Marx On His Bi-Centennial
Marx On His Bi-Centennial
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The defeat of the first campaign of the international communist movement manifested noticeably with the fall of the then USSR in the late eighties of the last century, though it actually happened much earlier. The imperialist-capitalist think-tanks and propagandists triumphantly declared the end of history, that is, capitalism has no alternative and socialism or communism has been dumped by history. Thus they started a high-pitched campaign accompanied by vitriolic outpourings pronouncing the death of communism, or in other words Marxism, as a liberating ideology.
But subsequently the world economic crisis of 2008 had badly shaken, the whole of the capitalist world. It has led to the bankruptcy and crash of many financial giants. The tremors of this crash were felt in almost all corners of the world. On the one hand, funds were doled out by governments to compensate and revive the capitalists. On the other hand, the cut-back of social security benefits given to the masses, the remnants of earlier 'welfarism', was started in the name of austerity, rattling the masses everywhere, especially the developed world. But in spite of all this till now the world capitalism could not come out from the economic crisis which has started at that time, due to the insurmountable contradictions inherent in the capitalist system. In such a background of continuing recessions and stagnations in the imperialist countries in the recent years, and with no resolution in sight, once again Marx with his analyses is being invoked by many. After being rubbished and sent to oblivion, Marx, on the bicentennial of his birth, is once again being resurrected. Even various liberal intellectuals and top CEOs of the establishments are seen recalling Marx. Obviously because of the starkly visible problems of capitalism that Marx had visualized and analysed about a century and half ago.
But for any careful observer it is sure to come to notice that the woes of present day capitalism is not simply about the crisis due to the financials bubbles and the cut-backs in the name of austerity measures. It is not only about the financialisation of the economy which is apparently separated from the real economy of production and distribution. The real economy is also mired in continuing problems. The wages of workers are going down at a fast pace. Reports suggest that in the last decade, real wages have fallen faster than in any decade since 1750. While on the other hand there is continually a huge amassing of wealth in possession of a handful rich. A continually increasing wide gulf of disparity is cause for concern. Surveys are reminding that the globe's richest 1% own half the world's wealth. Even in our country the last year's survey had showed that India's richest 1% held 58% of the country's total wealth, which was higher than the global figure of about 50% and now this year it has increased to 73%. Recently the governor of the Bank of England has warned that massive job losses driven by technology could resuscitate Marxism in the West. One of the main reason for this increasing disparity is that the parasitic financial capital and its monetary gambles is sucking and sapping out and cornering the wealth of the world by share market and other speculative manipulations. And with it is linked the crisis arising out of anarchy of capitalist mode of production, the crisis of overproduction, then stagnation, the continued relative worsening of conditions of the masses, the glaring inequity in distribution of wealth, which has been analysed and formulated by Marx in his critiques of capitalism and which has once again become a biting reality, in further bigger dimension.
But Marx didn't merely keep himself restricted to some elaborate critique of capitalist economy revealing its indissoluble contradictions. He explained that the manifestations of social and political conflicts in capitalist society is inseparably linked up with the contradiction of the productive forces and the production relations-which make up the capitalist mode of production. By this he revealed the objective development of the forces within this exploitative, oppressive society towards a new society free from all kinds of exploitation. And it is here that Marx, representing "the spectre of Communism", came up with the reply to the ills of the exploitative and oppressive system of capitalism, of course not out of his head but from the realities of class struggle. Marx contributed in a comprehensive understanding about the capitalist economy, the classes, the politics based on it, for the real fight for liberation of the masses of workers, toilers from this system. He as a philosopher himself sought throughout his life a viewpoint that would be different from all earlier philosophies in the sense -'The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it'. Hence he with his lifelong friend, an equally exuberant comrade Engels, sought to discover and establish the materialist conception of history - 'that view of the course of history which seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in the changes in the modes of production and exchange, in the consequent division of society into distinct classes, and in the struggles of these classes against one another.'[Introduction to Socialism: Utopian and Scientific] Thus he discovered the objective motions and currents of history, the laws behind it and the real critical method of evaluating and intervening in it, in a way what he called revolutionising practice/ revolutionary practical activity.
Marx studied the objective motion of history emanating out of the ongoing class struggles being fought at that time in Europe. Through his manifold efforts he understood the expressions of yearning for equality among the oppressed, exploited masses-the newly emerged proletariat and the toiling masses, which was promised by the bourgeoisie then at the head of the bourgeois democratic revolutions. In its struggle against feudalism, the bourgeoisie unfurled the banner of "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!", awakened the masses for it but, after capturing power, they established the rule of bourgeois law, property and exploitation based upon it and turned against the rising politically awakened working class and other toiling masses seeking their rights. From the independent struggles of the proletariat, also arose the voice of communism-for a new society based on equality, free from exploitation. Marx and Engels studied the conditions of existence of the proletariat, the class position which contains the germs of emancipation in its very existence within the production relations. Thus analyzing from the realities of the then important events of history-the capitalist economy, the emerging struggles of different variants of communism and socialism and the churning going on in the arena of philosophy, Marx revealed the journey of capitalism towards a new society. His analyses brought before us the position of capitalist society as a stage in the path of development of society towards socialism on the basis of historical materialism, the inner essence of capitalist exploitation in theory of surplus value, and the dialectical materialist philosophy which could analyse the objective forces of development and become a guide to action for a conscious role in the real life of class struggle. In this way Marx established socialism as a science bringing it out of the subjective realms of Utopian socialism. Hence we can really commemorate Marx, only by recognizing the necessity of revival of the struggle for establishing scientific socialism, which will grow up from the present day class struggle.
In fact presently the imperialist and capitalist societies are not merely crisis-ridden due to the persistent problems in its economy. Although it is surely the root cause behind the ills of the capitalist-imperialist societies but these societies are socially and politically crisis-ridden also. The International Monetary Fund warns that people are losing faith in their governments.. "Public optimism is being "eroded" by "long-standing trends of job and wage polarisation, coupled with persistent sub-par growth in median wages," says a spokesman of the IMF. In various countries there is a rise of mass dissension giving rise to authoritarian regimes on the basis of rightist sectarianism based upon national chauvinism, racism, and hatred for other religions and immigrants. The monopoly rule of giant multinational corporates with governments blatantly under their control are encroaching on the rights and benefits of workers and common masses in every sphere of life. The corporates decide and twist laws as they wish, forcing governments to withdraw financial support to the common masses in order to carve out profits. To suppress protests of working class and the masses against such exploitations and oppressions, their democratic rights are being curtailed. In the international arena the trade summits are held by the governments for the interests of these giant multinational companies and financial groups. Domination of big capital has become so all-pervasive that their profit motive decide everything and degenerates every sphere of lives of the masses. Owing to this domination, there has been commodification of each and every act in our lives. Anarchy in production through blind competition, violence, war -all have become the accepted norms of capitalism and imperialism, which have spread their tentacles to farthest corners of this planet. Only the power of money and, actually, of capital decides everything. This race for profit and domination by the imperialist powers has embroiled the western part of Asia, especially Syria, into a devastating war and has forced countless people to desperately flee from their homeland to jump into a sea of uncertainty. Huge amount of capital is being employed not only in non-productive sectors but also for destructions like war industries. The greed and hunger for profit of the capitalists have already created such environmental crisis that it is now a burning question that for how long the earth would remain inhabitable. The development of science is being dictated and also stagnates due to the profit motives of the multinational corporations and war needs of imperialist powers and their cohorts. All these problems and many others are irresoluble in the domain of capitalism. The moribund, decaying character of world capitalism has been so starkly revealed today that even the capitalist think-tanks are compelled to at least acknowledge Marx. Obviously they are still far from grasping Marx in totality. Because, they are afraid to reach up to his conclusions.
During the lifetime of Marx and Engels, the capitalism did not reach its moribund, decaying phase, though there were some early signs of things to come. It was the genius of Marx and Engels that they could see even then that the inherent contradictions of capitalism can only be resolved through the establishment of socialist society based on social ownership of all means of production abolishing private property relations. They also taught us that the socialist society would not only emancipate the proletariat from exploitation but would also open the path of unhindered development of the capabilities of human society to its full potential. Today not only the exploitation and oppression by a few people over the huge majority of working classes and oppressed masses have increased manifold, the whole world is not only suffering from problems created by exploitation of capitalists and the continuing economic crises, but it is also suffering from numerous irresoluble problems, The whole world through these problems and many others are crying out to emancipate it from the clutches of capitalism-imperialism. Socialism is the real path for emancipation, long been shown by Marx and Engels, which provides us the answer to this.
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But Marx was such a thinker who did not only established the theory of scientific socialism, but also played.an active role in the revolutionary struggle. In this process Marx and Engels found out the tremendous historical implications of the revolutionary potential and role of the industrial working-class i.e. the proletariat, which many of us, even among the present-day communists do not seem to realize in real, practical terms. Marx and Engels diligently kept themselves integrated with the class struggle of proletariat, learning from it, drawing important lessons and theorizing on it, in keeping with what he said in The Communist Manifesto- "of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class". Thus he recognized the importance of the working class and chose as his mission this path of enlightenment of that class, playing a role in clearing ideological and organizational hurdles in the path of struggle for socialism so that the proletariat assumes the charge of its own emancipatory movement, as the real leader of the " the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority"[Communist Manifesto]. The communists today in a situation of defeat after the 1st campaign of world socialist movement, detached and isolated hopelessly from that very working class, need really to internalize this lesson from Marx in order to integrate with that class for revival of the real communist movement anew.
Naturally in that process, Marxism had to struggle against various doctrines that tried to deviate the proletariat from its real struggle for emancipation. Apart from the development of theory of socialism, Marx and Engels also had to steadfastly play a conscious role in the arena of proletarian class struggle to ensure the development of struggle in the proper direction. In Lenin's words-"But even among doctrines connected with the struggle of the working class, and current mainly among the proletariat, Marxism by no means consolidated its position all at once. In the first half-century of its existence (from the 1840s on) Marxism was engaged in combating theories fundamentally hostile to it"[Marxism and Revisionism-Lenin]. Apart from such ideological struggle against non-Marxian socialism of Proudhon. Weitling et al,, they launched a vigorous struggle against the influence of bourgeois liberalism in the proletarian class struggle. In as early as 1840s to 1860s, it had to fight stridently against the bourgeoisfication of British Trade unions, showing the first signs of labour aristocracy. Almost a quarter of a century later, in a letter dated August 11, 1881, Engels spoke about the "worst English trade unions which allow themselves to be led by men sold to, or at least paid by, the middle class". Further down the lane in the 1870s, once again they were up in arms against the bourgeois liberalism of Lassalleans that relied on state benevolence to usher in cooperatives and socialism. Thus Marx always reiterated the importance of independence of the working-class movement stating--"At the founding of the International we expressly formulated the battle cry: The emancipation of the working class must be achieved by the working class itself. Hence we cannot co-operate with men who say openly that the workers are too uneducated to emancipate themselves, and must first be emancipated from above by philanthropic members of the upper and lower middle classes"[ Circular Letter]. Even after Marx this struggle for the correct path of achieving the historic mission of socialism continued. This time in a new form-through struggles against revisionism. As Lenin elaborated-- "the second half-century of the existence of Marxism began (in the nineties) with the struggle of a trend hostile to Marxism within Marxism itself. This trend was named by Bernstein himself to be revisionism. The fight now continued from earlier non-marxian socialism to revisionism in the name of Marxism." [Marxism and Revisionism-Lenin]. And with the advent of the era of imperialism the international Communist movement led by Lenin had to continue that fight equally if not more vigourously against opportunism. He found the inter-relation of the then opportunism and social-chauvinism of erstwhile Marxists of a number of European countries during the 1st World War and concluded, "The crisis created by the great war has torn away all coverings, swept away conventions, exposed an abscess that has long come to a head, and revealed opportunism in its true role of ally of the bourgeoisie. The complete organisational severance of this element from the workers' parties has become imperative. The epoch of imperialism cannot permit the existence, in a single party, of the revolutionary proletariat's vanguard and the semi-petty-bourgeois aristocracy of the working class,...".[Imperialism Highest Stage of Capitalism]. Thus the communist movement i.e. the revolutionary working-class movement for socialism in its course had to stand up with strength of vision and principle against various kinds of deviations that arose on the basis of petty-bourgeois and bourgeois reformism, parliamentary and other forms of opportunism, the reformisms based upon petty property relations that led to ultimate surrender of the class independence of the proletariat at different junctures. Struggles, for which Marx, Engels and later Lenin played a very crucial role. Hence Marx cannot be understood without understanding this.
With this lesson of the tremendous importance given to ideological struggles against reformism and opportunism by Marx, Engels and the later great leaders in mind, if we look at the present situation in the so-called revolutionary communist movement, of this country in particular, definitely we are to find that this is a long-unaddressed agenda. After the defeat of the international communist movement this struggle against opportunism has acquired even greater importance. At the national level the failure of the CPI(ML) to successfully defeat the revisionist line against which it rose up and establish the revolutionary line of a working-class party have left this question unanswered. Even 50 years after that failure the Indian communist movement is splintered into numerous CR groups and the task of proceeding towards summing up the past debacles and determining the correct proletarian line vis-ŕ-vis the revisionist-reformist line is still a far cry. The identification of particular form of revisionism and reformism in the present conditions, such as- parliamentarism, the dependence of workers for their struggle on the party from above and particularly its petty-bourgeois leaders and intellectuals, disregarding the independence of the working class and importance of establishing the proletarian line by entering into motley alliances with bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties or forces-is almost a missing agenda among the CRs. Consequently, carrying on its basis an uncompromising struggle against the revisionist practices is a very important lesson long overdue to be learnt from Marx. It is of utmost necessity today to play the proper role for arousal of the workers initiative and unfurling the revolutionary path of working-class struggle. Often if necessary, even at the cost of apparent isolations. It is here that the struggles of Marx, Engels and Lenin is still livingly relevant and serves as a beacon for our path.
Thus Marx's role as a communist was primarily dependent on integration with the proletariat, along with analyzing, identifying and consciously playing a role in consonance with the objective motion of history towards a classless society, not merely as a theoretician but very much also as an organizer involved within the thick and thin of ongoing struggles. Hence in this fight against all deviations ideologically, at the same time they understood the qualitative change an organization of the proletariat as a class can bring about. In this context, for the communist revolutionaries, among them those who are really concerned about this present condition of the movement, Marx's struggle against the sects working among the then working class, against their sectarian division of the working class is a very very significant lesson for the present. He carried on this struggle in order to pave the way for unification of the workers of numerous countries within the fold of the First International, through which Marxism really got entrenched among the proletariat. He said that "The development of the system of Socialist sects and that of the real workers' movement always stand in inverse ratio to each other." [Letter to Bolte, 23rd November, 1871] It is particularly important today when it is seen that the present-day communist revolutionaries in general are more concerned with dividing and consolidating small sections of workers within the narrow fold of their respective groups. This lesson is further important when for us the path of formation of the communist party by unification of groups of leaders from the top has remained an unachievable illusion for the last 40 years or so. And more so when it is assumed by the communist revolutionary groups that the communists even in such a condition will educate and politicize the class, adopting a role befitting a party, without any proletarian base, at least even in all the significant industrial regions of the country. Among majority of these communist groups in existence, the working class, the necessity of active role of their advanced sections, practically doesn't seem to carry any significance in accomplishing all this. But Marx's teachings show us just the opposite - how he stridently fought against sect mentality to break away from it and help unite the workers for their real class struggle and working class politics, at a level commensurate with the then struggles. After all, as it is said -communist movement is the fusion of the socialist theory and working class movement and without the organization of the working class as a class it can never be achieved.
Thus if Marx has put before us a wealth of lessons to be really assimilated and put into practice, it must be done standing on the premises of the prevalent concrete conditions. It is undeniable, that while capitalism and imperialism is caught up in a bundle of contradictions, showing us the necessity of a socialist society free from all exploitation, on the other hand, whether we recognize it or not, or understand its import or not, the communist movement is presently in a situation after the defeat of the 1st campaign of the international socialist or communist movement. Hence the task of advancing the communist or socialist movement has to take into consideration both these aspects of present day reality. While it is important to understand the contradictions of imperialism-capitalism, its newer ways of functioning, the conflicts leading towards a new society, at the same time, the task before the communists is resurrection of the communist movement from its splintered state at present. It necessitates determining many specific tasks that are additional than that in a situation of normal ups and downs of the working class movement. It is not simply the preparations as required during coming out of a phase of any normal lull or ebb of a movement. Firstly, s pertinent question is, does this defeat mean that socialism, its existence, the struggle for it, in reality, in the objective conditions of capitalism, has been refuted and rejected for good? No question at all. Like any science its experiment in Russia and China in a period of transition towards socialism has failed no doubt. But the science of socialism, its deeply entrenched truths in reality, the science of Marxism and its laws is there, which is presently being revealed with much more prominence in front of us to be seen, in the crisis of capitalism and imperialism, in the degraded, decadent, social, political expressions of it. On the other hand, even though still at a much subdued level, the proletariat and the working masses time and again are showing their restlessness to get out of this exploitative, oppressive system. There lies the truth, the reality of the struggle for socialism.
But as it is true for any science similarly in this case also there definitely remains questions to be answered because of the failure of the grand experiments, the great, historic struggles, in Soviet Union and China,. Particularly so because the proletariat, the very class whose rule was supposed to have been established, was unable to counter the hijacking of their communist parties by capitalist-roaders. The defeat of power in Soviet Union and later PRC showed starkly the cleavage between the party and the class, bringing to the fore serious questions about party centralizing power in its hands in lieu of the working class, leading to working class losing its power and control, questioning the operation of dictatorship of proletariat. Further, various kinds of debacles revealed that the defeats came from within the movement itself. And it was not a defeat as a consequence of direct confrontation with the capitalists and imperialists in a face-to-face battle. These are questions, about which, standing in the midst of small arena of struggles and in the midst of the prevailing confusion of a splintered communist camp and fragmented working class, we are only able to presume or visualize partially. Some are regarding newer questions that have arisen from the practice of those grand experiments or the changes that have occurred over the decades after that. Some are definitely related to rediscovering and reestablishing the original understandings of Marx and the other great leaders of this international movement. This may be said particularly that the impact of the culminating stages of the 1st campaign of the international socialist movement, of the period after the establishment of power in erstwhile Soviet Union and then China during the 3rd International, have left among the present-day communists a number of fixed imprints or ideas so overwhelmingly as almost something sacrosanct, even though we are now in a situation very much different from that period. Some of these are- the path of formation of the communist party by unification of groups of petty-bourgeois intellectual leaders at the top, as it happened in case of many colonial or dependent countries. Besides this, the thinking that communists play the sole role in leading movements, deciding their course; it is the communist party which captures power and establishes its rule; thereby making the role of class or more specifically working class secondary. Then the conception that the party is able to play a role almost substituting the role of the working class has become ingrained in the prevailing thinking of communists to such an extent that it appears that the tasks in leading the revolution, educating the class and other masses, controlling and dictating all the steps can unilaterally be adopted by a communist party and even to a large extent by the present day groups. With such imprints as the legacy of the final culminating stages of the 1st campaign, many urgent questions before the present communist movement, commensurate with the present stage for preparation of resurrection of the communist movement from the phase of defeat, has become blurred or even lost. Thus the necessity of the arousal of the working class politically, as a class, as a maker of its historic mission of socialism, is linked up with the necessity of recognition of defeat and determining tasks of resurrection accordingly. It points towards the objective condition, from which position of retreat the working class has to rise up today overcoming the effects of defeat, overcoming the separation of the working class from its ideology, reviving its class-consciousness, overcoming the stagnation of the revolutionary working class movement, the sluggishness of the so-called communist revolutionary groups, etc... In the prevailing consciousness of the communist movement all this has become blurred or is being missed. Most of CR groups are continuing with the old party programmes, old tactics and style of work without recognizing the fact that we are in the midst of the defeat of the international communist movement and it must be resurrected first. They are yet to come out of their long dead-weights of the past. With such challenges to be overcome by the communists Marxism as a science have placed the immediate agenda of resurrection of the communist movement, the development of answers to many such questions, before the movement, before the present-day communists, whose first most important task is formation of a real working-class revolutionary party. Remembering Marx without assimilating these lessons, without keeping in mind today's concrete condition is rejecting the heart and soul of Marxism, which is concrete analysis of the concrete condition.
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