This post is a little late since I had to attend to some personal
business this week. My hopes are that the flow of posts will increase
in tempo now that we have moved past the rather thorny topic of crisis theory.
Just about two years ago I wrote an article titled "Did Karl Marx
endorse imperialism? ", a question that I want to revisit in the
context of a very interesting exchange between Eduard Bernstein and
E. Belfort Bax, a British socialist who was one of our first great
anti-imperialists.
To start with, it is necessary to acknowledge that the question of
Marx endorsing imperialism achieves a certain legitimacy because of
formulations in Marx's writings themselves. Even if Marx and Engels
condemned British colonialism in Ireland, there were other occasions
when they seemed open to the idea of imperialism as a necessary evil
in ridding a country of feudal vestiges. Probably the most explicit
instance of this line of reasoning is Marx's early Tribune articles
on India, where he says things like this in 1853 :
"England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan,
was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her
manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question
is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution
in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the
crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing
about that revolution."
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/the-bernstein-bax-debate/
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