1979 article by Root and Branch, introducing Marxist theory.
Thus we do not confront the world dogmatically with a new
principle, proclaiming: Here is the truth, kneel before it! We
develop for the world new principles out of the principles of
the world. We do not say to the world: give up your struggles,
they are stupid stuff, we will provide you with the true
watchword of the struggle. We merely demonstrate to the world
why it really struggles, and consciousness is something that it
MUST adopt, even if it does not want to do so. Karl Marx, 1843.
(1) In his critique of the leftwing philosophies attacked as the
"German Ideology," Karl Marx contrasted communist literature
that can be thought of "merely as a set of theoretical writings"
with that which is "the product of a real movement." In his
polemic against the so-called True Socialists, he pointed out
that theory, as an activity of particular people carried out in
particular social contexts, does not develop by a process of 11
pure thought" but springs "fr