Marx & General Strikes

[Justin Schwartz]

Marx never held that there was one correct way to end capitalism, beyond 
saying that it had to be the work of the working classes themselves. He 
expected that a serious attempt to abolish capitalist relations of 
production would encounter violent resistance that would have to be defeated 
by force. But he wasn't dogmatic about that either. Where the state was weak 
and democratic culture far advanced, he entertained the idea that there 
might be a peaceful transition. He supposed that Holland and (as he say it) 
mid-19th century America might satisfy those preconditions. In the 
Manifesto, an early work, he sets forth a 10 point program that involves not 
a general strike but a struggle for democracy taht would inmvolve winning 
and extending state power. But there he says taht specific methods and goals 
will vary with the circumstances. I suspect he would have thought naive and 
rigid that the idea that capitalism could be abolished by a single 
one-size-fits-all strategy. AT the same time, he was in favor of political 
strikes. --jks


>From: "Joe R. Golowka" Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: "LBO-Talk" 
>Subject: Marx & General Strikes Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 20:45:59 -0400
>
>
>Does anyone know what Marx's position on the idea of using a General strike 
>to end capitalism (popular among many Anarchists) was? What about Engels?
>
>Joe R. Golowka JoeG at ieee.org Anarchist FAQ - http://www.anarchistfaq.org
>
>"The end is in the means as the tree is in the seed." - Mahatma Ghandi
>
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