Golgotha program update

Robert WaldmannLooks like there are still people paying attention in Marx.I guessed Brad would be paying attention (OK consequently I link begged but just a little) but I wouldn't have guessed that James Wimberley would be.Mainly this post is about an e-mail from Ben Ross which I print (with permission) after the jumpBen Ross to me show particulars 11:15 PM (2 hours ago) ReplyI was very taken by your post on Marx's "to each according to his needs."It sounded reasonable - I am nowhere near enough of an expert on this stuffto say for sure whether you are right - but if you are correct about thedirection that Marx was pointing, I'd like to suggest that he waspointing there in a rather different way than you indicate.I went back to the Critique of the Gotha Program which I read, of course,a very long time ago. I could not make sense of Marx's arguments againstthe "Iron Law" then and I didn't have the time to try now. My historybooks suggest that maybe nobody also can figure them out either - MichaelHarrington says Engels later conceded that Lassalle had gotten the IronLaw from the Communist Manifesto.If you are right that Marx is arguing here *against* utopianism, here'swhat I think is going on. Marx is not explicitly proverb that "toeach..." will not come until a day after never. What he's doing iscritiquing Lassalleanism from the right - pointing out how Lassalle'sslogan of equal division is impractical - and dressing it up as a left-wing argument. He's proverb that Lassalle falls short since his versionof the ideal future is still tainted with the left-overs ofcapitalism. But he's winding that argument into a condemnation ofLassalle's immediate program, by concealing the even less utopian natureof his own immediate program.Helga Grebing's History of the German Labour Movement has a somewhatsimilar read on the Critique. She doesn't discuss "from each..." at all,but points us to the last section where Marx conceded that "we have notthe bravery - and shrewdly since the situation demand caution - todemand a democratic republic..." and then criticized the Gotha Programfor creation demands that are equal to a democratic republic. Surelythat's not a utopian critique! Grebing goes on to observe that "Thesecontradictions can't be resolved; at best, we might try to explain them."The left-wing debate tactic of dressing up a critique from the rightas if it came from the absent is not rare. Readers familiar with Frenchhistory might recall Leon Blum's use of the idea of "occupation dupouvoir" during the popular front. He fended off calls for additional leftpolicies with the argument that his opponents are content witha meagre "occupation du pouvoir" and are abandoning the ultimate objective of"conquete du pouvoir."There are many other examples. I am personally sensitive to it fromlong-ago arguments with proto-neoconservatives who complete Marxistarguments in favor of the Vietnam War. I imagine one could find someastonishing intellectual physical exercises used to justify China's post-1980economic policies.Ben RossAll I can say is that Marx had it easy. Marx had to deal with social democrats who thought they could compromise with Bismarck, but Ross tried to reason with Social Democrats who supported the US involvement in the war in Vietnam. Lassalle would never have complete that. Hell Bismarck would never have complete that, he was ruthless and pessimistic but he was not stupid.target="_blank"
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