5. Thunder on the Left

CHAPTER 5 THUNDER ON THE LEFT If we may credit Proudhon with being the father of philosophic anarchy, we must credit Karl Heinrich Marx with the paternity of modem socialism. Considering the vast number of socialist writers who have preceded and succeeded Marx, the mystery is why this obscure, difficult and trucu lent expositor should be considered as a parent of a philosophy to which he contributed little originality.

78 - THIS BREAD IS MINE His debt to Plato, Godwin and Hegel needs no embroid ery from this direction. Nonetheless, Marx is being cussed and discussed in nearly every clime and his influence appears to be growing rather than waning. It might serve a useful purpose to cast about to see if a reason for this astonishing ascendancy can be made to appear. Marx Was a Jew Marx was born in 1818 in Treves, Prussia. His father was a German Jew. And here, perhaps, we have the first clue to Karl's preeminence at least in the U.S., despite the fact that the elder Marx went over to Protestantism and had his family baptised in' the Protestant church. Since the early days' of Christiariity, a strong anti-Jewish movement has spread through much of the 'western world, even into these United States. At the outset, Christianity was little more than a Jewish sect, dedicated to the preservation of the Jewish law and subservient to it in all particulars. It was the labor of Paul which opened the Christian .faith to THUNDER ON THE LEFT-79 areas beyond the ·.Jewish Talmud, and many were the theo-. .

logical an<:1 ideological battles which ensued over this presumed breach of the ancient Hebrew protocols. There is no need to embellish this study with a recitation of the various pogroms against tb~ Jews which swept Europe and parts of Asia like a black plague beginning before the catacombs were widely in use, and culminating only recently in Hitlerian and Khrushchevian purges. As a result. of, these persecutions, there is a sensitivity in many Jewish minds respecting any type of criticism. Matching this, in some non-Jewish circles, is an eql:lally tenacious brand of antagonism, which finds the very mention ofa Jewish name something inimical to peac~ and safety. Karl Marx was a Jew by birth. That was all the information ~e anti-Jewish m<:>vements needed to prove to them thcat socialism was a dangerous and subversive doctrine. The fact "'hat there were hundreds. of .able socialists, beginning with Plato, who preceded· Marx, car~ied no weight with them then and fails to impress them now.

80 - THIS BnEAD IS MINE Understandably, many Jews arose to defend Marx, not necessarily because they were socialists but because Marx was, or had been Jewish. There is nothing quite so conducive to vigorous propaganda as a violated religious tenet. Marxian socialism (communism) was classed in thousands of minds as a Jewish plot. The animosity between Jews and anti-Jews was carried to ferocious lengths, and has resulted in any number of wild and unfounded suppositions concerning Jew~J anti-Jews, Christianity, socialism, communism and a score of other beliefs and dogma. Marx thus became at once the best publicity cievice the socialists had ever found, and the socialists' most vulnerable Achilles' heel. If thousands of people learned about socialism thrQugh Marx's written efforts, it is equally true that thousands learned to hat~ socialism without even understanding what it was. Some Jews, it seems, have never forgiven Jesus for not living up to what they expected from a messiah. Some Chris tians have never forgiven the Jews for crucifying the son of THUNDER ON THE LEFT -'- 81 God. In one of the strangest perversions of thought in the history of the world, socialism, which has roots in both Jewish Essene studies and the practices of· the Christian apostles, is imagined in some quarters to emerge exclusively from Chris tianity and in other quarters from Judaism.

The fact that the earliest and.best explanation of social ism was made by a Greek who was neither Jewish. nor Christian seems to have escaped the emotional conclusions of the. embatt~ed theologians. This oversight has. resulted in effective propaganda. efforts on both sides of the religious front with the socialists sitting on the sidelines and chuckling merrily over the publicity gains contributed by non-socialists. Karl Marx Marx attended the German Universities at Bonn and Berlin and in 1841 received a degree of doctor of philosophy. He read Proudhon's studies of philosophical anarchism which first appeared in 1840, ·and in 1842 Marx's first published works launched the radical branch of socialism which is now called communism.

82 - THIS BREAD "IS MINE IIi the beginning he' sided with Proudhon, but the an archist's peaceful methods discouraged him. Proudhon had it that private ownership of property was a robbery, and that government, which protected private property, would have to be destroyed if private property was ever to be abolished. Marx was a better politician. It seemed a shame to him to eliminate the single agency of force capable of wresting private property from the hands of the rightful owners. Why not, he reasoned, use government as the device to accomplish Proudhon's aims? And, to make certain that government re mains tractable to the socialist command, he urged the formation of a vast army of proletariat, the working man. This working man, thru political democracy,could be counted ~pon to control the government; that is, the majority of per.. SOJ;lS in .any ,country, inevitably the lowly proletariat, could be organized into shock troops, could place good socialists in office by means of the power inherent in sheer numbers, and the government, thus turned into a democratic institution, could seize "by degrees" all wealth oWned by all private persons aDd firms.

THUNDER ON THE LEFT - 83 The bridge from the dream -of socialism into the· hard reality of life appeared about to be translated into fact. This is· the first step in the political syllogism of socialism. The theorists had their day. Now it was time for the practical men to step forward to claim the world. "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!" (Com munist Manifesto, concluding paragraphs.) In his rush to accomplish all things swiftly, Marx chose to ignore Plato's principal warning, namely, that democracy is the worst and most tyrannous of governments. Instead, Marx saw the use of democracy, majority vote., as the device he needed to bring about the very socialism that Plato had envisiorted. Nor was he content to theorize along the line of action. He joined with Friedrich. Engels, and the two of· them 84 - THIS BREAD IS MINE formed the German Workers' Society, one of the first of the communist unions.

There is no doubt that Bakunin's thinking was colored to a large extent by Marx's revolutionary doctrine. What is the substance of the Marxian doctrine? There are two principal themes that run through his enormous work, "Das Kapital," and his equally difficult and obtuse pamphlets and essays. In the first theme, Marx borrows heavily {TOm the philosopher Hegel and establishes his dialectic materialism. In history, according to Plato and Hegel, the only true history is the history of ideas. Each idea as it first appears is IDle but is later matched with its own negation in a second idea. These two ideas meet head-on in conflict, from which ideolo gical battle there emerges a third and superior idea which is a synthesis of the other two. Dialectic Materialism At this point, Marx departs from Hegel and presumes ~at what m!1y be true for ideas i~. true for econ.omics. ~e THUNDER ON THE LEFT - 85 declares that there are two major economic forces, those of capital and those of labor. And to begin with, in all societies the capitalists have the best of it. They form an exploiting class and organize a governmen~ created in their own image.

But they cannot succeed without the laboring class and herein are the thesis and the antithesis. The laboring class, the pro letariat, to begin with have nothing but what the capitalists will give them in the way of subsistence. But as the proletarian class exists, it grows larger and stronger, until ~adua1ly it is more powerful than the capitalist class. Then, according to Marx, the inevitable action of history asserts itself. The proletariat arises, smashes the government of the capitalists and establishes a democracy formed in the image of the working man. Marx sees this process as one inevitably filled with violence. He concludes that the rightful owners of property will not give up what they have without a struggle. The struggle will be violent, but the proletariat will always win! Marx believed himself to be a materialist, but his faith in dialectic processes rather classifies him as a mystic. He 86 - THIS BREAD IS. MINE conceives .the universe as a "physical'.' mechanism, but he also supposes that it is ruled by mystic forces, or by an "in_ evitable destiny." He has it that economic forces control human beings, instead of viewing human beings as the active ingredient in creating economic forces. He sees environment, the physical and economic surroundings of the human animal, as the single dominating factor. in man's existence. He does not discover that when environment, either physical or eco nomic, is unpleasant and unrewarding to man, he will change it, or simply move away.

Thus, according to Marx, man is not active, but static, mastered by conditions. And the prescribed thesis-antithesis synthesis process is inevitable and on an ascending scale. Ultimately, Marxian "good" will be found in the inescapable rise of a ruling class which will control all property and rule mankind totally. This achievement ends history. The Marxian millenium endures unchanged on earth forever. This is because of the mystic economic forces which utterly master and control all THUNDER ON THE LEFr - 87 men through their rulers. The international proletariat will become the human race. The Marxian picture is translated, in fine, as being no more than "godless Christianity." The Communist Party has come to save mankind from the ceaseless conflict between God (history) and Satan (private ownership). There are still savants who claim that Marx is scientific. Let us examine his science.

"In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend." And again, ".... the first step in the revolution by the work. ing class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy."The proletariat will use its political sUpremacy to wresi~ by degrees, all capital from the -bourgeoisie, to ce~traIize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible." (Com munist Manifesto.) 88 - THIS BREAD IS MINE Marx was, of course, striking out against the European mercantile system rather than against the American capital istic system, with which he was hardly acquainted. His major error, sired by his collectivist convictions, has been correctly answered by the great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, who presents the argument for laissez-faire capitalistic economy_ "Capitalism is essentially mass production to fill the needs of the masses. But Marx always labored under the deceptive conception that the workers are toiling for the sole benefit olan upper class of idle parasites. He did not see that the workers themselves consume by far the greater part of all the consumers' goods turned out. The millionaires con sume an almost negligible part of what is called the national product. All branches of big business cater directly or in directly to the needs of the common man. The luxury indus ...

tries never develop beyond small-scale or medium-size units. The evolution of big business is in itself proof of the fact that the masses and not the nabobs are the main consumers. Those THUNDER ON THE LEFT...;...89 who deal with the phenomenon of big business under the rubric 'concentration of economic power' fail to realize that economic power is vested in· the buying public on whose pat ronage the prosperity of the factories depends. In his capacity as buyer, the wage earner is the customer who is 'always right'." ("Theory and History," chapter 7.) Surplus Value The second theme of Marx relates to his theory of surplus value. In his first theme, he borrows from Hegel; in his second, from Ricardo. And this is Marx's effort to establish a moral premise for the violence he urges upon the world by the "inevitable" class struggle. Surplus value, as Marx views it, always takes the form of interest, rent or profit. But anything in that form is es sentially a robbery for all value in any article of production is contributed only by the laborer who worked to produce it.

It is Marx's position that the laborer sh0uld receive the full return on every item he has produced. He will concede that 90 - THIS BREAD IS MINE management performs a necessary function and that function should be rewarded in a minor way. But he insists .that prop erty should not be permitted to earn of itself. Interest, a payment for the use of money; rent, a payment for the use of property; and profit, a payment for nothing. at all, are immoral, according to him. He views "society" as the neces sary beneficiary of all production. He holds that all profits must accrue to all society. And since society is to be served by the new democracy, rising like the phoenix from the ashes of the capitalistic ruins, then all workers must be viewed collectively; all production, collectively; all government, col lectively; all capital, collectively. Production must be for use and not for profit. The hub of Marxian socialism is the govern ment, which will obey the wishes of the proletariat and act as a holding company for all means of production and dis tribution.

Marx, in the third volume of his "Das Kapital," con traclictshis first volume and suggests that in the end, with the elimination of~ the capitalist class, and hence the exploitTHUNDER ON THE LEFT-91 ing class, there will be no further need for government. What will emerge is a classless society. The means to accomplish this will be the .removal of capitalists as exploiters and ·their replacement with proletariat exploiters and expropriators. But when these class distinctions have been wiped out by force, no such distinctions remaining, there will be no ne cessity for government, which is inevitably an exploiter. Here Marx was consciously making an effort to lure.·the anarchists into the communist camp. The anarChists saw thru the ruse and hooted him down. The famous phrase, often attributed to Marx, that govern ment will, "wither away," belongs properly to Lenin. Although both anarchists and communists are socialists, it is clear that anarchists are not communists, and communists are not anarchists. The common ground on which both stand is the elimination of private ownership. The anarchist imagines the procedure to be one in which government must be eli minated in order to bring about the desired end. The com munist proclaims that the government shall be his tool in the 92 - THIS BREAD IS MINE process, and the organized labor movement shall be the avant garde of the process. But it is important to recognize that although Marx sought to change the form of government by force in order to bring about the utopia he envisaged, his central attack is leveled not at government, but at capitalists.

His aim is the elimination of private ownership and the "over throw of all existing social conditions." Only twice since the Marxian doctrines have been pro pounded have the communist devices for overthrowing a social order been employed on a gigantic scale. The first of these was in the Russian revolution and the second, in the Chinese. We give priority to the Russian revolution because chronologically efforts to overthrow the ·long-established re gime in Russia preceded any others on the planet so far as is known. The first use of Marxian communist violence to destroy a government occurred in St. Petersburg in 1881,· at which time a pair of bombs took the life of Czar Alexander II. The communists were not organized sufficiently to complete THUNDER ON THE LEFT - 93 the political coup. However, from that date in 1881 until the successful overthrow of the czar· in 1917, the Russian government was in a state of ferment· and gains made by the socialists were constant and ultimately decisive.

The student of communist rebellion knows there were two revolutions in the same year, 1917. The first of these occurred in the first part of May establishing the Kerensky regime. The second rebellion occurred in October of 1917,1 at which time Kerensky was forced to flee the country and Lenin assumed full power. The second communist revolution of worldwide implication occurred in China beginning on October 10, 1911. The communist inspiration is not generally recognized because the leader of the rebellion, Sun Yat-sen, is remembered as the father of the Chinese republic. The use of the word republic in connection is misleading. INote: This second revolution, which we have called the October Revo lution, actually occurred in November. The reason for the confusion in dates is that the Russians were behind in their calendar by two weeks. What occurred in October in Russia actually happened the first part of November so far as the rest of the world was concerned.

94 - THIS BREAD IS MINE After the Boxer rebellion in 1900, Sun Yat-sen attempted to use the popular reaction as a means of establishing what he called a democratic government. The Manchu regime was overthrown and did, not reappear. Sun organized the Kuomintang, which was supposed to be a strong republican organization. Actually, it was social ist to the core. A reactionary movement was started by the ·former viceroy, Yuan Shih-kai. Yuan attempted to assume the presi dency of the republic for Sun, but it became apparent that Yuan planned to reinstitute the monarchy. A second revolution occurred in 1913. In this second revolution Yuan was defeated and Sun was forced to flee to Japan. However, in 1917 Yuan died and Sun put himself at the head of a movement to establish an independent republic of South China. Sun's socialist views assured him the support of the large mass of the workers in China, who did not understand the principles of private ownership. He was and still is idolized by the student class and the Kuomintang.

THUNDER ON THE LEFT - 95 By 1923 Sun, having failed to set up a government along socialist-republican lines, called upon Russia for help. The Russian government, under Lenin, sent the agent Michael Borodin and General Galens to reorganize the government and the military force of Sun Yat-sen. Two leaders arose at this time, both of whom had been trained in Moscow. One of them was General Chiang Kai shek; the other, General Mao Tse-tung. Early in 1925, and shortly before Sun died, Chiang broke with the communist control of the Sun Yat-sen regime and attempted to establish a second reactionary movement, similar to that started earlier by Yuan, but essentially aimed at mak ing himself president rather than emperor. Chiang, through the scheming ot communist and socialist elements throughout the world, including some within the confines of the American government, was finally maneuvered to a last island stronghold on Formosa, and" Mao Tse-tung assumed the full leadership of the mainland of China, where at the moment of writing he holds full power.

96 - THIS BREAD IS MINE Thus, it can be said that the Russian revolution which began in 1881 came to a successful conclusion for the com munist forces in 1917, and it can also be said that the Chinese revolution which began as a socialist-republican movement in 1911 under Sun Yat-sen, evolved finally as a full communist state under Mao Tse-tung. We see that anarchy has never succeeded. Meanwhile, Marxian socialism has attained two major victories and pos sibly some minor ones. Weare too close to many of these events to analyze them with objectivity. A hundred years or so from now, more accurate perspective could be obtained. Right now one could point to scores of places where Marxian ferment has begun which mayor may not culminate in the establishment of a tl"\llycommunist regime in a Marxian sense. To focus attention upon these trouble spots would require careful observation of every Balkan country, every African region, every Central and South American nation, not to mention nations in the far east.

THUNDER ON THE LEFT - 97 However, the Marxian violence is. repugnant to most people, even.to many strongly committed socialists. For every success it can claim, reaction has set in which is vigorous and potentially successful in the future. Anarchy and Marxism are the right and left flanks, respectively, of the socialist modus. We will now examine the most successful and effective device put into use to bridge the gap between the socialist dream of economic equality and the facts of life.