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Class Consciousness and the Marxist Dialectic: The Elusive Synthesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Kathy E. Ferguson
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Extract

Within the Marxist theory of history and society, the concept of class consciousness has played a major, though problematic, role. The proper interpretation of this concept, embedded as it is within the complex relational framework of the historical dialectic, has presented a perennial problem to the interpreters of Marx, both the theorists and the activists. For both logical and practical reasons, class consciousness can be seen as the Achilles' heel of the Marxist scheme.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 504 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1980

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References

1 There are, certainly, other theorists, for example, Kautsky and Trotsky, who made important contributions to the debates within Social Democracy at the turn of the century. These three theorists have been selected because they illustrate clearly the dilemmas involved in, and alternatives available for, defining class consciousness within the Marxist tradition.

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5 Nettl, , “German Social Democratic Party,”Google Scholar argues that the position of the SPD, which he classifies as an “inheritor party” because it expected to inherit power from the existing regime, becomes impossible in the long run “if the inheritance will not mature. A state of isolation cannot be indefinitely maintained. Either it will lead to violence or success … [or] disintegration … [or the] gradual acceptance of the role of a pressure group like others such, competing for rewards instead of inheriting them.” See Nettl, , “The German Social Democratic Party” (p. 86)Google Scholar. For further discussion of the “great schism” see Schorske, Carl, German Social Democracy, 1905–1917 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1955).Google Scholar

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7 Luxemburg's biographer J.P. Netti emphasizes the independence of her thought while also likening her theoretical position to that of the early Marx: “There is a fairly obvious connection in emphasis between Rosa Luxemburg's individualistic, creative Marxism as experienced in terms of struggle and friction, and Marx's concern in his early writings with alienation and with the subjective need for revolution. Both lived in an era when revolution was necessary; both were concerned with showing the intolerable nature of the society which was to be overthrown” (see Netti, J. P., Rosa Luxemburg, abridged edition [London, 1969], p. vii.)Google Scholar

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10 Rosa Luxemburg, quoted in Frolich, , Rosa Luxemburg: Ideas in Action, p. 62.Google Scholar

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28 Luxemburg, , Selected Political Writings, ed. Howard, Dick (New York, 1971), p. 304.Google Scholar

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30 Dick Howard notes in his commentary on Luxemburg that she echoes Hegel here in her insistence that “The final goal is the totality of the process by which it is achieved, it is not a state but a becoming” (see Luxemburg, , Selected Political Writings, p. 13).Google Scholar

31 Luxemburg, quoted in Basso, Lelio, “Rosa Luxemburg: The Dialectical Method,” p. 513.Google Scholar

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33 Thus Nettl concludes that “hers was an essentially moral doctrine which saw in social revolution — and socialist revolutionary activity — not merely the fulfillment of the laws of democratic materialism but the liberation and progress of humanity” (Rosa Luxemburg, p. xii).Google Scholar

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35 Luxemburg, , The Accumulation of Capital (New Haven, 1951).Google Scholar

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38 Meyer, Alfred G., Leninism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1957), p. 55CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For further discussion of Lenin's ideas, particularly in relation to German Social Democracy, see Moore, Stanley, “Marx and Lenin as Historical Materialists,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 4 (Winter 1975), 171–94Google Scholar; Held, Walter, “The German Left and Bolshevism,” New International, 5 (02 1939)Google Scholar; Schurer, H., “Some Reflections on Rosa Luxemburg and the Bolshevik Revolution,” Slavonic and East European Review, 40 (06 1962), 356–72Google Scholar; Nicholls, A. J., “Rosa Luxemburg and Lenin,” History, 51 (10 1966), 331–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shachtman, Max, “Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg,” New International, 2 (03 1935).Google Scholar

39 Kyle Wallace argues persuasively that dialectics, seen both as an empirical description of the world and an analytical conceptualization of it, is the cornerstone of both Marxism and Leninism: “Materialist dialectics involves a theory of the general movement and development of contradictions which take place in both nature and society, and is reflected in human thought” (“Dialectical Materialism and the Problem of Knowledge,” Journal of Critical Analysis, 2 [10 1970] 23–35).Google Scholar

40 Lenin, quoted in Meyer, , Leninism, p. 75.Google Scholar