The Classics of Marxism: Volume One

The Classics of Marxism #1

by Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, The State and Revolution, and The Transitional Program are four classics of Marxist theory and practice. Now, for the first time, these works are available in a single, compact, affordable volume, to aid in the education of a new generation of revolutionary Marxists.


The collapse of Stalinism was supposed to usher in an epoch of peace, prosperity and democracy. It has not. Instead, there is a picture of general instability and turbulence at all levels: economic, social, political and military. Years of Cold War propaganda, together with the assumption that socialism and communism equals a dictatorial, totalitarian and bureaucratic regime that denies the personality and democratic rights of the individual, have created many prejudices. That was precisely the intention. Both the Stalinist bureaucracy in Russia and the defenders of the so-called free market economy (that is, capitalism) had a vested interest in distorting the real message of Marxism.


The only way to learn about Marxism is to read the original works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. After all, nobody has ever expressed these ideas better than the authors themselves. Each and every one of these important works contains key lessons for the reader today. The central task facing Marxists worldwide is the building of a revolutionary party. And it is impossible to build a revolutionary party without revolutionary theory. In this endeavor we must fight for theoretical clarity and link up with the mass movement of the working class.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory, Politics, Philosophy

ebook

First published July 30, 2013

About the author

With the help of Friedrich Engels, German philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867-1894), works, which explain historical development in terms of the interaction of contradictory economic forces, form many regimes, and profoundly influenced the social sciences.

German social theorist Friedrich Engels collaborated with Karl Marx on The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and on numerous other works.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin in London opposed Communism of Karl Marx with his antithetical anarchy.

Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).

The Prussian kingdom introduced a prohibition on Jews, practicing law; in response, a man converted to Protestantism and shortly afterward fathered Karl Marx.

Marx began co-operating with Bruno Bauer on editing Philosophy of Religion of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (see Democritus and Epicurus), doctoral thesis, also engaged Marx, who completed it in 1841. People described the controversial essay as "a daring and original piece... in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom." Marx decided to submit his thesis not to the particularly conservative professors at the University of Berlin but instead to the more liberal faculty of University of Jena, which for his contributed key theory awarded his Philosophiae Doctor in April 1841. Marx and Bauer, both atheists, in March 1841 began plans for a journal, entitled Archiv des Atheismus (Atheistic Archives), which never came to fruition.

Marx edited the newspaper Vorwärts! in 1844 in Paris. The urging of the Prussian government from France banished and expelled Marx in absentia; he then studied in Brussels. He joined the league in 1847 and published.

Marx participated the failure of 1848 and afterward eventually wound in London. Marx, a foreigner, corresponded for several publications of United States.
He came in three volumes. Marx organized the International and the social democratic party.

Marx in a letter to C. Schmidt once quipped, "All I know is that I am not a Marxist," as Warren Allen Smith related in Who's Who in Hell .

People describe Marx, who most figured among humans. They typically cite Marx with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, the principal modern architects.

Bertrand Russell later remarked of non-religious Marx, "His belief that there is a cosmic ... called dialectical materialism, which governs ... independently of human volitions, is mere mythology" ( Portraits from Memory , 1956).

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bi...
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/...
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

Reviews

[William Gedling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite really the truest classics of Marxism everyone eager enough to educated themselves should read. This set of texts really outlines the basics in theory which keeps Marxism alive today, against revisionism. The continuity in ideas and policies flows excellently between all 4 writers. Certainly not out of date or dogmatic nor a dry read at all. Patience is really a virtue with these incredible texts. The task however is now to put them into action.

[Ziyad Hasanin · Rating 3 out of 5]

أولى النصوص النظرية للماركسية التي أقرؤها كاملة. وعندي اعتراف؛ أنه وطوال قراءتي للنصوص، سواءً اتفقنا أم اختلفنا، كان عقلي لا ينفك من مقارنة مستوى التحليل والتنظير والنقاشات -من 100 سنة!!- بمستوى نقاشاتنا وحواراتنا "الإسلامية" عن الدولة والمجتمع ودورها ومآلها. الحقيقة شعور بالخزي من مستوى البؤس والتعاسة الذين نحيا وسطهما. عامةً دي مش أول مرة أحس بالشعور ده بس تذكرة كويسة إننا في قاع الكنيف ومحتاج نفوق لنفسنا بسرعة!

[Juan Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compilation of foundational texts that are necessary to read & from which to draw important lessons to understand what Marxists stand for, where they come from & the way forward for the working class.

Individual Reviews below:

The Communist Manifesto:

The short of it it, there are still lessons to be drawn from this text, from a historical materialist perspective but also how some manifestations of bourgeois socialism are reflected today & what Communists stand for & certain tactics in regard to being bold with our views while carrying on the struggle.

This text & ideas are relevant less so because of the identity of the man, meaning it has nothing to do with him being “an old dead white man” but because his ideas are correct & still applicable today because of the limits of bourgeois society as reflected in material conditions & the ideas that defend the status quo even while sounding progressive. Cannot recommend reading this as a starting point for its ideas & its exposition of dialectical & historical materialism.

Socialism: Utopian & Scientific

It looks like it’s been 10 years since I’ve read this & my understanding has only expanded, especially after having dedicated time to understanding the Marxist Philosophy, dialectical materialism. This book is a condensed version of a larger text in regard to dialectical materialism called “Anti-Dühring” which I do recommend to readers as well.

From this you get a clear understanding of the development of socialist ideas, how initial theories were Utopian due to the material conditions of society & likely of philosophy as well having emerged from the Dark Ages via the Enlightenment. The philosophy & method of Marx & Engels puts socialism & communism on a scientific basis rooted in material reality.

This philosophy is what helps you understand history & how you get historical materialism as an extension of dialectical materialism. It helps you understand the developments & trends of human history & how they are tied to production, contrary the bourgeois notions that history is just one damned thing after another or cannot be grasped or understood.

The first section, again, is about the Utopianism of early socialism, the second section is about the development & dialectics, its development & how Marx & Engels shed it’s philosophical idealism & root it in materialism to get to dialectical materialism. This culminates in the application of dialectical materialism to history, which is historical materialism. This final section traces the development of human history & its productive forces from the beginnings of class society to fatalism, then capitalism, explaining the contradictions with its development of the productive forces, what the historic task is of the working class & of socialism to help the working class understand the development of history, where they are & what they need to do.

I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you don’t have time to read the larger texts.

State & Revolution:

This is my second time reading this classic text. With the benefit of having learned more about dialectics, the history of the Russian Revolution & important events that followed as well as Lenin & Trotsky, I feel I have gotten so much more out of this text the second time. Written during the Revolution, a revolution is not a one act drama, this was a key important text answering a key theoretical & political question: what is the proper conception of the state & what is the task of the working class in relation to it. The answer is made clear as well as what the misconceptions are, how Marxism was distorted by contemporaries & what is meant by dictatorship of the proletariat & the state withering away. You will find there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding this, many of which persist today, keeping this text as relevant as ever & will remain so until the working class accomplishes its task globally & capitalism is consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs.

This is a must read for those searching for answers as to why things are the way they are & what is to be done about it.

Transitional Program:

It’s a short but powerful text. There are often questions about whet a communist society or a socialist society as a transitional state to communism will look like & how do we get there. This text in addition to Lenin’s “State & Revolution” provides concrete answers. This particular text is about the transition & demands to get there & proceed through it. The reason for this, is through an understanding of dialectical materialism, the Marxist philosophy, we understand that bourgeois society will not disappear overnight. You can abolish capitalism & that happens when workers take power but the workers also need a workers state to defend their gains until the way of life of providing for human need is so pervasive it is like breathing & a state is no longer necessary to defend against the bourgeoisie.

Transitional demands are a step towards this reality & begin in the course of revolutionary struggle & continue. A transitional program is a bridge between the minimum program (basic reforms) & the maximum program (social revolution). Workers learn through this process & through this development is what lays the basis for the withering away of the state. It will not happen on its own but is made possible through conscious, rational & democratic planning & control of production & society.

This is a classic test that is key to understanding the way forward.

Final Thoughts:

Together all of these tests provide a necessary foundation in the basics of Marxism in order to have the correct perspective, patiently explain to the ideas & chart the revolutionary way forward.

[A Cask of Troutwine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good introduction into Leftist theory. Even with concessions given for the specific political or historical references that may not be wholly relevant anymore, the first three of these lay out a pretty decent look at Marxist thought, and I'll get to the Transitional Program in a second.

The Communist Manifesto is still remarkably relevant. Even though the work was written to lay out the ideas and political positions of the incredibly short lived Communist League, the greater points that it makes are still relevant, and read as if they're describing aspects of modern society (which, you know, they are). In it's short page count the Manifesto serves as righteous indictment of capitalism and a polemic laying out the arguments and reasoning of Communist thought in a straightforward and easy to follow way.

However, I don't know what it is but while The Communist Manifesto is a relatively easy read, Engels's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific kept losing me. Somehow Engels can start an argument in a clear fashion, going over the positions of scientific socialism and dialectical materialism, and somehow in the middle of the paragraph I completely lose the thread. Like I'll understand the point he's making but the argument he uses to make it will be overly obtuse.

Lenin's The State and Revolution though, is probably one of the best written parts of this collection. Lenin is able to lay out his positions in an engaging and entertaining way, throwing in historical details, discussions of theory, political arguments, etc. while never really boring the reader. Lenin's writing comes across as conversational, full of joking asides and sarcastic jabs, while remaining informative.

Lastly in this collection there's Trotsky's Transitional Program, which I think is the most oddly placed work in the collection. I don't necessarily have anything against Trotskyists or Trotsky, but while the first three works in this collection are more about describing why and how the systems around us work the way they do, the Transitional Program is a political platform describing the position of Trotsky and the Fourth International. While there are a few parts explaining Trotsky's ideas on Marxism and how progressivism has achieved everything it can, most of the work is just policy proposals. On top of that, Trotsky's writing is somehow even drier than Engels, and I kept checking out of the work. It feels odd to have this as the final work in the collection because it's purpose is so different, and I don't think having it here helps it at all.

(Obviously the answer to a lot of that last section is that Wellred books is run by International Marxist Tendency, a Trotskyist political org, but I feel that there must be some other work by Trotsky that fills the position of explaining or expanding on Marxist theory better).

As well as my issues with the choice of Transitional Program, there was also a formatting choice that I quibble with. The collection includes footnotes helpfully explaining details of the work, however there is no formatting differences between footnotes included by the original authors and the editors of this collection. So next to footnotes by the original authors reflecting on events that transpired between editions of their work, or explaining their thoughts in more detail, the editors will have footnotes explaining historical details and references. It's a minor point but it rankled me.

All in all a decent collection of beginner Marxist theory, my only real issues being mentioned above. I'd probably rate it a bit higher if it was just the first three parts, or included a better fourth part.

7 out of 10.

[Mikey Pugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! They made a good choice with the selection here however it is quite disappointing to see the optimism that dwindle. Then the remaining optimism never reached its goals to this day, socialism being corrupted further and further (in our defence, the circumstances have changed drastically). However I do think the relevance of these texts to the modern day is quite impressive, especially considering some material being 150 years old.

The Manifesto is very well done, I like the difference between what I presume is Marx and Engels inputs. Engels is very fact based and straight up and I appreciate that, it works well. Lenin doesn't half ramble, but I thoroughly agreed with what he had to say, but he does go over the same parts a bit too often. I would love to read more, especially of Trotsky, and it's interesting to see his splinter from the Soviet Union within his text. Just fascinating to read, I feel far more educated and qualified to fight the case of Communism and know more of what it truly means and how it can come in to being. But also reassuring to see the constant re-writing of Communism, even Marx and Engels didn't feel like the founders of the ideas so it can be augmented to the conditions of our time (within reason)

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second time reading all of this collection. The four texts are absolutely essential reading for all socialists. There is no better way to read this book than as part of a group, closely studying the texts, and committed not just to discussion but to putting these ideas into action! So thankful for Wellred Books - who are the only publishers still printing the really important works of Marxism - and for Socialist Appeal who organise reading groups for radical workers and students!

"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement" - Lenin

[Valentine Karpenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine volume for introducing oneself to Marxist philosophy. Engels' Socialism and Lenin's State and Revolution were highlights as the two writers were able to explain their ideas in a clear and eye opening way.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic to understand the bare minimum of Marxism, its birth, the difference with Social Democracy and other more conservative socialist theories, its core concepts, and it's evolution from thhe 1840's to the 1930's.

[Montana Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are great introductions but require a group for discussion (or a lot of googling) to get the most out of them.

[Danielle Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very solid introduction to Marxism. While I won’t summarize and debate the theories explained (as that would literally be an essay), I will say that this book does an amazing job covering the basics of Marxism and Leninism and the teachings of the 4 authors included who are pillars of the study across both the 19th and 20th centuries. What I like most about this book is that the texts chosen serve to not only explain Marxist theory, but also depict the efforts made to actively distort Marxism not only during Marx’s later life but throughout the following years into World War II. It reassures the reader that the only way to truly understands Marx and what he means by violent revolution to overthrow the state, the political dictatorship of the proletariat, the withering away of the state, and his true imagined idea of communist society is to read the words from the authors themselves. It opens up your world to question how then your views and knowledge on this subject may have been purposefully skewed as well.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read, full stop.

[John]

It is what it says on the tin. This is as user-friendly an introduction to Marxist-Leninist thought as you'll find.