14 Marxism after Marx Engels admitted that he and Marx are ourselves partly to blame for the fact that the younger people sometimes lay more stress on the eco- nomic side than is due to it. His own position was that according to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. more than this neither marx nor i have ever asserted Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase. There is an interaction of all these elements in which, amid all the endless host of accidents (that is, of things and events whose inner interconnection is so remote or so impossible of proof that we can regard it as nonexistent, as negli- gible)the economic movement finally asserts itself as necessary. In general, Engels's statements amounted to this: that the superstructure had evolved out of, and occasionally alongside, the economic basis; that the superstructure could have a relative autonomy and a structure and laws peculiar to itself; that there was reciprocal interaction between superstructure and basis; and even that, in some circumstances and for a limited period, the superstructure could determine the evolution of the basis; but that nevertheless, in the long term, the superstructure was determined by the basis. what was novel in Engels's formulation was the theory of reciprocal interaction. This theory was expressed in terms that are analogous to the interaction of chemical particles and there are inter- esting parallels with passages in the Dialectics of Nature. 3o Engels consid- ered that history has proceeded hitherto in the manner of a natural process and is essentially subject to the same laws of motion'31His talk of an economic 'factor' as opposed to other factors tended to compart mentalis the social process and prepare the theoretical framework for the subsequent revisionist debate. Politics This less than dialectical approach to theory had its corollary in more practical matters: a technological approach illustrated at its most extreme in Engels's article On Authority, where he compares the disci- pline necessary in post-revolutionary society to that currently obtaining in factories. The emphasis on the non-subjective factors that had been present in his thought at least since the Principles of Communism of 1847 led him often to adopt a relatively mild attitude to the bourgeois state
The Contribution of Engels 15 Engels tended to avoid emphasising the idea that the state needed to be smashed and considered the republic to be the 'ready-for-use political form for the future role of the proletariat.3 His view of the transition to communism is worth quoting at length As soon as there is no longer any class of society to be held in subjec- tion;as soon as, along with class domination and the struggle for indi- vidual existence based on the former anarchy of production, the collisions and excesses arising from these have also been abolished, there is nothing more to be repressed which would make a special repressive force, a state, necessary. The first act in which the state really comes forward as the representative of society as a whole- the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society-is at the same time its last independent act as a state. The interference of the state power in social relations becomes superfluous in one sphere after another, and then ceases of itself. The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things and the direction of the process of production. The state is not'abolished', it withers away. This view of the state as 'withering away' is plainly a metaphor drawn from biology, with all that that implies. 34 Engels's general leanings towards scientific study produceda dichotomy between science and politics: When one is a man of science one does not have an ideal one works out scientific lesults and when one is a party man to boot one fights to pull them into practice. But when one has an ideal, one cannot be a man of science. 35 Circumstances pre- vented Engels from exercising his very considerable gifts as a practical politician, living as he did in enforced isolation from the leaders of the SPD. Towards the end of his life, the growing electoral success of the Social Democrats led Engels to stress the evolutionary rather than the revolu tionary side of Marxism and declare the tactics of 1848 to be outmoded in every respect. In his Preface to a new edition of Marx's Class Struggles in france, written in 1895 shortly before he died, Engels stated that the growth of Social Democracy ' proceeds as spontaneously, as steadily, as irresistibly, and at the same time as tranquilly as a natural process, and continued We can count even today on two and a quarter million voters. If it continues in this fashion, by the end of the century we shall conquer the greater part of the middle strata of society, petty bourgeois and small peasants, and grow into the decisive power in the land, before
16 Marxism after marx which all other powers will have to bow, whether they like it or not keep this growth going without interruption until it of itself gets beyond the control of the prevailing governmental system, not to frit ter away this daily increasing shock force in vanguard skirmishes but to keep it intact until the decisive day, that is our main task. And there is only one means by which the steady rise of the socialist fighting forces in Germany could be temporarily halted, and even thrown back for some time: a clash on a big scale with the military, a blood-letting like that of 1871 in Paris. In the long run that would also be overcome To shoot a party which numbers millions out of existence is too much even for all the magazine rifles of Europe and America. But the normal development would be impeded, the shock force would, perhaps, not be available at the critical moment the decisive combat would be delayed, protracted and attended by heavier sacrifices. 36 Such passages, regarded as Engels's political'testament', certainly played a role in influencing the leaders of the SPD, though it should be noted that Engels agreed (very reluctantly) to excise certain more revolutionary pas sages under pressure from the Berlin leaders. 3 In any event, it can readily be appreciated that Engels's rather ambivalent position provided ammu nition for both sides in the great debate on whether Marx's political doc- trines needed to be revised in the light of changing circumstances. 1. Cf. H Bollnow, Engels' Auffassung von Revolution und Entwicklung in seinen Grundsatzen des Kommunismus", 1847, Marxismusstudien(tubingen, 1954) 2. For discussions of the differences between Marx and Engels, see D. Hodges, Engels's Contribution to Marxism, Socialist Register, ed. R Miliband and J. Savile(London, 1965); A Gamble and P. Walton, From Alienation to Surplus Value (London, 1971)pp. 51ff. I Fetscher, Marx and Marxism (New York, 1971)pp. 162ff R. De George, Patterns of Soviet Thought(Ann Arbor, 1966) pp 77f and especially M. Rubel, Introduction to K Marx, Oeuvres, vol 3 Paris, 1975) 3. The evidence for this is contained in the preface to the second edition of Anti Duhring published in 1885 after Marxs death 4. E. Engels, Anti-Duhring(Moscow, 1954)p: 15 5. See E. Lucas, Marx'und Engels' Auseinandersetzung mit Darwin, International Review of Social History, vol 9, 1964 f. L. Krader, The Works of Marx and Engels in Ethnology Compared, Intemational Review of Social History, 1973, p. 243 F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach.(Moscow, 1946). 60 8. F. Engels, Anti-Duhring(Moscow, 1954)P. 13 9. Ibid., p. 99
The Contribution of Engels 17 10. But not to Joseph Dietzgen, with whom the expression'dialectical materialism originates and to whose work Engels makes generous acknowledgement 11. F. Engels, Anti-Duhring, pp. 71ff 12. Ibid., p 31. 13. Cf F. Engels, Dialectics of Nature(Moscow, 1954)p 209. Engels also thought that this process was cyclical in that all the planets were due to fall back into the sun as the sun got colder. But this would not be the end of the universe as matter would again evolve its finest flowering -"a thinking mind(op cit p.39) 14. Ibid. P. 17. 15. Ibid., p. 16. Ibid., p. 62. 7. See R. Cooper, The Logical Influence of Hegel on Marx(Washington, 1925) pp. 103ff, for an under-appreciated treatment of this question on a histori cal plane. 18. Cf, for example, F. Engels, Anti-Duhring, p. 19. See further: G. Stedman Jones, Engels and the End of Classical German Philosophy, New Left Review, 79 (1973)pp.28ff 19. F. Engels, Anti-Diihring, p. 152. 20.Ibid.,p.153 21. For a lengthy analysis of the meaning and possible import of Engels's dialectics see S. Hook, Reason, Social Myths and Democracy(New York, 1940)pp. 183ff For an attempt to defend and apply Engels's approach, see M. Kosok, Dialectics of Nature,, in Towards a New Marxism, ed B Grahl and P Piccone(St Louis, 1973) Engels, Anti-Duhring, p. 30 3. Ibid., p. 47. 24. F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach., p. 54. Cf. also, for example, Engels to C. Schmidt, K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Correspondence(hereafter MESC (Moscow, 1965). 25. F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach .. p. 24. See, however, for a rather different ver- sion, Dialectics of Nature, p 231 26. For evidence that Marx was more interested in the political aspects of primi- tive societies, see E. Lucas, 'Die Rezeption Lewis H Morgans durch Marx and Engels, Saeculum, 1964. In general, see L. Krader, Introduction to The Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx(Assen, 1972) 27. In general see the Introduction to the edition by E Leacock(New York, 1973). For the deleterious influence of Engels's views on the state, see L Colletti, From Rousseau to Lenin(London and New York, 1972)pp. 105ff 28. Engels to Bloch, MESC, P. 418. 29. Engels to Bloch, MESC, p. 417. 30. F. Engels, Dialectics of Nature(Moscow, 1972)P. 231, where he says that reciprocal action is the first thing that we encounter when we consider matter in motion as a whole from the stand point of modern science cal action is the true causa finalis of thing 31. Engels to Bloch, MESC, p 418 32. Engels to Lafargue, MESC, P. 472. See also Engels to von Patten, MESC, P. 363, where Engels specifically refers to the passage at the end of the second section of the Communist Manifesto which he and Marx had declared to b outmoded in their Preface to the second german edition of 1872
18 Marxism after Marx 33. F. Engels, Anti-Duhring(Moscow, 1954)p 315 34. Marx never used this expression(absterben), preferring the more direct abolish’( abschaffen) 35. F. Engels, Correspondence with Paul and Laura Lafargue(Moscow, 1959)vol. 1 p.234 36. F. Engels, in Karl Marx-Frederick Engels: Selected Works(hereafter MESW) (Moscow, 1962)vol. 1, pp 135f. 37. See further H.-J. Steinberg, 'Revolution und Legalitat. Ein unveroffentlichter Brief Engels an Richard Fischer, International Review of Social History (1967) and C. Elliot, 'Quis custodiet sacra? Problems of Marxist Revisionism, Joumal of the History of Ideas, 28(1967)pp. 73ff Further reading Texts There is a 50-volume edition of the works of Marx and Engels in English, published by Lawrence wishart in London and International Publishers in New York completed in 2005 The only selection of Engels's work in English is Engels: Selected Writings edited by w.O. Henderson. There are several selections of Marx and Engels's works together. Perhaps the most accessible is the Moscow Selected Works. This selection has the advantage of reproducing excerpt: in extenso, including the whole of the Origin and ludwig Feuerbach and a substantial extract from Anti-Duhring. Lesser extracts are contained in the selections edited by Feuer and by tucker. There are also numerous selections, published by Moscow, of Marx and Engels's On Religion, On Ireland, On Britain, On Literature and Art, etc Anti-Duihring, Ludwig Feuerbach, Dialectics of Nature and Origin have been translated in separate editions by Lawrence 8 wishart and International Publishers, the latter with a substantial introduction by Eleanor Leacock. Engels's articles on the German Revolution of 1849-9 have been edited by Eleanor Marx under the title Revolution and Counter- Revolution in Germany in 1848, as have Engels's writings on military matters: Engels as Military Critic, edited by w.O. Henderson and O. Chaloner. The same editors produced a new translation and edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England. The commentary of this edition is very critical of Engels. For the other side, see the Panther edition with an introduction by Hobsbawm, and also McLellan Commentaries There is a commentary on Engels's The Condition of the Working Class England from a literary and psychological point of view by S. Marcus