July 1999
New life for Marx's works
by Kevin Anderson
The demise of Marx, at least the rich body of his writings, has been
greatly exaggerated. In December 1998, the first post-Communist volume of
the MARX-ENGELS GESAMTAUSGABE (Complete Writings or MEGA) came off the
press at Akademie Verlag in Berlin. A number of leading newspapers and
magazines, especially German ones, reported this event, but it has
unfortunately not yet received much attention in the English-speaking world.
The just-published Volume IV/3, comprising Marx's 1844-47 excerpt
notebooks, will be of great interest to those looking into the period
between the 1844 MANUSCRIPTS and the GERMAN IDEOLOGY (1846) as well as the
COMMUNIST MANIFESTO (1848). Vol. IV/3 contains some 400 pages of Marx's
excerpts from and commentary on leading political economists of the time
such as Louis Say, Jean Charles, Leonard Sismondi, Charles Babbage, Andrew
Ure, and Nassau Senior.
All of the material is here published in the original languages in which
Marx wrote it. In this volume, much of the text is in French. The editors'
notes, introductions, indexes, and other background material comprise an
additional 400 pages, all in German.
In their general introduction to the volume, its editors-Georgi Bagaturia,
Lev Churbanov, Olga Koroleva, and Ludmila Varina of Moscow, working
together with Jürgen Rojahn of Amsterdam-have analyzed these early
explorations by Marx into both economic theory and the effects of
capitalism on workers.
They have also taken care to show that Marx's interests are far broader
than is generally realized. For example, they point out that "Marx takes up
Sismondi's critique of colonialism," including references to Britain's
infamous Opium Wars against China (p. 467).
They also note that, at another point, Marx connects his critique of
private property to one of the family when he writes: "Should private
property exist? Should the family exist?" (p. 471). Other notes by Marx on
economist Pierre de Boisguillebert are related to what we know today as the
1844 MANUSCRIPTS.
The new MEGA began to appear in 1975 in the former East Germany. (The first
MEGA, begun in Soviet Russia during the 1920s, was killed off a decade
later by Stalin's purges-for background see my earlier article, "Uncovering
Marx's Yet Unpublished Writings," N&L, January-February 1997.) Between 1975
and 1991, some 47 volumes appeared, with Vol. IV/3 in 1998 the 48th one.
The total number of volumes projected stands at 122.
In 1999, we can look forward to the publication of two more volumes. Vol.
III/9 will comprise letters to and from Marx and Engels in 1858 and 1859.
Vol. IV/31 is to include excerpt notebooks after 1879 by Marx on chemistry
and by Engels on natural science and history.
After the collapse of Communism, funding for the MEGA dried up. New but
more limited funding has since been obtained from Western foundations. At
the same time, editorial standards have been raised and all political party
controls eliminated. The near secrecy surrounding the editing process has
been removed, permitting open debate on these matters for the first time
since the 1920s. As part of the current work on the MEGA, a new journal,
MEGA-STUDIEN, has been established.
Funding, especially for the editorial teams working in Moscow, has become
very precarious recently, however. If this funding cannot continue, the
work on some 19 MEGA volumes might have to be suspended. One of the ways
that people can support the work of the MEGA is by getting university and
public libraries to purchase it. The International Marx-Engels Foundation
based in Amsterdam, which oversees the work as a whole, can also accept
donations from individuals or groups.
To purchase copies of the MEGA or to receive their brochure, contact the
publisher: Akademie Verlag, Palisadenstrasse 40, D-10243 Berlin, FAX
49-30-42200611; email: info@akademie-verlag.de
To donate funds to the MEGA or to subscribe to MEGA-STUDIEN (56 DM, or
about $35 per year), contact the International Marx-Engels Foundation
(IMES), c/o Dr. Jürgen Rojahn, International Institute of Social History,
Cruquiusweg 31, AT-1019 Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Or email: jro@iisg.nl
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