Marxist group

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Marxist Group (MG)
founding 1971; Dissolution in 1991
Place of foundation Munich , as Red Cells (AK)
Nuremberg , as Marxist group
Number of members estimated 10,000 (1991)
Psychology of the Bourgeois Individual , Discourse on Free Will, 1981. Author: Karl Held

The Marxist Group (MG) was a communist organization of the New Left in the Federal Republic of Germany . The MG published u. a. the magazine MSZ - Against the Costs of Freedom , the Marxist Workers' Newspaper (MAZ), various university newspapers and the book series Results , Dissenting Opinions and Criticism of Bourgeois Science . In the higher education sector, the group attracted attention by deliberately blowing up allegedly conservative lectures.

The MG program consisted of the abolition of private ownership of the means of production. The social market economy should be replaced by a planned economy .

The MG emerged from the working conference group (AK) of the so-called Red Cells , which arose in 1968 in the Munich student movement and which dominated the AStA of the Ludwig Maximilians University for a long time. Its 'Münchener Studentenzeitung' (MSZ) was published throughout Bavaria at times. A collaboration took place with the Marxist group Erlangen / Nuremberg, which influenced the AStA at the Friedrich-Alexander University there , but also distinguished itself through extensive theoretical elaborations. Together, both groups exerted a great influence on Bavaria's student body. The actual MG was built in the second half of the 1970s.

Representatives of MG were from the Munich SDS emerged Karl hero , Theo Ebel and Herbert Ludwig Fertl.

The organization was observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution . Political scientists like Armin Pfahl-Traughber , Patrick Moreau , Jürgen P. Lang , Andreas Schulze and Eckhard Jesse rate them as left-wing extremists . It is said to have had up to 10,000 members. Members of the MG - especially in Bavaria - were dismissed from the public service on the basis of the data collected by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution . In the private sector there were also layoffs initiated by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In May 1991, the MG announced that it was liquidating itself without prior notice. According to some sources, it was a sham resolution in order to avoid observation by the security authorities. Accordingly, the organizational structures have been retained. The organization's bookstores, publications (MSZ, MAZ, university newspapers) and events (teach-ins, sympathizer plenums) were liquidated. In 1992, former MG activists published the first issue of GegenStandpunkt magazine .

Communist theory of the Marxist group

Publications of the Marxist group

The MG never invoked Marxism-Leninism , but rather sharply criticized the interpretation of Karl Marx's theory , which was shaped by Lenin and supported by most of the communist parties . It was based on the new discussion on the conceptual logic of Marx's capital , which only emerged in the 1960s and began on a high level of theoretical abstraction , and was based heavily on the science of Hegel 's logic, which for Marx was a style-forming science .

Proceeding from this, the MG did not understand the phenomena of bourgeois society as the result of the action of individual capitalists or capital factions, but saw in capitalists and wage workers only “ character masks ” (Marx) of a structural society in bourgeois society (based on general commodity production and the commodity character of labor) invariant relationship of exploitation between capital and wage labor. For example, while the DKP, by means of its theory of state monopoly capitalism, based its criticism of the bourgeois state in the Federal Republic of Germany primarily on the fact that " monopoly capital " exerts a direct influence on politics in a variety of ways and thereby has at least a partially " progressive-democratic " character thwart and destroy the state constitution formulated in the Basic Law , the MG rejected such criticisms as "idealistic" because, according to their analysis, a bourgeois state, completely independent of the actions of individual capitalists, is in principle nothing other than an "ideal total capitalist" ( Friedrich Engels : Anti-Dühring , MEW 19.222), which exists for no other purpose than to secure private ownership of the means of production and to guarantee the framework conditions for capital utilization with the help of the state monopoly of force . The typical appeals for the DKP to form alliances against right-wing and fascist tendencies were rejected by the MG as “moral hypocrisy ”, which subordinated democracy to nothing but philanthropic purposes that missed the real reason for being - after all , it was important to sort people into useful ones and the superfluous as well as the military enforcement of the claim to the conversion of all resources into objects of increasing capital for the normal democratic business, while fascism particularly consistently realizes the democratic ideal of the national community that sacrifices itself for the success of the state purpose. Democratic pluralism institutionalizes citizens' renunciation of their needs and interests; in their different opinions on state policy, they lead a dispute, completely detached from these needs, about the various variants ( parties ) of state interests. The trade unions also covered the MG with sharp polemics, since by fighting for higher wages they were expressing nothing other than the basic agreement of the wage workers with the capitalist exploitation of their labor.

The MG took over the concept of the cadre organization of trained professional revolutionaries from Lenin , but rejected his theory of “ imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism ”, in which it had passed into a state of “ putrefaction ” and decline - because capitalism was Not to criticize that it works badly, but that it unfortunately works too well. In the MG's understanding of Marx , which is focused on Das Kapital , the critique of political economy , the historical-philosophical influences in the thinking of Marx and Engels, which Marxism-Leninism developed into a world view (“ dialectical and historical materialism ”), played no role at all . (see the "Programmatic Declaration" of the predecessor organization "Red Cells / AK")

The objectives of the MG could be derived primarily indirectly from their criticism of the states of real socialism . The MG accused them of the "mistake" of not consistently overcoming the production of goods and money in favor of a planned production of use values, but rather the absurdity of planning with the aid of goods-money "levers" (a term common in Soviet Marxism-Leninism economics textbooks) to have invented; the contradiction between planning and recognizing commodity-money relationships is the cause of the inconsistencies and malfunctions in the economies of the “ revisionist ” countries. From this it can be concluded that the MG assumed that, after a revolution on the basis of the correct understanding of Marx's theory and the abolition of money, the supply of the population with use values ​​would be easy and work-sharing .

Agitational practice

Poster of the Marxist group in Hamburg on the occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall , November 12, 1989

Although MG distributed newspapers and pamphlets on a large scale in front of the company gates, its focus was initially on the universities for tactical reasons . The recruitment of new members took place via teach-ins and sympathizer plenums. In order to be able to use lecture halls, organizations with names such as Association for the Promotion of Scientific and Political Discussion appeared as organizers.

With its positions, the MG fundamentally differentiated itself from all efforts to improve living conditions “ inherent to the system ”: It rejected the view that “struggles for the concrete interests of the working population” would raise awareness of the need to overcome capitalism. Rather, the MG criticized in its publications the “false awareness” of the workers with regard to the state and wage labor, since only on this basis the participation of the “exploited” could be had permanently. This has been criticized by other groups.

Criticism of bourgeois science was of central importance to MG. In contrast to the K groups, this criticism did not consist in calling for more discussions on workers' issues etc. - it was not required to "apply" science to " proletarian " topics, and it was not about propagating an alternative "Marxist worldview". on the basis of a “class standpoint”, but rather it should be shown - with carefully prepared contributions that should lead from the initially cautious critical questioning of the problems discussed in the course to the discrediting of the lecturer and demolition of the seminar - that the entire middle-class scientific enterprise - from moral philosophy to literary interpretation to social science methodologies - it is precisely not a scientific concept of reality that is developed, but rather serves to practice conformist, pluralistic, “problem-conscious” participation in the democratic state that is bound to be practically inconsequential ben.

Sympathizers completed extensive training courses, the focus of which was on working through Marx's capital . After completing the training, the sympathizers received the status of candidates - this practice was and is customary in strictly Leninist organizations, in which the candidate status is limited to a few months, while with the MG the path from sympathizer to full member took several years .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Schröder Marxist Group Erlangen / Nuremberg
  2. ^ Armin Pfahl-Traughber: Left-wing extremism in Germany. A critical inventory. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014, p. 124; Patrick Moreau and Jürgen P. Lang: Left-wing extremism. An underestimated danger. Bouvier, Bonn 1996, p. 303; Andreas Schulze: Small parties in Germany. The rise and fall of non-established political associations. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013, p. 128; Eckhard Jesse: Extremism. In: Uwe Andersen and Wichard Woyke (ed.): Handbook of the political system in the Federal Republic of Germany. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1995, p. 163.
  3. ^ Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse: Political Extremism in the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn 1993, p. 178.
  4. ↑ Michael Klein: Ernst Jünger, Neo-Marxism and Suicide . In: Ossietzky , No. 15 / 16-2011.
  5. ^ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Splinter parties
  6. ^ Constitutional Protection Report Hamburg 2010 , p. 143f
  7. ↑ p. 141 in the Saxon Constitutional Protection Report 2011
  8. ↑ A current, but false classic: Lenin, imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1981, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  9. ↑ The classes (I). In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1986, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  10. ↑ The upswing: interim assessment of a political lie. In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1984, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  11. ↑ "Defend the beginnings!" In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1989, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Anti-fascism or: 'It's (not) like Hitler's!' In: MSZ archive in the database "Materials for the analysis of opposition (MAO)". Marxist Group, 1987, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Natives and foreigners The little murderous difference. In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1986, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Fascist seizure of power - democratic exercise of power Does democracy prevent fascism? In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1983, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Weltanschauung - The logic of a spiritual need. In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1985, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  16. ↑ The DGB - union perfect. In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1985, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Programmatic explanation of the red cells / AK. In: As an html document made available by dearchiv.de, "Private archive for the promotion of class consciousness". Theoretical organ of the red cells / AK-Munich, September 1974, accessed on January 5, 2016 .
  18. ↑ The state fulfills a "human dream". In: Archive of the magazine MSZ, provided by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt. Marxist Group, 1985, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Dietmar Kesten: Marxist group: Arguments ... materials for the analysis of opposition. In: Materials for Analysis of Opposition. 2017, accessed January 1, 2019 .
  20. ^ Initiative workers newspaper and centers (IAZZ): The workers and their perspective - criticism of the Marxist group (MG)
  21. ↑ Real socialism and nationalism: suppressed or true, abused or noblest patriotism. In: MSZ archive. 1983, accessed January 1, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Weltanschauung - the logic of a spiritual need. In: MSZ archive. 1985, accessed January 1, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Bürgerliche Wissenschaft and Marx: An insolent self-confession. In: MSZ archive. 1983, accessed January 1, 2019 .