"Marx Lives!"
(AND LENIN TOO)
"Marx lives!" This two-word sentence concludes socialist author Kohei Saito's recent Karl Marx's Ecosocialism (winner of the 2018 Deutscher Prize, a socialist book award).[1]
Saito is right; the thinking of Marx and his disciples remains the socialist gospel. Each year, socialists publish a torrent of new books and articles explaining why they believe Marx's ideas remain relevant today and should be the basis of a radically altered society.
Today's socialists even write that Marx should be considered a "democratic socialist"[2] and an "ecosocialist"[3]—facts that tell us far more about democratic socialism and ecosocialism than they do about Marx himself. Despite the new labels, it's the same old product in the package. "Democratic" socialism and "eco" socialism are actually unadulterated Marxism.
Both are committed to "overthrowing capitalism,"[4] just as socialism has been from the get-go. Both are based on the compulsory duty "from each according to their ability,"[5] just as socialism has been for 170 years. Both are fundamentally anti-liberal, just like the socialism of the past. Ecosocialist Kohei Saito not only writes that "Marx lives!" but also proclaims, "Liberals are very dangerous."[6]
If democratic socialism and ecosocialism were new forms of socialism, socialists would wash their hands of Marx and his thinking—the thinking that's underpinned every socialist authoritarian disaster. They would do everything possible to distance themselves from Marx, who, for example, called our liberal rights "rubbish," "nonsense," and "so-called rights." (Learn more in "Our 'So-Called' Rights.")
If democratic socialism and ecosocialism were new forms of socialism and not marketing slogans, Marx would be dead to today's socialists. But instead, "Marx lives!"
And it's not just Marx. Marx's equally problematic disciples also remain central to the socialist faith.
Consider the recently published (2020) The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology by James Bellamy Foster, the top salesperson of ecosocialism. Foster touts the allegedly green thinking of not only Marx but numerous other noted socialists of the past, including Friedrich Engels, Belfort Bax, August Bebel, Nikolai Bukharin, Laurence Gronlund, and William Morris.[7]
Even Vladimir Lenin—the first dictator of the USSR, who founded its secret police and concentration camps—gets the ecosocialist stamp of approval in The Return of Nature and additional books and articles by Foster and other ecosocialists. (See our paper "Vladimir Lenin, Ecosocialist?" to learn why it's misleading to portray Marx, Lenin, and other celebrated socialists as eco-friendly and how socialists' efforts to do so reveal the authoritarianism they condone.)
"Marx lives!" And Lenin does, too. That's why our papers explore the thinking of Marx and his disciples.
ENDNOTES
[1]. Kohei Saito, Karl Marx's Ecosocialism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2017), 266. Kindle.
[2]. Michael Harrington, the founder of the Democratic Socialists of America, labeled Marx a "democratic socialist" multiple times. Harrington even dedicated one of the books he authored not to a family member or friend but to "democratic socialist Karl Marx."
In our paper, "Karl Marx, 'Democratic Socialist,'" we review some of the instances of DSA founder Harrington calling Marx a "democratic socialist" and also the implications of this fact. This article is available here on our sibling site ketofriendlysocialism.org, which presents three articles exploring the factors that demonstrate "democratic socialism" is really plain old socialism.
[3]. One example of Marx being explicitly labeled an "ecosocialist" is found in Kohei Saito's "Karl Marx's Idea of Ecosocialism." Saito writes "Marx was one of the first ecosocialists," a statement that indicates other historical socialists also pass muster as ecosocialists (thus further demonstrating that ecosocialism is plain old socialism). Kohei Saito, "Karl Marx's Idea of Ecosocialism" in System Change Not Climate Change, Martin Empson, ed. (London: Bookmark Publications, 2019), 72.
[4]. Chris Williams, Ecology and Socialism (Chicago: Haymarket EBooks, 2010), 238-239. Kindle.
A couple of additional examples of socialists making it clear that today's socialism calls for replacing capitalism, not modifying it: "capitalism needs to be overthrown" (Suzanne Jeffery, "Up Against the Clock: Climate, Social Movements, and Marxism") and "overthrow capitalism" (Camilla Royle, "Marxism and the Anthropocene"), both in System Change Not Climate Change, Martin Empson, ed. (London: Bookmarks Publications, 2019), 173, 50.
[5]. As we explore in "The Ripple Effects of Socialist Duty" (available here at redflagspress.org), today's socialism remains founded on the dangerous duty of "from each according to their ability." This duty has warped socialist philosophy in numerous ways. It causes socialism's disdain for our rights, its fascist-like fixation with "parasites," and more.
Any number of books and articles selling socialism as supposedly democratic and eco-minded include the most famous saying of socialism: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." The first half of this axiom is socialism's requirement of duty, the duty to give our time and talents to society.
For example, Democratic Socialists of America founder Harrington has written that socialism remains "clearly" founded on this maxim. (Michael Harrington, "What Socialists Would Do in America—If They Could," Dissent, Fall 1978, 445).
As detailed in "Ripple Effects," socialist duty morphs the time in our lives into what socialism treats as society's property, society's time. It's a duty radically different from the obligation to pay taxes in our present liberal society.
[6] Kohei Saito, "Karl Marx's Idea of Ecosocialism in the 21st Century," in Martin Empson, ed., System Change Not Climate Change: A Revolutionary Response to Environmental Crisis (London: Bookmark Publications, 2019), 70.
[7]. John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020).