In a recent article in the Financial Times (Weekend FT, 10/11 March 1990) Martin Jacques presents us with his most ludicrous falsification of Marxism yet.
The article takes the form of a fictional interview with the 'ghost' of Marx. Apart from this whimsical novelty, Jacques' article possesses no originality whatsoever. Instead Jacques re-hashes all the old reformist and opportunist falsifications of Marx's work – and puts them into the mouth of Marx himself!
Jacques repeats all the usual Marxism Today fallacies about the demise of the working class and the end of communism in Eastern Europe. These views have, of course, been effectively rebutted in previous issues of Socialist Outlook.
He next claims that the Russian Revolution failed completely. In reality, of course, Stalin undoubtedly betrayed the revolution, but he did not destroy all its social gains, as Trotsky showed.
According to Jacques's article, Marx would have favoured the reformist policies of the 'parties of the second International like the German Social Democrats'. In reality these were the people whose undermining of class struggle is most strikingly expressed by Rosa Luxemburg's ironic formula: 'Proletarians of all countries, unite in times of peace but cut each other's throats in time of war'. Furthermore, the bankruptcy of Social Democracy's reform policy has been demonstrated time and again this century.
In addition to his claims for reform, Jacques tries to make a rejection of revolutionary insurrection consistent with the writings of Marx. In order to demonstrate this he distorts Engels' 1895 Preface to Marx's The Class Struggles in France.
This shabby trick originated with the publication of this Preface by the German Social Democratic Leadership, who cut the preface to try and justify the abandonment of insurrection. The full Preface suggests some possiblity [sic] (with reservation) of peaceful revolution for Germany in the 1890s, but that for most countries insurrection was still neccessary [sic].
Finally Jacques refers, unsurprisingly out of context, to Marx's comment that he was not a Marxist. One thing is certain: Marx would not have regarded Jacques as a Marxist!!
David Emm and Richard Pearson
High Wycombe