Why Did Marx Declare the Revolution Permanent

The Tactical Principles of the Manifesto

Bibliographic Data

ID12673545
AuthorsLars T Lih (0000-0001-9022-1533, Independent Researcher Montreal Canada, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume28
Issue3
Pages39-75
Publication date2020-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Materialism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-4466 • E-ISSN: 1569-206X
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1569206x-00001484
OpenAlexW3030975537
LanguageEN
References cited13

Why did Marx declare the revolution permanent? A careful examination of the celebrated passages from March 1850 in their immediate rhetorical context shows that he intended to affirm the tactical principles laid down earlier in the Communist Manifesto – as opposed to standard ‘anti-stagist’ interpretations that present the Permanenz locution of 1850 as a break with these principles. Among such principles: keeping eyes firmly fixed on the prize – the permanent final goal of a complete overhaul of society – is essential to maintaining a proper perspective on history’s way-stations, that is, the necessary but subordinate revolutionary tasks and allies; and public declaration of the permanent goal is essential for preserving the independence of the workers’ movement and thus for carrying out the proletariat’s world-historical mission of creating a classless society

Art · Communism · Constitution · Context (archaeology · Declaration · Declaration of independence · Independence (probability theory · Law and economics · Literature · Manifesto · Political economy · Political science · Proletariat · Rhetorical question · Sociology · History · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Political Economy and Marxism · Political theory and Gramsci

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