2 - Classical Marxism
Summary
Karl Marx described his own social and political theory as “historical materialism”, not as “Marxism”. Indeed, upon learning of one early version of the consolidation of his ideas into a political doctrine, he famously announced that “I am not a Marxist!” (MESW: 679). The implication of Marx's statement is that there is a significant difference between the complex and provisional nature of a theoretical research programme, on the one hand, and the sort of practical simplification involved in a political doctrine capable of serving as the foundation for a party – and a state – on the other hand.
Marx was well aware that mass movements are not built around abstract research programmes, and he did not oppose turning the main conclusions of historical materialism into a political doctrine, formulating a party programme and putting the ideas into practice. Indeed, historical materialism calls for its own practical application as the definitive test of theory, for this lends the theory its historical falsifiability, differentiating it in an important way from traditional philosophy. Yet, as Marx's comments in his “Critique of the Gotha Program” (1875) indicate, doctrinal simplification can easily generate vulgarization and, ultimately, an oracular statement of “eternal truths” – an ideology.
Marx, then, did not espouse Marxism. Nonetheless, it was as Marxists, and not as “historical materialists”, that the masses marched and the leaders acted during the convulsions of the twentieth century.
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- Understanding Marxism , pp. 47 - 78Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2012