The Point is to Change it:

An Introductiorl to Marxist Philosophy

John Molyneux

Bookmarks Publications

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The Point is to Change it: An Introduction to Marxist Philosophy
John Molyneux

First published in 20 12 by Bookmarks Publications

do I Bloomsbury Street， London WCIB 3QE
@ Bookmarks Publications
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ISBN 97 8 I 909026 OI 8
Contents

Preface ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… .… ...… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… ..… .. 1

1. Why philosophy ma따tter염s .… . .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… ..…… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… ...

. … .…… .… .… .… .… .… .… ..…… .… .… .… .… .… .… ..… . . 5

2. Where Marαx':성s philosophy came from .… .… ...

. … .… .… .… ...
. … .… .… ...
. … .… ...… .… . . 8

3. Alienation， exploitation a n d class struggle .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… ..… .… .… ..“ . 11

4. Materialism .… .… ....… .… .… .… .… .“.… .“… .… .… .“.… .“… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… .… ..“… .“… .… .… .“.… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .… .“.… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .“… .… .… .“.… .… .“. . 32

5. Dialectics ............................................................ 4 0

6. Historical materialism ......................................... 62

7. The contradictions o f capitalism ......................... 71

8. O n human nature ......... ......... … .......................... 84

9. Is Marxism a form of economic determinism? .... 95

1 0. Ideology and truth ............................................ 12 0

11 . Religion， morality and justice ........................... 1 3 3

12 . Lukács， Gramsci a n d Althusser ......................... 161

1 3 . The philosophy of practice ................................ 1 96

Appendix: Hardt， Negri， Standing and Z izek -

the working class revisited ................................ 2 04

A guide to furthεr reading ................................. 21 3

About the author

John ιlo1yneux is a socialist writer and activist， formerly a lecturer at

Portsmouth University and now living in Dublin. His publications
include Marxism and the Party ( 1 978)， What is the Real Marxist
Tradition? ( 1 985)， Rembrandt and Revol，μtion (2001)， Anarchism: A
Marxist Criticism (20 1 1 ) and Will the Revolution be Televised? A
Marxist Analysis of the Media (2011). He is a member of the Socialist
Workers Party in Britain and Ireland.
Preface

The title of this small book comes， of course， from Marx.

“Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various
ways - the point， however， is to change it，" the 1 1th and
last of Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach"， is inscribed on his
grave in Highgate Cemetery， and rightly so. It sums up
Marx’s philosophy and it sums up the man. As Engels said，
speaking at Marx’s graveside:

For Marx was before alI eIse a revolutionist. His reaI mission
in Iife was to contribute， in one way or anotheζ to the over­
throw of capitalist society and of the state institutions which
it had brought into being， to contribute to the Iiberation of
the modern proletariat， which he was the first to make con­
scious of its own position and its needs， conscious of the
conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element.
And he fought with a passion. (K Marx and F Engels， Selected
Works， VoI 2， Moscow， 1962， p168)

The title also serves my purposes because what distin­

guishes this book from many of the introductions to Marxism
already available is that， while it focuses on philosophy， it is
written primarily for activists.
The Iast couple of years have seen the emergence， inter­
nationally， of a whole new generation of activists. From the
Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions and the rest of the Arab
Spring to the indignados in Spain， the anti-austerity revolt
in Greece， the Occupy movement in the US and many other
struggles， big and small， round the world， people are taking
to the streets in their millions. If this book reaches only a

I
tiny fraction of those involved in this wave of revolt and is
able to increase and cIarify their understanding of Marxism，
it wiU have achieved its main aim.
This aim has shaped the writing of this book in several
ways. First， the language: 1 have tried to make the language， in
contrast to most books on philosophy:‘ as straightforward as
possible. Clearly a work on Marxist philosophy cannot avoid
talking about “dialectics" and “economic determinism" and
the like， which are hardly everyday terms， but where such
terms are used they are explained. My hope is that 1 have not
oversimplified Marxist philosophy， but my priority has been
accessibility to the reader who is new to the subject.
Second， the focus: 1 have focused on the way various
aspects of Marxist philosophy are reIevant to the struggle
to change the world， rather than on the numerous debates
in Marxist philosophy in the academic world. There is a
chapter on Lukács， Gramsci and Althusser (which， the
reader is warned， is unavoidably more difficult than the
rest of the book) but 1 have concentrated on the philosophy
of Marx and EngeIs， with inputs from Lenin and Trotsky -
and not on Sartre， Adorno， Badiou and other “stars" of
continental philosophy.
Third， the structure: 1 have incIuded sections on alienation，
exploitation and class struggle before moving onto more obvi­
ously “philosophical" areas， because 1 think a basic grasp of
these concepts， which are wideIy misrepresented and misun­
derstood， is necessary for an understanding of the philosophy
as a whole. Also 1 have devoted quite a lot of space to issues
such as human nature， reIigion and morality， which do arise
frequently in everyday Iife and in the movement. In general the
leveI of argument tends to be as simple as possible at the begin­
ning of the book and to increase in complexity as it goes along，
together with the density of quotations and references.
Sometimes the same issue， eg economic determinism， is

z THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT

returned to in more detail. This is in line with the attempt to
achieve maximum accessibility.
One further point needs to be made at the outset. Mention
Marx or Marxist philosophy and it is still the case that many，
or maybe most， people think immediately of the Soviet Union
under Stalin or Brezhnev and the other so-called
“Communist" regimes in Eastern Europe， China， Cuba，
North Korea， etc. These states are widely thought of as rep­
resenting “Marxism in power"， as “based on Marxism" or
as “actually existing socialism"， and this discredits both
Marxism and socialism， because (a) they were undemocratic
dictatorships and (b) they were largely rejected by their own
people. 1 would also say that if these states did represent
Marxism then many of Marxism’'s central c1aims would be
refuted. For example it would not be the case that “the
emancipation of the working c1ass must be the act of the
working c1ass itse!f"， nor would it be true that under social­
ism the state would start to wither away， or that racism or
sexism would be overcome， and so on.
For my paπ 1 do not accept that any of these regimes (with
the exception of the early years of the Russian Revolution)
were Marxist or socialist in anything but name - rather 1
regard them as various versions of bureaucratic state capital­
ism， in which the state， engaged in competitive capital
accumulation， exploits the working c1ass. (This analysis of the
Soviet Union is most ful1y developed in Tony Cliff’'s book State
Capitalism in Russia.) This question impacts substantial1y on
the subject matter of this book because the interpretation of
Marxist philosophy 1 offer here is very different from the
“official" version that prevailed in Stalinist Russia. For exam­
ple， Soviet Marxism regarded the theme of alienation as
something of a youthful aberration on Marx’'s part whereas 1
regard it as central to Marxism as a whole. Similarly Soviet
Marxism held to a much more determinist interpretation of

PREFACE 3
historical materialism than 1 offer here.
Thanks are due to ]oseph Choonara and Paul Blackledge
for useful comments on the manuscript， likewise to Grant
Houldsworth for both technical assistance and many discus­
sions on dialectics - we disagree but they have been helpful.
And particular thanks to Sa11y Campbe11 at Bookmarks for
a11 her work and assistance.
Fina11y， 1 want to dedicate this book to two people: to
Mary Smith - everyone who knows me or knows Mary wil1
understand why; and to the Marxist writer and activist，
Chris Harman - everyone who knew Chris wil1 understand
that too.
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4 THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT

1. Why philosophy matters

It is obvious that you do not have to know much about phi­

losophy to participate in a demonstration， a strike or a rev­
olutionary uprising. And a good job too. If we had to wait
for large numbers of working people to read Marx and
Hegel， demonstrations， strikes and， most certainly， revolu­
tions would never happen.
However， the struggle for a better world does not consist
only of these moments of direct confrontation. In between
and during these “high points" there is a day-to-day battle of
ideas， an ideological struggle against the worldview propa­
gated by our rulers， and alongside this there is the day-to-day
work of organisation， building and sustaining the union， the
campaign or the political party. It is very difficult to sustain
much ongoing political work for any length of time without
a coherent alternative worldview to the dominant ideology
which we encounter every day in the media (and at work， at
school， at college， et이. A significant role in an alternative
worldview is played by questions of philosophy. 양
In the course of discussion with a friend or workmate they
retort， “But there’s one thing you’ve forgotten: you can't
change human nature，" 0ζ “But there’'s always going to be
rich and pooζ always has been， always will be! " In a debate in
the movement someone says， “The real problem is the Tories;
we must a11 unite to get rid of them and get in Labour. Then
things will be better." On a university sociology course the

‘ To attempt an exact definition of philosophy at this point would be

a difficult and lengthy distraction. But what 1 mean by it in this
book is， roughly， “general" or “abstract" thinking about human
beings and their relations with society and nature.

WHY PHILOSOPHY MATIERS 5