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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

12. Two Projects of Socialism

Author : Robert X. Ware

Published in: Marx on Emancipation and Socialist Goals

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Any socialism has two important projects: (1) to understand and end present-day oppression and (2) to build, in imagination and reality, a future that realizes socialist society with socialist values. Each form of socialism has its own ways to approach these projects and to understand the attendant issues and aspects. Sometimes the differences seem vast, while in a more cooperative outlook, there are similarities and opportunities for convergence.

Karl Marx and Michael Bakunin and their successors have dealt with various issues in contrasting ways. This chapter attempts to show that the two streams have overlapping perspectives and approaches that when investigated can be enriching and supportive rather than divisive and debilitating, which enriches any retrieval of Marx.

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previous chapter Marx on Some Phases of Communism

Bakunin’s book is published as Statism and Anarchy (in 1873) with the subtitle The Struggle of the Two Parties in the International Working Men’s Association. That book is published in an edition translated by Marshall S. Shatz who argues in his introduction that “statism” is the word that is closest to Bakunin’s meaning (in Russian). In that book, Bakunin criticized Marx at length.

For some discussion of their differences and animosity towards each other, see Draper (1990, pp. 130–175) and Thomas (1980, pp. 340).

See Chomsky (2013a, 2016).

See especially Amin (2013, 2018).

On participatory economics and workers’ control, see Albert (2003) and Schweickart (2011).

On the concept of the precariat, see Standing (2011).

Note that Engels (three years after Marx had died) deplored that “no one except the Social Democratic Federation bother about the unemployed whose numbers … increase substantially every winter and who suffer extreme want” (MECW 47, p. 534).

Charles Fourier was a French utopian socialist who lived 1772–1837.

Fortunately there is a rich legacy of literature on continuing debates. For a start one should consult Prichard et al. 2012 and on particular matters see Vogel (1995, 2014), Mojab (2015), Brown (2013), and Draper (2011) on issues of feminism and socialism. For a good start on race and Marx, see Mills (2003). On environmental issues see Klein (2017), Saito (2017), Angus (2017), and Foster and Burkett (2017).

Note: References to the work of Frederick Engels and Karl Marx are from Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works. 50 Volumes, 1975–2004. New York, NY: International Publishers. (Referred to in text as “MECW” with volume and page).

Albert, Michael. 2003. Parecon: Life After Capitalism. London: Verso.

Amin, Samir. 2013. The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

———. 2018. Modern Imperialism, Monopoly Finance Capital, and Marx’s Law of Value. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

Angus, Ian. 2017. A Redder Shade of Green: Intersections of Science and Socialism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

Bakunin, Michael. 1990 [1873]. Statism and Anarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Brown, Heather. 2013. Marx on Gender and the Family: A Critical Study. Chicago, IL: Haymarket.

Chomsky, Noam. 2013a. On Anarchism. New York, NY: The New Press.

———. 2013b. Occupy. 2nd ed. Westfield, NJ: Zuccotti Park Press.

———. 2016. What Kind of Creatures Are We? New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Dolgoff, Sam, ed. 1980. Bakunin on Anarchism. Montreal, Québec: Black Rose Books.

Draper, Hal. 1990. Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Volume IV: Critique of Other Socialisms. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

———. 2011. Women and Class: Towards Socialist Feminism. North Charleston, SC: Createspace.

Feyerabend, Paul. 2010. Against Method. 4th ed. London: Verso Books.

Foster, John Bellamy, and Paul Burkett. 2017. Marx and the Earth: An Anti-Critique. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

Jossa, Bruno. 2005. Marx, Marxism and the Cooperative Movement. Cambridge Journal of Economics 29 (1): 3–18.CrossRef

Klein, Naomi. 2017. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. London: Penguin Books.

Lukács, Georg. 1971. History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Mills, Charles W. 2003. From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Mojab, Shahrzad, ed. 2015. Marxism and Feminism. London: Zed Books.

Morris, Brian. 1993. Bakunin: The Philosophy of Freedom. Montreal, Québec: Black Rose Books.

Musto, Marcello, ed. 2014. Workers Unite! The International 150 Years Later. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.

Nimitz, Jr, and H. August. 2000. Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Prichard, Alex, Ruth Kinna, Saku Pinta, and David Berry, eds. 2012. Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Saito, Kohei. 2017. Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.CrossRef

Schweickart, David. 2011. After Capitalism. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Standing, Guy. 2011. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Thomas, Paul. 1980. Karl Marx and the Anarchists. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Vogel, Lise. 1995. Woman Questions: Essays for a Materialist Feminism. New York, NY: Routledge.

———. 2014. Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory. Chicago, IL: Haymarket.

Wright, Erik Olin. 1985. Classes. London: Verso.

Title: Two Projects of Socialism
Author: Robert X. Ware
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Marx on Emancipation and Socialist Goals
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97715-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-97716-4

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97716-4_12