Jim and Wojtek,
I appreciate the elaborations of Marx's thought. I wouldn't dream of foisting any intricate theory about it since I'm not versed in it. That's one reason I wasn't talking about it.
You speak of the rewriting of Marxism, not least by erstwhile followers of Marx, or, in other words, by Marxists. This is the only 'marxism' that has mattered politically. As far as history goes, marxism is Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, and all the other swine, not merely whatever set of noble moments you would care to attribute to Lenin, Trotsky, Luxembourg, etc. Future history is another thing altogether. The true science that is gestating in the minds of this list has yet to take political shape, to put it kindly.
I wasn't at all referring to anything Marx himself actually said or thought, but to the ethos, culture, morays, or what-have-you of revolutionary movements taking Marx's name. It seems indisputable, though I'm sure somebody will dispute it, that such movements have been, by and large, anti-market, anti-capital, etc. I do not mean that these are everywhere and always bad things to be, but their political inefficacy as a bundled doctrine is manifest. Whether out of opportunism or native intelligence, the CP's popular front policy or the IS people working in trade unions, by foregoing what I calling 'marxian' premises, have made or are making their work possible. For the same reasons, of course, it is inherently self-limiting, but that's probably inevitable. Better therefore for all of us that we recognize this more self-consciously when engaging in the business of politics.
> . . .
> Marxism is a critique of economics using its own discourse rather than
> prediction or a blue print for a new world order. That is, BTW, why the
> neo-classical crowd hates Marx so much, while they merely laugh at more
> populist claims criricizing capitalism in moral terms.
Populist criticism of capitalism goes well beyond morality. In any case, morality can be a pretty formidable political force. In fact, I'd be curious to see a speech by a serious socialist politician in a serious political situation to a mass audience that did not feature huge doses of moral argument.
As for whom the in-crowd hates more, sometimes the system elevates toy revolutionaries the better to obscure or censor real reformers.
MBS