>>Did Marx sell out his revolutionary principles when he celebrated the
>>victory of the 10 hour bill?
>
>The difference was, Marx did not campaign for the reform. It is one
>thing to welcome a reform which was the result if in-fighting between
>sections of the ruling class (the 10 Hour Act and many others), it is
>another thing entirely to campaign for those reforms in the belief you
>can make the slaughterhouse work in the interest of the cattle.
>Marx was clearly overjoyed at this reform (one for which the working
>class had absolutely no involvement in bringing it about), and in the
>context of mid-nineteenth century Britain this is understandable. It was
>a gain for a section of the working class and a dent in free market
>hegemony. But there is no suggestion that pursuing reforms will lead to
>the victory of "social production controlled by social foresight".
Gosh and golly!. Truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. We clearly read into the great masters what we will.
Earlier in the speech Marx is reported to have said "After a thirty years' struggle, fought with most admirable perseverance, the English working classes, improving a momentanious split between the landlords and the money-lords, succeeded in carrying the Ten Hours' Bill." He also referred to "the marvellous success of this working men's measure".
I can see the potential for Lew's distinction between changes which the left welcomes, but does not campaign for, (and also changes which the left accepts or does not oppose, without particularly welcoming). But if Marx himself did not campaign for the 10 Hour Bill he certainly writes as if the English working classes did!
And the passage I have already quoted make clear his argument about "social production controlled by social foresight" forming the political economy of the working class.
Lew's confident assertions are intriguing, but although I have come to believe he knows Marx is some details I suspect here there are gaps in his reading of the speech, and/or, as a supporter of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (a pre-Leninist organisation), his readings are eccentric.
Chris Burford
London.