Back To The Future
The Continuing Relevance of Marx

http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX10646-GlabermanFaber-FutureMarx.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/glaberman/2000/xx/future.htm
Year Published:  2000
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX10646

Does anyone seriously believe that the Russian workers who invented soviets in 1905 or overthrew the Tsar in 1917 were free of bigotry, of anti-semitism, of sexism, of national chauvinism? Or the Hungarian workers of 1966? Or the French workers of 1968? (In France there had been considerable display of racism toward African immigrants, a racism that was significantly reduced for a while during the events of May 1968.) Were the Polish workers who created Solidarity in 1980 free of anti-semitism, sexism, the influence of the Catholic Church? What is missing in most of these empirical studies is the theory of Marx. They are based on the depths the working class has reached under capitalism, not the peaks. As a result, they are inherently conservative.

Subject Headings

• Dual Consciousness
• Working Class