“Freedom and slavery constitute an antagonism. There is no need for me to speak either of the good or of the bad aspects of freedom. As for slavery, there is no need for me to speak of its bad aspects. The only thing requiring explanation is the good side of slavery. I do not mean indirect slavery, the slavery of proletariat; I mean direct slavery, the slavery of the Blacks in Surinam, in Brazil, in the southern regions of North America.
Direct slavery is as much the pivot upon which our present-day industrialism turns as are machinery, credit, etc. Without slavery there would be no cotton, without cotton there would be no modern industry. It is slavery which has given value to the colonies, it is the colonies which have created world trade, and world trade is the necessary condition for large-scale machine industry. Consequently, prior to the slave trade, the colonies sent very few products to the Old World, and did not noticeably change the face of the world. Slavery is therefore an economic category of paramount importance. Without slavery, North America, the most progressive nation, would he transformed into a patriarchal country. Only wipe North America off the map and you will get anarchy, the complete decay of trade and modern civilisation. But to do away with slavery would be to wipe America off the map. Being an economic category, slavery has existed in all nations since the beginning of the world. All that modern nations have achieved is to disguise slavery at home and import it openly into the New World. After these reflections on slavery, what will the good Mr Proudhon do? He will seek the synthesis of liberty and slavery, the true golden mean, in other words the balance between slavery and liberty” Letter from Marx to Pavel Vasilyevich Annenkov December 1846
Was that argument even made? Only argument made was that Marx’s was a racist who hated blacks. I don’t care if certain Black people did not bother research the founder of the movement they want to follow
No thats total bollocks as any studying of his policies and writings in depth would tell you. Not just selective snippets from the Daily Mail.
Seen plenty of articles in the past for and against Mandela call him a Marxist and terrorist. Want to give me your view on him just out of interest.
He’s critiquing Proudhon, who is considered the godfather of anarchism. This is communists and anarchists getting at each others throats, as they love to do.
Are to an idiot just because some call another person a Marxist as an insult does not make them a Marxist. Just like when you guys people Ist and phobes all day doesn’t mean they. And in Mandela he was a great man shame his party could not build on the what he started and truly unite South Africa
Sounds pretty smart and profoud this Karl Marx. Thanks for the heads up @ryaninho it’s always good to discover a new author. I’m going to see if I can find any more great stuff like this.
I wasnt alluding to it as him being called a Marxist as an idiot. On the contrary I see it as an attribute on behalf of the great man you rightly say he was.
Sorry I disagree Mandela was a great man who did good things to try help his people both black and white. While Marx was a lazy fucker who never worked a day in his life who called people the n word. Nothing good has come out of Marxism, because none of you guys can point me to any communist utopias in the world right now. It just lead to the deaths of millions like in Russia
Yeah, but you don’t have a response to what I’ve said though.
You’ve completely misread it in truth, and come to the conclusion that Marx is pro slavery, when even a cursory understanding of his work would tell you that that is clearly not the case.
True stroller is taking up valuable time. Any I stand corrected on the slavery thing but he was still never liked black people which to be fair at the time was normal for white folks
I’m not aware of Marx endorsing slavery. However, I think he did use racist language about black people. It’s also not a statue of him, it’s his grave. One would hope both sides would respect a grave site. And it’s in Highgate cemetery.
