Divide and Conquer or Divide and Subdivide?

Mark Leier

Description

The battles between Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx in the First International (aka the International Working Men's Association, 1864–1876) began a pattern of polemics and rancor between anarchists and Marxists that still exists today. Outlining the profound similarities between Bakunin and Marx in their early lives and careers as activists, Mark Leier suggests that the differences have often been exaggerated and have prevented activists from learning useful lessons about creating vibrant movements.

Sujets

• Left-libertarianism
• Socialism

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 22 mai 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629634043
• Langue: English

Extrait

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DIVIDE AND CONQUER OR DIVIDE AND SUBDIVIDE? HOW NOT TO REFIGHT THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL

By Mark Leier
PM Press Pamphlet Series No. 0015
Divide and Conquer or Divide and Subdivide? How Not to Refight the First International
Mark Leier
ISBN: 978-1-62963-383-1
Copyright 2017
This edition copyright PM Press
All rights reserved
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in Oakland, CA, on recycled paper with soy ink.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER OR DIVIDE AND SUBDIVIDE?
HOW NOT TO REFIGHT THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL
MARK LEIER
S INCE THE FIGHTS BETWEEN B AKUNIN AND M ARX IN THE F IRST International in 1864, anarchists and Marxists have emphasized the differences between the two. Even their physical stature was different. Bakunin was large, standing six feet four inches tall and weighing perhaps three hundred pounds, with a fair complexion and blond hair. Marx was short and dark, reflecting his family nickname of The Moor. Other characteristics, however, emphasize how much they resembled each other. In the few, posed black-and-white photographs that have been preserved, which, appropriately enough, look rather like mug shots, it is difficult for the casual observer to distinguish one from the other. Both adopt the formal, stiff posture fashionable for photographs of the time, and each has a portly build, unkempt hair, and an unruly beard. Both are dressed in the formal, sloppy manner befitting slightly disreputable members of the Victorian intelligentsia, and they even patronized the same London tailor for a time.
For two men who fought so bitterly, their similarities go much deeper than physical appearance, grooming, and clothing. They were close in age-Bakunin born in 1814, Marx four years later-and so grew up in a shared intellectual, political, and cultural climate. More importantly, their family backgrounds gave them similar opportunities and experiences. Bakunin s family was part of the Russian nobility, but that description may hide more than it reveals. Russia was essentially a feudal society, and the wealth of the Bakunin family came from the peasantry, the serfs who were bound to lord and land. But the family was not of the grand aristocracy. The Bakunin estate was at Priamukhino, far from the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg and far from the swirl and opportunities of the tsar s court. The Bakunins were not wealthy but had obtained admission to the ranks of the aristocracy through service to the tsar, in much the way Lenin s family would years later. This is not to underestimate the relative privilege of the Bakunin family or the power it held over the serfs that worked the land. It did mean, however, that Bakunin and his sisters and brothers were not part of the idle rich. There was money for education, but education was instrumental, aimed at equipping the daughters to marry well and to train the sons for service in the officer corps or government office. While the children were afforded an excellent education and cultural accoutrements of their class such as music and language lessons, money was always a concern. Pennies had to be watched, debt avoided, and sacrifices made.
Marx s family too was somewhere in the middle ranks of German society. His father owned vineyards, but it was his work as an attorney that provided the family income, and like Bakunin s family, maintaining their social position meant watching expenses carefully and investing in education to give the children what is sometimes called social capital. Again like the Bakunin family, the Marxes were not part of the inner circles of power of German society. Born in Catholic Trier shortly after the city was ceded from France to Prussia, Karl Marx was baptized a Lutheran, but his father had recently converted from Judaism. This separated the family from the conservative, traditional elites of Prussia as effectively as the isolation of Priamukhino separated the Bakunins from the elites of Russia.
Thus both men undeniably came from privileged backgrounds, but the privilege was narrowly bound, dependent not on great wealth but on relatively modest means and the access to education those means and status made possible. As the oldest male children, Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx had great expectations put on them. In Bakunin s case, a career as a military officer would open up doors in government service and give him the managerial skills to run the estate. For Marx, the hope was that he would study law. Both received excellent early educations at home, learning several languages, mathematics, and literature. They learned other lessons at home as well.