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"Ruthless Criticism of All That Exists"; Against the Current vol. 194

Kellogg, Paul
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/194/marx5/

Publisher:  Against the Current
Date Written:  01/05/2018
Year Published:  2018  
Resource Type:  Article

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: 

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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.

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