon from its material origins.
Freedom does not lie in the dreamed of independence from the laws of nature , but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility, which is given with them, of allowing them to work according to plan for specific purposes.
  • This also addresses the relationship between the abstract and the concrete (draw abstract conclusions from practice, develop concrete practice from the abstract conclusions):
The concrete is concrete because it is the combination of many determinations, that is, the unity of the manifold. In thinking it therefore appears as a process of synthesis, as a result, not as a starting point, although it is the real starting point and therefore also the starting point of intuition and representation. In the first way the full notion was evaporated into abstract determination; in the second, the abstract determinations lead to the reproduction of the concrete in the way of thinking.
  • The test for the correctness of assumptions or theories (= relative truth ) is then in turn one's own practice in which the theory proves to be correct or incorrect.
The question of whether objective truth belongs to human thinking is not a question of theory, but a practical question. In practice, man must prove the truth ... of his thinking.
This check is necessary because the human consciousness is always determined by his interactions with the environment, i.e. by being.

This assumption is most effective when one considers future social developments; in this sense, any utopianism is rejected. According to a materialistic worldview, “the production and reproduction of real life” must become the “determining moment in history”, and work must therefore be a central category for the individual himself and for social development. Therefore, all social systems are decisively determined by economic laws of motion:

“In the social production of their life, people enter into certain, necessary relations independent of their will, production relations which correspond to a certain stage of development of their material productive forces. The totality of these relations of production forms the economic structure of society, the real basis on which a legal and political superstructure rises and to which certain forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and spiritual life process in general. It is not people's consciousness that determines their being, but, conversely, their social being that determines their consciousness. "

The consequence of this view is a comprehensive critique of religion, law and morality. Marx understands these as products of the relevant material conditions, the change of which they are also subject to. So religion, law and morality would not have the universal validity that they claim.

Historical materialism

Historical materialism is the application of the guiding principles of dialectical materialism to the study of society and its history. According to this, the development of a society can also be explained scientifically: through the class struggle, the social relations between the classes are in uninterrupted movement. The productive forces (labor and means of production) develop in the course of time until they conflict with the relations of production (division of labor and distribution of property). Marx sees the relations of production as "fetters" which form an obstacle to the further development of the productive forces. The subclasses are always anxious to change the relations of production to their advantage. As a result, new ruling classes come into being and the class struggle begins again.

Marx distinguishes between the following historical stages of development in society:

  • Tribal or primitive society, also primitive communism
  • Slavery society
  • Feudal society
  • Capitalist society

After capitalism has been overcome, the following inevitably follow:

The history of a society is a (natural law) development from the simple to the complex, from the lower to the higher. That is why communism is inevitable in the future. In Marx's view, capitalism leads to ever greater crises. The socialist society will consequently replace the capitalist society, just as the capitalist society replaced the feudal order. The class struggle only ends in the communist order, in which the opposition between master and servant is abolished.

Political Economy (Capitalism Analysis)

After an epistemological position had been developed with dialectical materialism, and with historical materialism a general theory of history and society, Marx had come much closer to his analysis of contemporary, concrete society. The next necessary step for him was now to study the economic laws of motion in capitalist societies, since according to the theory of historical materialism the mode of production of a society is important for its development. The heart of his work is the critique of political economy in the three volumes of Capital . The laws of exploitation in ruling capitalism , the emergence of modern class society and the concentration process of capital are analyzed in a differentiated micro and macroeconomic manner . In doing so, Marx resorted to preparatory work in economics, e. B. by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, back. Value theory , poverty and crisis theory are important components of this analysis.

history

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)

The theoretical structure designed by Marx and Engels was and is a point of reference for a wide variety of political and scientific schools of thought. Marxism first found practical application in the labor movement of the 19th century, above all the German social democracy, which made the theories of Marx and Engels the basis of their first programs and member training courses. Then, following Marx , Lenin developed his theory of imperialism, which after the October Revolution of 1917, together with the ideas of Marx and Engels, became the new state ideology of the Soviet Union. Lenin did not see himself as the founder of a new trend, but as a defender of Marxism. After Lenin's death, however, people generally spoke of Leninism , which is a Marxism adapted to Russian conditions. Later, Josef Stalin changed Leninism with the theory of " socialism in one country " to the so-called construct of Marxism-Leninism .

This Marxism-Leninism determined the so-called real existing socialism after 1945 in large parts of the world, especially in Eastern and Central Europe, and also had a strong influence on China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. Whether and to what extent this can still be derived from the basic ideas of the "classics" or whether it represents a "mistaken development" is one of the most controversial questions within Marxist theory formation. The practical politics of these countries is still dominated by Stalinism , especially in North Korea . Today the Gulag regime is largely classified as a totalitarian system and rejected by almost all Marxists. Against the different ideologies of Stalin and Mao also claimed by Leon Trotsky developed Trotskyism with his theory of " permanent revolution " the true legacy of Marx and Lenin.

In contrast to Stalinism and Fascism, the works of the Frankfurt School began to emerge in the early 1930s, attempting to apply Marx's ideas to the changed political and economic conditions of modernity and to combine them in part with psychoanalysis.

From the liberation movements in the “Third World”, political systems often developed, such as the systems of China (formerly Maoism ), Vietnam or Cuba that are still in existence today .

In the 1960s, various forms of neo-Marxism , Eurocommunism (especially operaism and Titoism ) and democratic socialism emerged in connection with the worldwide student movement, the Western European workers' strikes and the so-called liberation movements in the “Third World” .

History of Marxist Organizations

The writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are still the theoretical framework for various organizations and parties in all parts of the world.

In many European countries, smaller organizations were formed and later on, parties whose history shows parallels. With the rise of National Socialism , many organizations were dissolved and forced into resistance; after 1945, Marxist organizations were primarily engaged in a confrontation with the pluralistic democracy of the West and social democracy on the one hand, and "real socialism" and the CPSU on the other . After the collapse of the Soviet Union , post-Soviet Marxism developed primarily in Russia .

Controversies about Marxism

Contemporary graffito underscores Marxism controversies: Read Marx Understand Marx!

Since the publication of the first Marxist writings, there has been criticism of almost every part of the theory and also of scientists who use methods founded in Marxism. Marx himself was open to criticism: “I welcome every judgment of scientific criticism.” For example, there are not entirely contradictory considerations about the social preconditions for a socialist revolution. In Marx's letter to Vera Sassulitsch (1881), Marx referred to the situation in what was then Russia, which was viewed as a backward agricultural country, in which there was not yet a large number of industrial workers. The Russian village commune , in which common property already predominated, was considered, which Marx regarded with reservations as a possible “ base of the social rebirth of Russia ”. According to Marx, however, the proletariat should normally pave the way for a revolution, and he never refrained from it. As is well known, later (1917) in Russia, the October Revolution, a revolution directed against capitalist class society, was led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks , who saw themselves as the vanguard of the working class . However, at that time Russia was still considered a predominantly agricultural country. Marx did not just conclude, but reinforced, after the experience of the Paris Commune (1871), that the proletariat should strive for the conquest of political power and that for this the constitution of political parties was necessary. In addition, Marx also came to the realization from the experiences of the Paris Commune that “the working class cannot simply take possession of the finished state machine and set it in motion for its own purposes” and he had in The Eighteenth Brumaire by Louis Bonaparte (1852) already written: "All upheavals" [= of society] "perfected this machine instead of breaking it." Some formulations in Marx are therefore ambiguous. According to Lenin's interpretation, "The Marxian thought [...] consisted precisely in the fact that the working class must SMALL" the finished state machine "and not simply limit itself to taking possession of it. [...] In these words: 'to break the bureaucratic-military machine' is, "according to Lenin's interpretation," in short, the main teaching of Marxism on the tasks of the proletariat in the revolution vis-à-vis the state. "Marx did not make any concrete ones Information on the political order of a communist society. The criticism of Marxism intensified in the 20th century in the course of the emergence of the state systems based on Marx. Above all, it attacks inhumane politics and economic inefficiency in “real socialism” as a result of Marxist theory. Neo-Marxist critics, on the other hand, apply Marxian theory to these systems themselves in order to explain their development and the practical failure of the claimed social goals.

See also

Portal: Marxism  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of Marxism

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Remarks

  1. See Historical Dictionary of Philosophy : Marxism , Vol. 5, p. 758.
  2. The only surviving reference to this statement from Karl Marx can be found in a letter from Friedrich Engels to Eduard Bernstein dated March 2-3. November 1882. Marx-Engels Works . Volume 35, p. 388 ( online version ) and in a modified form in another letter to Conrad Schmidt dated August 5, 1890. Marx-Engels-Werke. Volume 37, p. 436 ( online version ).
    Version to Bernstein:
    French "Ce qu'il ya de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste."
    German  "One thing is certain (as far as I'm concerned), I am not a Marxist."
    Version to Schmidt:
    French. " Tout ce que je sais, c'est que je ne suis pas Marxiste. "
    Dt." All I know is that I am not a Marxist. "
  3. Bert Andréas : “I am not a Marxist”. We received the following communication from Switzerland regarding a contribution by Gustav Wyneken published in No. 10 of the AZ . In: The Other Newspaper. Hamburg 1958, No. 12 of March 20, 1958. Printed in: Jacques Grandjonc : Une vie d'exile. Bert Andréas 1914-1984 . Trier 1987, pp. 62-63. (= Writings from the Karl-Marx-Haus supplement)
  4. ^ Karl Marx : Konspekt von Bakunin's book 'Statehood and Anarchy' . 1874/75, MEW 18, p. 635 f. ( online , accessed May 3, 2009).
    Karl Marx: Preliminary remark on the French edition of The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science , 4th / 5th May 1880, MEW 19, pp. 181-185 ( online , accessed May 3, 2009).
  5. Engels to Lafargue, MEW 37, 450
  6. Engels to Lafargue, MEW 37, 202
  7. Engels, MEW 37, 235
  8. Engels, MEW 21, 291
  9. Cf. Karl Vorländer : Younger Marxists . In: Ders .: History of Philosophy . 1903, 3rd edition 1911 ( online version ; checked on May 26, 2008).
  10. Engels himself remarked that “most of the guiding basic ideas, especially in the economic and historical area, and especially their final sharp version belong to Marx .”
    Friedrich Engels : Ludwig Feuerbach and the exit of classical German philosophy . 1886. MEW Vol. 21, Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin , 5th edition 1975, unchanged reprint of the 1st edition 1962, Berlin / GDR. P. 291/307 ( online version ; checked on May 26, 2008).
  11. a b c d e f Lenin : Three sources and three components of Marxism . In: Proswenschtschenije No. 3, March 1913. Lenin Werke, Vol. 19, pp. 3–9 ( online version ; checked on May 14, 2008).
  12. Rainer Rilling remarked in his report on the Marxism Conference 2006 at the University of Massachusetts :

    “The conference gives reason for the assumption that there is no such strong academic Marxism in any capitalist country of today, which by the way does not only consist of elderly people who have remained mobile - on the contrary. It is all the more remarkable that the inventors and creators of the magazine ' Rethinking Marxism ' have succeeded in firmly anchoring their conference project, including funding, in normal academic space. After all, academic Marxism is not a political danger if society and its subjects do not drift towards it. "

    Rainer Rilling: Rethinking Marxism. A report , November 2006 ( online version ; checked January 17, 2011).

  13. See Josef Stalin : On the way to October . Soviet State Publishing House, 1925; especially the parts:
    Josef Stalin : Trotskyism or Leninism? Speech at the plenary session of the Communist Group of the Central Council of Trade Unions of the Soviet Union . November 19, 1924 ( online version ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
    Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; Checked on May 15, 2008) and Josef Stalin : About two peculiarities of the October Revolution , or the October and Trotsky's theory of the "permanent" revolution . In: Ders .: The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists . ( Online version ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; Checked on May 15, 2008 . Preface to the book “On the way to October”). Both in: Stalin Werke , Vol. 6, 1924. Leon Trotsky : What is the Permanent Revolution? Principles (conclusions) . In: Ders .: The permanent revolution . Arbeiterpresse Verlag, Essen 1993, pp. 183-189 ( online version ; checked on May 15, 2008). Bill Van Auken: Socialism in One Country or Permanent Revolution . International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), September 27, 2005 ( online version ; checked May 15, 2008). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stalinwerke.de
     @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stalinwerke.de


  14. ^ Karl Marx: ad Feuerbach in Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. Department IV. Vol. 3, p. 21, revised and first published by Engels in 1888.
  15. ^ Karl Marx: The capital. Critique of Political Economy. First volume . Otto Meißner, Hamburg 1872, p. 821 f. (Marx-Engels Complete Edition, Department II. Vol. 6, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1987, p. 709) Marx, “Das Kapital”, epilogue to the second edition
  16. Apart from any stagnation, setbacks or defeats.
  17. For example social practice or a scientific experiment
  18. The term should not be mistakenly equated with the modern usage of the term
  19. Engels, Anti-Dühring
  20. Karl Marx's Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy (MEW 13) page 632
  21. ^ Marx, 2nd thesis on Feuerbach
  22. Of course, utopian ideas form an important basis for the theories of Marx and Engels; However, their aim was to put their basic social ideas on a scientific basis.
  23. ^ Letter from Engels to Joseph Bloch , 1890
  24. On the Critique of Political Economy. Preface. MEW 13, p. 9, 1859.
  25. Das Kapital, foreword to the first edition
  26. ^ Marx, Engels: Foreword to the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (German edition 1872)
  27. ^ Karl Marx: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. (MEW 8), page 196 f.
  28. Lenin: State and Revolution. In: Lenin Works, Volume 25, pp. 393–507