Comrade Louis, I don't know anything about Cyril Smith's life. All I know of him are those of his writings which are on Marxists Internet Archive, which I find very scholarly and very honest.
I did not find anything with Google. I have written to somebody who may know a bit more about the man. But really, what do we need to know? Do I need to know anything about you, for example, other than what you tell me? Cyril Smith's writings challenge us because they put a positive view about Karl Marx's legacy. Not only does he constantly demonstrate, using Marx's own texts, that it is all about freedom (i.e. that "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" as the Manifesto puts it); or that he agrees with Caudwell about that. It is that Smith is able, with considerable knowledge of who said what and when, to trace the history of the way that Marx's successors have dealt with the legacy, all the way up to the time of his (Smith's) death in 2008. I suspect that Smith's knowledge of the ins and outs of especially Soviet political history derive from the Trotskyist body of work that is mainly devoted to redeeming Trotsky, but Smith has gone much further than that. Probably he is a Trotskyist revisionist, so to speak. He has come to the point where he sees the "burying" of Marx as something that began very early, maybe while Marx was still alive, and which is still present today, and would be so with or without the story of Stalin and Trotsky. The problem starts with one's interactions with Marx's work. One can grab at the easy interpretation of Marx, where one is really using Marx to confirm one's prejudices, or expectations. Or, one can grapple with the difficult, challenging Marx, which is the real Marx, who brings us an eternal challenge: the challenge to be free, which is also the challenge to be human. VC On 8 August 2010 23:22, Louis Godena <[email protected]> wrote: > I had never heard of Cyril Smith before today. What's his claim to fame? > I know he was British, but did he lead any party, or work in any revolution? > > Louis G > > > > On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 11:29 AM, DomzaNet <[email protected]>wrote: > >> *Philosophy and Religion, Part 7b* >> >> <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_D4UK2kWf5ik/TF7M5wEpkcI/AAAAAAAAChg/9H0gh9GRZs0/s1600/No+Right+Turn.gif> >> >> *How Stalin buried Marx*** >> >> Cyril Smith is very effective in dealing with the dead phrase with a >> zombie existence, “dialectical materialism”, never used by Marx, invented by >> Kautsky and Plekhanov, and turned into a catch-phrase by Stalin. The third >> linked item is Chapter 2, “How the Marxists Buried Marx” (linked below), >> from Cyril Smith’s “Marx at the Millennium”, published in 1998. On the third >> page of that chapter, Smith wrote: >> >> *“… it is appropriate to begin with one of the most widely circulated >> philosophical statements of the twentieth century. It starts like this: * >> >> “Dialectical materialism is the outlook of the Marxist-Leninist party. It >> is called dialectical materialism because its approach to the phenomena of >> nature, its method of apprehending them is dialectical, while its >> interpretation of the phenomena of nature, its conception of these >> phenomena, its theory, is materialistic. >> >> “Historical materialism is the extension of the principles of dialectical >> materialism to the study of social life, an application of the principles of >> dialectical materialism to the phenomena of the life of society, to the >> study of society and of its history.” >> >> *“This stuff appeared in 1939. In my view, its method, standpoint, >> dogmatic style and conclusions are all utterly opposed to everything that >> Marx stood for.” * >> >> The author was J. V. Stalin. A little later Smith writes (and he could >> have been writing about “Dialego”): >> >> *“Let us bring ourselves to look briefly at the way the Stalinist >> catechism of 1939 hitched up a highly mechanised materialism with something >> called ‘dialectics’. On the one hand, ‘Nature, being, the material world, is >> primary, and mind, thought, is secondary.’ What does this word ‘primary’ >> mean? Does it mean ‘first in time’ or ‘first in importance’? Or does it mean >> that matter ‘causes’ changes in ‘mind’? Nobody can tell, and precisely this >> ambiguity conferred mysterious power.”* >> >> Smith shows how even Lenin had been fooled by the catch-phrase: >> >> *“In the preface to his 1908 book Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, >> Lenin declared: ‘Marx and Engels scores of times termed their philosophical >> views dialectical materialism.’ He was so sure about this, that he felt no >> need to give any references. * >> >> *“In fact, there is not one! Marx never employed the phrase in any of his >> writings. The term ‘dialectical materialism’ was introduced in 1891 by >> Plekhanov, in an article in Kautsky’s Neue Zeit. He thought wrongly, I >> believe, that he was merely adapting it from Engels’s usage in Anti-Duhring >> and Ludwig Feuerbach.”* >> >> Cyril Smith did a good job. His work can help those who would wish to >> liberate themselves from the dead hands of Plekhanov, Kautsky and Stalin. >> >> Cyril Smith also does not spare Trotsky, with whom he otherwise appears to >> have had some sympathy. The most serious deficiency he finds in Trotsky, >> however, is not any of Trotsky’s sins of omission or dissembling, but >> Trotsky’s lack of philosophy, and his failure to get any of his followers to >> make up his own deficiency. While Lenin made great progress in philosophy, >> Trotsky failed altogether, writes Smith. >> >> What Smith is saying is that in the last analysis, it was the inability to >> overcome the Philistine, Stalin, through full command of philosophy, which >> led to the degradation of the Russian Revolution and its eventual reversal. >> Philosophy is the keystone. Without it, the other stones are bound to fall. >> Smith says of the Trotskyists: >> >> *“But they never had the theoretical resources to penetrate to its >> philosophical core. The best they could do was to show that Stalinist >> policies and distortions were contrary to the decisions of Lenin’s party and >> the teachings of ‘Marxism’.”* >> >> The Trotskyists were trapped within the same hall of mirrors that they had >> helped Stalin to construct. >> >> The practical work of philosophy is, crucially, to weed out or clip off >> the words, dead of meaning, that encumber and trip us in our work; or >> otherwise, if possible, to restore their freshness. Some of those words in >> our present time might be: “hegemony”, “accumulation”, and “elements of >> socialism”. >> >> The other linked item is about “Marxism”, whether there ever was such a >> thing, and if so, whether Marx was a “Marxist”. The full Cyril Smith archive >> on MIA *can be found >> here<http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/index.htm> >> *. >> >> *Click on this link**:* >> *How The Marxists Buried Marx, 1998, >> Smith<http://communist-university.googlegroups.com/web/1807b%2C+How+The+Marxists+Buried+Marx%2C+1998%2C+Smith.doc?gda=N30tvHEAAAB4MbH-vDwpNagN2sDR9UlosMpIGZKuDS1q-qI6zK9SH2IwwYvOylet9YscamCQHAyqhAkXFKkLjWCbtRjHAXsic_fENPf6dd7ZCKKjprXt_rL-whAmofRYytzuyMGH-q6-Z5AS> >> * (13629 words) >> *Karl Marx and the Origins of ‘Marxism’, 1998, >> Smith<http://communist-university.googlegroups.com/web/1807c%2C+The+Origins+of+%E2%80%98Marxism%E2%80%99%2C+1998%2C+Smith.doc?gda=nvidvn0AAAB4MbH-vDwpNagN2sDR9UlosMpIGZKuDS1q-qI6zK9SH7YZKkMnndXvKXl_TzmsdptgETDO_JwhgAbw83ztv6brOzW_wEN85upH_qo4yPiTrueNXj_Sic1pEFI-> >> * (4670 words) >> >> *Further (optional) reading**:* >> *Hegel, Economics, and Marx's Capital, 1999, Cyril >> Smith<http://communist-university.googlegroups.com/web/1807a%2C+Hegel%2C+Economics%2C+and+Marx%27s+Capital%2C+1999%2C+Cyril+Smith.doc?gda=Sfbuz4UAAAB4MbH-vDwpNagN2sDR9UlosMpIGZKuDS1q-qI6zK9SH3IVmY9XmvprN31RV0dWrhfGKHtbORuY-3J7p5sHiTwrlczX9tEhHclBb93BhLIoLdKMqVB2> >> * (7803 words) >> *The Communist Manifesto after 150 years, 1998, >> Smith<http://communist-university.googlegroups.com/web/1807%2C+The+Communist+Manifesto+after+150+years%2C+1998%2C+Smith.doc?gda=JQSEBXsAAAB4MbH-vDwpNagN2sDR9UlosMpIGZKuDS1q-qI6zK9SH4kLesxy1NqS6XWw0xfRjSRmN-9CCrh6fWqkv0u3GvuZDp6SmZvrfQF33wJLaqqAhqNwi1PMHFsiLF0TlK> >> * (8285 words) >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> *Previous main Communist University posts:* >> *Channel [members]* >> *Course Archive* >> *Weeks* >> *Last Posted* >> *SADTU Pol Ed <http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/> [436]*** >> *Development, Rural and >> Urban<http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/p/development.html> >> * >> *3/10* >> *5 August >> 2010<http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/2010/08/design-is-politics.html> >> * >> *CU Africa <http://cuafrica.blogspot.com/> [230]*** >> *Marx’s Capital, Volumes 1, 2 & >> 3<http://cuafrica.blogspot.com/p/capital-volume-1.html> >> * >> *8/33* >> *3 August 2010 <http://cuafrica.blogspot.com/2010/08/surplus-value.html> >> * >> *CU <http://domza.blogspot.com/> [2837]*** >> *Philosophy and >> Religion<http://domza.blogspot.com/p/philosophy-and-religion.html> >> * >> *7/10* >> *6 August >> 2010<http://domza.blogspot.com/2010/08/capital-not-doctrine-but-critique.html> >> * >> >> *Courses completed in 2010 to date:* >> *SADTU Pol Ed <http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/>*** >> *Lenin’s The State & >> Revolution<http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/p/state-revolution.html> >> * >> *6* >> *June - July* >> >> *National Democratic Revolution<http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/p/ndr.html> >> * >> *12* >> *March - June* >> >> *Basics <http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/p/basics.html>* >> *10* >> *January - March* >> *SADTU Pol Schools <http://sadtu-eight.blogspot.com/>* >> *3-Day School <http://sadtu-eight.blogspot.com/p/basics.html>* >> *3 days* >> *2-4 June* >> *CU <http://domza.blogspot.com/>*** >> *No Woman, No >> Revolution<http://domza.blogspot.com/p/no-woman-no-revolution.html> >> * >> *10* >> *March - June* >> >> *Basics <http://domza.blogspot.com/p/basics.html>* >> *10* >> *January – March* >> >> *Click here <http://www.marxists.org/> to visit Marxists Internet >> Archive <http://www.marxists.org/>* >> >> >> >> -- >> Posted By DomzaNet to Communist >> University<http://domza.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-stalin-buried-marx.html>on >> 8/08/2010 05:29:00 PM >> >> -- >> You are subscribed. 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