why we are marxists _ in defence of marxism

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13/12 Why we are Marxists | In Defence of Marxism

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Written by Alan Woods

Monday, 13 December 2010

Why we are Marxists

T wo decades have passed since Francis Fuku yama published a book entitled The En d of History

and th e Last Man, proclaiming th e definitive trium ph of market econom ics and bourgeois

democ racy. T his idea seemed to be con firmed by almost 20 y ears of soaring m arkets and

virtually uninterrupted econ om ic growth. Polit ician s, central bankers and Wall Street m anager

were con vinced that they had finally tamed the ec on om ic cycle of boom s and slu mps.

Now, two dec ades after the fall of the USSR, not one sto ne upon another remains of the illusions of the

bo urgeoisie. The world is experienc ing the deepest c risis since the 1 930s. Faced with a catastr ophic situatio n o

a world scale, the bourgeois of the USA, Europe and Japan are in a state of panic. In the 1 930s, Trotsky said tha

the bourgeo isie was tobogganing to disaster with its ey es closed. These words are precisely applicable to the

present situation. They could have been written yesterday.

For the last twenty y ears the bourgeois eco nomists boasted that there would be no more bo om and slump, that

the cy cle had been abolished. It is an actual fact that for decades, the bourgeois eco nomists never predic ted a

single boo m and never predicted a single slump. They had worked out a wonderful new theory called theefficient market hypo thesis. Actually , there is nothing new about it at all. It amounts to the old idea that: Lef

to itself the market will solve every thing. It will automatically balance itself out. A s long as the gover nment

doesnt interfere, in the long run ev ery thing will be fine. To which, John Maynard Keynes issued the v ery

celebrated reply , In the long run were all dead.

In the first decade of the 21 st century , it is beco ming increasingly c lear that capitalism has exhausted its

progressiv e potential. Instead of dev eloping industry , science and technolo gy, it is steadily undermining them

The productiv e forces stagnate, factories are c losed as if they were matchbo xes, and millions are thrown out of

work. A ll these ar e sy mptoms that show that the dev elo pment of the pro ductiv e forces on a world scale has gon

beyond the narrow limits o f priv ate property and the nation state .

That is the most fundamental reason for the pre sent crisis, which has exposed the bankruptcy of capitalism in

the most literal sense o f the word. The plight of Ireland and Greec e pro vides graphic co nfirmation of the

diseased state o f European capitalism. Tomorro w the contagion will spread to Portugal and Spain. But Britain

and Italy are no t far behind. And France, Germany and Austria will follow them inexo rably o n the downward

path.

The bourgeois eco nomists and politicians, and abov e all, all the reformists, are desperately seeking some sort o

rev ival to get out of this crisis. They lo ok to the recov ery of the business cy cle as salvation. The leaders of the

working class, the trade union leade rs and the So cial Democ ratic leade rs believ e that this c risis is something

temporary . They imagine it can be solv ed by making some adjustments to the existing system, that all that is

needed is more c ontrol and regulation, and that we can return to the prev ious conditions.But this crisis is not a

normal crisis, it is not temporary. It marks a fundamental turning point in the proc ess, the point at w hich

capitalism has reached a historical dead end. The best that can be expec ted is a we ak recovery, acco mpanied

by high unemployment and a long period of austerity, cuts and falling living standards.

The crisis of bourgeois ideology

Marxism is in the first place a philosophy and a world o utlook. In the philosophical writings of Marx and Engels


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we do not find a c losed philosophical sy ste m, but a series of brilliant insights and po inters, which, if they were

developed, would provide a valuable addition to the methodological armoury of science.

Nowhere is the crisis of bourgeois ideology clearer than in the realm of philosophy. I n its early stages, when th

bo urgeoisie sto od for progress, it was capable o f pro ducing great thinkers: Hobbes and Locke, Kant and Hegel.

But in the epoch of its senile decay, the bourgeo isie is incapable o f producing great ideas. In fact, it is not

capable of produc ing any ideas at all.

Since the modern bourgeo isie is incapable of bold generalisations it denies the very conc ept of ideology . That i

why the po st-modernists talk of the end of ideo logy . They deny the concept of pro gre ss simply because unde

capitalism no further progress is possible. Engels once wro te: Philosophy and the study of the actual world

have the same relation to one another as onanism and sexual lov e. Modern bourgeo is philosophy prefers the

former to the latter. In its obsession to combat Marxism, it has dragged philosophy back to the worst period o f

its old, outworn and sterile past.

Dialectical materialism is a dy namic v iew of understanding the workings of nature, soc iety and thought. Far

from being an outmoded idea of the 1 9th century , it is a strikingly modern v iew of nature and society . Dialectic

does away with the fixed, rigid, lifeless way o f looking at things that was characteristic o f the old mechanical

schoo l of classical phy sics. It shows that under certain circumstances things can turn into their opposite.

The dialectical no tion that gradual acc umulation of small changes can at a c ritical point become transformed

into a gigantic leap has rece ived a striking confirmation in modern chaos theo ry and its derivatives. Chaos

theory has put an end to the kind of narrow mechanical reduc tive determinism that dominated science for ov e

a hundred years. Marxist dialectics is a 19th century ex pression of what chaos theory now ex presses

mathematically: the inter-relatedness of things, the organic nature of relations between entities.

The study of phase transitions constitutes one of the most important areas of contempo rary physics. There are

an infinite number of examples of the same phenomenon. The transformation of quantity into quality is a

universal law. In his bookUbiquity Mark Buchanan shows this in phenomena as diverse as heart attacks,

avalanches, forest fires, the rise and fall of animal populations, stock ex change crises, wars, and even c hanges i

fashion and schools o f art. Ev en more asto nishing, these ev ents can be expressed as a mathematical formula

known as a power law.

These remarkable discov eries were anticipated long ago by Marx and Engels, who put the dialectical philosoph

of Hegel on a rational (that is, materialist) basis. In hisLogic (1813) Hegel wrote: It has become a co mmon jest

in history to let great effects arise from small causes. This was long before the b utterfly effect was ev er heard

of. Like vo lcano eruptions and earthquakes, revolutions are the result of a slow acc umulation of co ntradictions

ov er a long period. The process eve ntually reaches a critical point at which a sudden leap occ urs.

Historical materialism

Ev ery social system believes that it represents the only possible form of existence for human beings. That its

institutions, its religion, its morality are the last word that c an be spoken. That is what the cannibals, the

Egyptian priests, Marie Antoinette and Tsar Nicolas all ferv ently believe d. And that is what Francis Fukuy ama

wished to demonstrate when he assured us, without the slighte st basis, that the so-calle d sy ste m of free

enterprise is the o nly possible sy stemjust when it is beginning to sink.


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Just as Charles Darwin explains that species are not immutable, and that they possess a past, a present and a

future, changing and ev olv ing, so Marx and Engels explain that a given so cial system is not something eternally

fixed.The analogy between society and nature is, of course, only appro ximate. But even the most superficial

ex amination of history shows that the gradualist interpretation is baseless. Society , like nature, knows long

periods of slow and gradual change, but also here the line is interrupted by explosive dev elopments wars and

rev olutions, in which the process of change is enormo usly accelerated. In fact, it is these events that act as the

main motor force of historical dev elopment.

The root cause of revo lutionary changes is the fact that a particular socio-eco nomic sy stem has reached its

limits and is unable to develop the productiv e forces as before.Marxism analyses the hidden mainsprings that

lie behind the develo pment of human society from the earliest tribal societies up to the modern day . The

materialist conception of history enables us to understand history, not as a series of unconnected and

unforeseen incidents, but rather as part of a clearly understood and interrelated proc ess. It is a series of action

and reactions which cov er politics, economics and the whole spectrum of social development

The relationship between all these phenomena is a co mplex dialectical relationship. Ve ry often attempts are

made to discredit Marx ism by resorting to a caricature of its method of historical analy sis. The usual distortion

is that Marx and Engels reduced ev ery thing to economics. This patent absurdity was answered many times bMarx and Engels, as in the following extrac t to Engels letter to Bloch:

Ac cor ding to the materialist conception of history, the ultimate determining element in history is the

produc tion and reproduc tion of life. More than this neither Marx nor my self have asserted. Hence, if somebody

twists this into say ing that the ec onomic e lement is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition

into a meaningless, abstract and senseless phrase.

The Communist Manifesto

The most modern book that one can read today is the Communist Manifesto , written in 1848. True, this or thatdetail will have to be changed, but in all the fundamentals, the ideas of the Communist Manifesto are as relevan

and true today as when they were first written. By contrast, the immense majority o f the boo ks written one and

half centuries ago are today merely of historical interest.

What is most striking abo ut theManifesto is the way in which it anticipates the most fundamental phenomena

whic h occupy our atte ntio n on a wo rld scale at the present time. Let us c onsider one example. At the time whe

Marx and Engels were writing, the world of the big multinational co mpanies was still the music of a v ery distant

future. Despite this, they ex plained how free enterprise and competition would inev itably lead to the

co ncentration of capital and the monopolisation of the productive forces.

It is frankly comical to read the statements made by the defenders of the market conce rning Marxs alleged

mistake on this question, when in reality it was precisely one o f his most brilliant and accurate predictions.

Today it is an absolutely indisputable fact that the proce ss of conc entration of capital foreseen by Marx has

oc curred, is occurring, and indeed has reached unprecede nted levels in the co urse of the last ten years.

For decades the bourgeo is soc iologists attempted to disprove these assertions and prov e that society was

becoming more equal and that, consequently , the c lass struggle was as antiquated as the handlo om and the

wooden plough. The working c lass had disappeared, they said, and we were all middle c lass. A s for the

co ncentration o f capital, the future was with small businesses, and small is beautiful.


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How ironic these claims sound today ! The entire world eco nomy is now dominated by no mo re than 200 giant

co mpanies, the great majority of which are based in the USA. The process o f monopolisation has reached

unprecedented propo rtions. In the first quarter of 2006 mer gers and acquisitions in the USA amounted to $1 0

billion do llars a day . This feverish activ ity does not signify a real de velopment o f the pro ductiv e forc es, but the

opposite. And the pace o f monopo lisation does not diminish but increases. On Nove mber 19-20, 200 6 the valu

of mergers and acquisitions in the USA amounted to a reco rd of $7 5 billion - in just 24 hours! Takeovers are a

kind of cor porate c annibalism that is inevitably followed by asset-stripping, factory closures and sac kings tha

is, by the wholesale and wanton destruction of means of production and the sacrifice o f thousands of jobs on thaltar of Profit.

At the same time there is a constant increase in inequality . In all c ountr ies the share of pro fits in the natio nal

income is at a record high level, while the share of wages is at a record low. The real secret o f the curre nt boom

that the capitalists are ex tracting reco rd amounts of surplus value from the working class. In the USA the

workers are producing o n av erage a third more than ten y ears ago, y et r eal wages stagnate o r fall in real terms.

Profits have been boo ming and the wealthy are beco ming ever wealthier at the expe nse of the working class.

Let us take another, ev en more striking example: globalisation. The crushing domination o f the world market is

the most important manifestation of our epoc h, and this is supposed to be a rec ent discov ery . In fact,globalisation was predicted and explained by Marx and Engels ov er 150 y ears ago. Y et when the Manifesto was

writte n, there was practic ally no empir ical data to support suc h a hy pothesis. The only really dev elo ped

capitalist economy was England. The infant industries of France and Germany (which did no t ev en ex ist as a

united entity) still sheltered behind high tariff walls a fact which is conv eniently forgotten today , as Western

gov ernments and economists deliver stern lecture s to the rest of the world on the need to open up their

economies.

On a world scale the results of globalised market econo mics are horrifying. In 200 0 the richest 20 0 peo ple

had as much wealth as the 2 billion poorest. A ccording to the figures of the UN, 1 .2 billion people are liv ing on

less than two dollars a day. Of these eight million men, women and children die ev ery year bec ause they do nothave enough money to survive . Every body agrees that the murder of six million people in the Nazi Holoc aust

was a terrible crime against humanity , but here we hav e a silent Holocaust that kills e ight million innoc ent

people every ye ar and nobody has anything to say on the subject.

Alongside the most appalling misery and human suffering there is an orgy of obscene money -making and

ostentatious wealth. Worldwide there are at present 945 billionaires with a total wealth of $3.5 trillion. Many a

citizens o f the USA. Bill Gates has a personal fortune estimated at around $5 6 billion. Warren Buffet is not far

behind with $52 billio n. No w they bo ast that this unseemly wealth is spreading to po orer nations . Among the

super-rich there are 1 3 Chinese, 14 Indians and 19 Russians. And this is supposed to b e a reason to celebrate!

Class struggle

Historical materialism teaches us that conditions determine consc iousness. The problem is that consciousness

lagging behind the objectiv e situation, the mass organisations are lagging behind that, and abov e all, the

leadership of the working class is lagging ev en further behind. This is the main contradiction o f the present

period. It must be resolv ed, and it will be resolv ed.

Idealists have always presented co nsciousness as the motor force o f all human progress. But ev en the most

superficial study of history shows that human consciousness always tends to lag behind ev ents. Far from being


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rev olutionary , it is innately and profoundly c onserv ative. Most people do not like the idea of change and still

less of a v iolent upheav al that transforms ex isting conditions. They tend to cling to the familiar ideas, the well-

known institutions, the traditional morality , religion and values of the ex isting soc ial order. But dialectically ,

things change into their oppo site. Sooner or later, consciousness will be brought into line with reality in an

ex plosive manner. That is precisely what a rev olution is.

Marxism ex plains that in the final analysis, the key to all social development is the dev elopment of the

produc tive forces. As long as society is going forward, that is to say, as long as it is capable of dev eloping

industry, agriculture, science and technology , it is seen to be viable by the great majority of people. Under suc

co nditions, men and women do not generally question the ex isting society , its morality and laws. On the

co ntrary, they are seen as something natural and inevitable: as natural and inevitable as the rising and setting o

the sun.

Great ev ents are necessary to permit the masses to throw off the heavy burden of tradition, habit and routine

and to embrac e new ideas. Such is the position taken by the materialist co nception of history , which was

br illiantly ex pressed by Karl Marx in the c elebrated phrase social being determines consc iousness. It takes

great events to expose the unsoundness of the old order and co nvince the masses of the need for its complete

ov erthrow. This process is not automatic and takes time.

In the last per iod it appeared that the c lass struggle in Europe was a thing of the past. But now all the

accumulated contradictions are coming to the surface, preparing the way for an explosion of the class struggle

ev ery where. Ev en in co untries like Austria, where for decades the ruling class bought social peace by reforms,

stormy ev ents are being prepared. Sharp and sudden changes are implicit in the situation.

When Marx and Engels wr ote the Manifesto, they were two yo ung men, 29 and 27 years old respectively. They

were writing in a period of blac k reaction. The working class was appar ently immobile. TheManifesto itself was

writte n in Brusse ls, where its authors had been forced to flee as politic al refugees. And y et at the v ery moment

when the Communist Manifesto first saw the light of day in February 1 848, revo lution had already erupted ontothe streets of Paris, and ov er the following months had spread like wildfire through v irtually the whole o f

Europe.

We are entering into a most convulsive period which will last for some years, similar to the perio d in Spain fro m

1930 to 1937 . There will be defeats and setbacks, but under these conditions the masses will learn ve ry fast. Of

co urse, we must not ex aggerate: we are still in the early beginnings of a process of radicalisation. But it is very

clear here that we are witnessing the beginning of a change of co nsciousness of the masses. A gro wing number o

people are questioning capitalism. They are o pen to the ideas of Marxism in a way that was not the case before.

In the co ming period ideas that were confined to small groups of rev olutionaries will be eagerly followed by

millions.

We can the refore answer Mr. Fukuyama as follo ws: history has not ended. I n fact, it has hardly begun. When

future generations look back at our present civ ilisation, they will have approx imately the same attitude that

we adopt towards c annibalism. The prior condition for attaining a higher level o f human dev elopment is the

ending of capitalist anarchy and the establishment of a rational and democr atic plan of production in which me

and women c an take their lives and destinies into their own hands.

This is an impossible Utopia! we will be told by self-styled realists. But what is utterly unrealistic is to

imagine that the problems facing humanity can be solved on the b asis of the present sy stem that has brought th


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world to its present sorry state. To say that humanity is inc apable of finding a better alternativ e to the laws of

the jungle is a monstrous libel on the human race.

By harnessing the colossal potential of science and tec hnology , freeing them from the monstrous shackles of

private ownership and the nation state, it will be possible to solv e all the problems that oppr ess our wor ld and

threaten it with destruction. Real human history will only c ommence when men and women have put an end to

capitalist slavery and taken the first steps towards the realm of freedom.

London, November 19, 201 0

why we are marxists _ in defence of marxism

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