|
|
"Ruthless Criticism of All That Exists"; Against the Current vol. 194
Kellogg, Paul
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/194/marx5/Date Written: 2018-05-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2018 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23319 In October 1864, Marx drafted the inaugural rules for the International Working Men's Association (First International). Its opening lines were a hymn to freedom and self-activity: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves." Abstract: ----- Excerpts: Marx's name, over several generations, has been associated with real horrors - the Gulag in the former Soviet Union, state-executions on a mass scale in China, secret police regimes in Eastern Europe, the killing fields in Kampuchea (Cambodia) … to name just a few. It was not supposed to be this way. In October 1864, Marx drafted the inaugural rules for the International Working Men's Association (First International). Its opening lines were a hymn to freedom and self-activity: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves." Tragically we have witnessed countless moments where this message has been completely perverted. How does one pick up the threads of freedom and self-activity, and separate them from the dross of crimes committed in Marx's name? Actually, those threads are all around us. The "March for our Lives" youth uprising comes to mind. Hashtag "MeToo," Black Lives Matter, and the "taking a knee" movements are others. Subject Headings |