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Marx and Engels in their own words

Swiss LibertarianJan 4, 2022, 9:54:52 PM
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One of the most baffling things about the persistence of Marxism in various forms is the fact that those who defend it seem to be completely unaware of various aspects of their idols Marx & Engels, aspects about their personalities and thinking that no one really wants to talk about but which are absolutely essential.

They are the founders of an  ideology which is still widely read and taught in schools and universities all over the planet. More like the founders of a cult, practically an ersatz-religion, they are still praised and admired as "great intellectuals". Statues were build to them, currencies carried their images.

Are they at all worthy of admiration?

Fake Euro notes with an image of Marx, created as "art objects", expresse the admiration of his followers even more than official bank notes.

Given the popularity of Marx & Engels, one would assume that their work, their ideas and their characters are well known to their adoring followers. Yet no one except a few Marxist scholars are aware of their views on issues such as gender equality, race, antisemitism and nationalism, although they inspired movements that claim to be "anti-racist", "feminist", "anti-sexist" etc.

Most famously, the founders of BLM, a movement that became internationally famous, are self-declared Marxists:

"Black Lives Matter co-founder describes herself as ‘trained Marxist’"
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/

These are not just empty words - they actively support Marxist politicians. One BLM co-founder, Opal Tometi, supported Maduro's election - while pretending to be a "neutral observer" - posing with him as if he was a hero in a war against racial oppression:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/13/black-lives-matter-founder-an-open-supporter-of-socialist-venezuelan-dictator-maduro/

A photo of Opal Tometi, founder of Black Lives Matter, with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in New York City, 2015.

Opal Tometi (right) with Maduro

The entire modern "anti-racist" rhetoric is based on what is called "Critical Race Theory" (CRT), which proclaims that laws in western countries are inherently racist and serve to uphold the dominance of white people over non-white people.

So what's the connection?

"Critical Race Theory" is Marxist

The badly named "Critical Race Theory" (it's not a theory, it has zero academic value, it is just an ideology based on unsupported claims) is a product of the Marxist Frankfurt School and to cut short the usual denial right away, let me quote Encyclopedia Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory

So having established that CRT is indeed a product of Marxist ideology, it becomes extremely relevant to know what Marx & Engels actually had to say about race and antisemitism - or women's rights, for that matter.

You are in for a surprise

As it turns out, various articles, pamphlets and letters Marx & Engels wrote reveal that they were openly antisemitic and racist as well as German nationalists. This is fully documented below, with exact references.

But how could Marx have been antisemitic? He was Jewish, after all. And isn't that one of the main reasons Jews are so widely hated? Because "Jews created communism"?

While he was ethnically Jewish, he was not a follower of Judaism. His parents had both converted to Protestantism. Marx himself had nothing but scorn for religion. He was a strict atheist and he particularly despised Judaism.

The question whether a Jew is defined by his ethnicity and heritage or as follower of Judaism opens a wasps' nest of question which have never been answered in any conclusive way, but given that there are innumarable famous Jewish individuals who were not religious, yet still considered Jewish, such as Einstein, I'd say that they an ethnically Jewish person does not lose the status of being Jewish irrespective of religion, while a convert to Judaism will be considered to be a Jew as well.

So yes, Marx was ethnically a Jew. A self-hating Jew, as described in this article by Saul Singer in the Jewish Press:

https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/karl-marx-a-self-hating-jew/2019/05/08/

Evidence of Antisemitism

In the unpublished private correspondence with Engels, Marx frequently derided his political foes and his friends' Jewish backgrounds, even when the specific context of the exchanges did not deal with Jewish issues.

When on holiday in Ramsgate in 1879, Marx reported to Engels that the resort contained “many Jews and fleas.”

Marx referred to Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassal as a “Jewish ni**er.”

Marx Sr. borrowed much of his money from Mr. Bamberger and his son referred to them in a derogatory fashion as “Jew Bamberger” or “little Jew Bamberger.”

Marx and Engels referred to a gentleman named Spielman as “Jew Spielmann", although there was no reason to refer to the fact that he was Jewish.

In his private correspondence, he was sensitive to being reminded of his Jewish heritage and being the son of a convert.

There were extensive irrelevant ethnic slurs and gratuitous hostility towards the Jews in the correspondence letters between Marx and Engels.

This was so well known throughout academia that one of the world's leading commenters on Marx, Shlomo Avineri, stated: "That Karl Marx was an inveterate antisemite is today considered a commonplace which is hardly ever questioned."

No one has managed to locate even the briefest comment by Marx on the beginnings of the Jewish socialist movement in Eastern Europe, although Russian-Jewish socialists were among the first to seriously read and advocate Marx’s main work, "Das Kapital".

Marx never protested against the large and unprecedented wave of pogroms (1881-1882) in Imperial Russia even once, despite his usual habit of condemning the persecution and exploitation of the weak.

Marx noted the emergence of even the most obscure socialist groups with great interest and commenting on them extensively but showed incredible indifference and no commentary on the beginnings of the Jewish working-class movement.

In "Das Kapital", he asserts the genesis of the industrial Capitalist was because of Jews and Lombards engaging in "usury" by citing a passage from an author with the pseudonym "Daniel Hardcastle", implying the equivalence of "Jews" with "Usury".

In his “Theories of Surplus Value,” he praises Luther’s indictment of usury by claiming that Luther “has really caught the character of old-fashioned usury, and that of capital as a whole”. He did not have the slightest problem with Luther's obvious antisemitism.

In 1845, in "The Holy Family", written with Friedrich Engels, Marx claimed that - referring to the "Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher" - he had "proved that the task of abolishing the essence of Jewry is in truth the task of abolishing Jewry in civil society, abolishing the inhumanity of today's practice in life, the summit of which is the money system." (for the exact quote, see the 1845 publication on p.148 of "The Holy Family")

Two published essays of his are rife with antisemitism, i.e. "On The Jewish Question" (1844) and "The Russian Loan". (Many Marxists deny that "The Russian Loan" was written by Marx, even though it was provided by Eleanor Marx, along with all his lost private correspondence, and published in the New York Daily Tribune on Jan 4, 1856).

Racist and antisemtic quotes

Here is a short collection of quotes which leave no doubts about the fact that Marx & Engels hated Jews and Judaism and were openly racist:

What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. … Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man—and turns them into commodities. … The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange. … The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant, of the man of money in general.

-- Marx, “On the Jewish Question,” published in 1844

The Jewish ni**er Lassalle, who fortunately leaves at the end of this week, has happily again lost 5,000 Thaler in a fraudulent Speculation.

The fellow would rather throw money in the dirt than make a loan to a 'friend' even if interest and capital are guaranteed. He acts on the view that he must live like a Jewish baron or baronised (probably via the Countess) Jew.

-- Letter dated July 30, 1862; Vol. 3, Marx-Engels Correspondence, German edition, page 82

In reference to his socialist political competitor, Ferdinand Lassalle, Marx wrote, "... it is now completely clear to me that he, as is proved by his cranial formation and his hair, descends from the Negroes from Egypt, assuming that his mother or grandmother had not interbred with a n- r. Now this union of Judaism and Germanism with a basic Negro substance must produce a peculiar product. The obtrusiveness of the fellow is also ni**er-like."

-- July 1862 letter by Marx to Engels

German Nationalism

Read the following quote and try to guess who might have written it:

True, it is a fixed idea with the French that the Rhine is their property, but to this arrogant demand the only reply worthy of the German nation is Arndt's:

"Give back Alsace and Lorraine". For I am of the opinion, perhaps in contrast to many whose standpoint I share in other respects, that the reconquest of the German-speaking left bank of the Rhine is a matter of national honor, and that the Germanisation of a disloyal Holland and of Belgium is a political necessity for us. Shall we let the German nationality be completely suppressed in these countries, while the Slavs are rising ever more powerfully in the East?"

Give it to 100 people who know Hitler's speeches and 100 would identify it as something said by Adolf. The fierce German nationalism and territorial ambition is unmistakable. And if there is any doubt, have a look at another quote from the same author:

"This is our calling, that we shall become the Templars of this Grail, gird the sword round our loins for its sake and stake our lives joyfully in the last, holy war which will be followed by the thousand-year reign of freedom."

That settles it, doesn't it? Who does not know of Hitler's glorification of military sacrifice, his glorification of ancient Nordic cultures and his aim to establish a "thousand-year Reich"?

But neither quote is from Hitler. Both quotes were written by Friedrich Engels. There's much more of this prose to be found in his articles published by the "Rheinische Zeitung".

Marx was an entirely vile, abusive person

Marx never did a useful thing in his entire life. He was a parasite, first living on his parents' money and then on Engels', who himself was an heir from an industrialist family, anticipating an extremely common trend, namely the fact that many activist Marxists are heirs to great wealth.

Marx lived in filth and never cared about his family. His 2 daughters were so depressed by the misery he put them through that both committed suicide, as adults.

He raped his housekeeper while his wife was traveling in order to obtain a little money to escape their poverty. He got the housekeeper pregnant and forced her to keep it secret. He never even looked at his own son who was born to her. He asked Engels' daughter to send him to an orphanage.

He and Engels directly called for violence to "overturn the existing order", which was heeded by every communist dictatorship from 1918 to the present, hence Marx & Engels are fully responsible for the violent death of 100 to 150 million victims resulting from the implementation of their ideology.

As Prof.Jordan Peterson said - summarized, not an exact quote: "The fact that we cannot even establish the real number of victims with an error margin of tens of millions tells us what chaos those regimes really created, but past the first 10 million victims, there is no need for an exact body count to establish that they were fundamentally evil".

Conclusion

The simple truth is, Marx & Engels were extremely racist and antisemitic as well as German nationalists. They hated the proletariat they pretended to defend, they aspired to the high life, they were abusive with women.

If history was written in reverse, one would have to call them "Nazis". As it is, one is forced to admit that the Nazis were Marxists in every way.

Annexe

Quotes in German

Marx an Engels:

„Der jüdische Ni**er Lassalle*, der glücklicherweise Ende dieser Woche abreist, hat glücklich wieder 5000 Taler in einer falschen Spekulation verloren… Es ist mir jetzt völlig klar, daß er, wie auch seine Kopfbildung und sein Haarwuchs beweist, von den Negern abstammt, die sich dem Zug des Moses aus Ägypten anschlossen (wenn nicht seine Mutter oder Großmutter von väterlicher Seite sich mit einem Nigger kreuzten). Nun, diese Verbindung von Judentum und Germanentum mit der negerhaften Grundsubstanz müssen ein sonderbares Produkt hervorbringen. Die Zudringlichkeit des Burschen ist auch niggerhaft.“ 

-- 30. Juli 1862; Vol. 3, Marx-Engels Korrespondenz, Deutsche Ausgabe, Seite 82

„Welches ist der weltliche Grund des Judentums? Das praktische Bedürfnis, der Eigennutz. Welches ist der weltliche Kultus des Juden? Der Schacher. Welches ist sein weltlicher Gott? Das Geld.“

-- Karl Marx. In seinem 1843 erstmalig publizierten Aufsatz mit dem programmatischen Titel „Zur Judenfrage“

„Es ist mir jetzt völlig klar, dass er (Lassalle), wie auch seine Kopfbildung und sein Haarwuchs beweist, von den Negern abstammt, die sich dem Zug des Moses aus Ägypten anschlossen (wenn nicht seine Mutter oder Großmutter von väterlicher Seite sich mit einem Nigger kreuzten). Nun, diese Verbindung von Judentum und Germanentum mit der negerhaften Grundsubstanz müssen ein sonderbares Produkt hervorbringen.“

„Der Lassalle ist offenbar daran kaputtgegangen, dass er das Mensch (gemeint ist die Frau, um die es bei dem Duell ging, bei dem Lassalle starb) nicht sofort in der Pension aufs Bett geworfen und gehörig hergenommen hat, sie wollte nicht seinen schönen Geist, sondern seinen jüdischen Riemen. Es ist eben wieder eine Geschichte, die nur dem Lassalle passieren konnte.“

-- Engels an Marx am 7. November 1864 über den toten Lassalle

Am 14. April 1856 schreibt Engels an Marx, mal wieder über Lassalle:

„Die Lassalliaden haben mich sehr erheitert, der krause Juddekopp muss sich über dem roten Schlafrock und in der Marquisen-Draperie, wo bei jeder Bewegung der polnische Schmuhl durchkuckt, sehr reizend ausnehmen. Der Kerl muss einen höchst lausig-widerwärtigen Eindruck machen.“

Engels am 7. März 1856 an Marx:

„Lassalle als echter Jude von der slawischen Grenze war immer auf dem Sprunge, unter Parteivorwänden jeden für seine Privatzwecke auszunutzen. Dann diese Sucht, sich in die vornehme Welt einzudrängen, emporzukommen, wenn auch nur zum Schein, den schmierigen Breslauer Juden mit allerlei Pomade und Schminke zu übertünchen, waren immer widerwärtig."

Marx an Engels am 9. Februar 1860:

„Beiliegend der letzte Brief von Itzig Lassalle, den Du als eine Rarität aufheben musst. Man denke sich die Plastizität dieses ungriechischsten aller wasserpolackischen Juden.“

Am 24. März 1861 schrieb Marx an seine Nichte Antoinette Philips:

„Dieses Fräulein, das mich mit ihrem Wohlwollen direkt überschwemmte, ist das hässlichste Geschöpf, das ich je in meinem Leben gesehen habe, mit einer garstigen jüdischen Physiognomie.“

Engels in der „Neuen Rheinischen Zeitung“ vom 29. April 1849:

„Die Leser der Neuen Rheinischen Zeitung erinnern sich, dass die deutschen Nationalgimpel und Geldmacher des Frankfurter Sumpfparlaments bei diesen Zählungen immer noch die polnischen Juden zu den Deutschen gerechnet haben, obwohl diese schmutzigste aller Rassen weder ihrem Jargon, noch ihrer Abstammung nach, sondern höchsten durch ihre Profitwürdigkeit mit Frankfurt in Verwandtschaftsverhältnissen stehen kann.“

Marx im November 1860 in seinem Buch „Herr Vogt“ über einen gewissen Herrn Levy aus London:

„Die Zeitung "Weekly Mail" behauptete, Levy mache dem Publikum zwar kein X für ein U vor, wohl aber ein Y für ein I, und wirklich findet sich unter den 22.000 Levis, die Moses bei dem Zug durch die Wüste aufgezählt hat, kein einziger Levi, der sich mit einem Y schreibt. Wie Edouard Simon mit aller Gewalt zur romanischen Rasse gehören will, so will Levy unbedingt zur angelsächsischen Rasse gehören. Wenigstens einmal jeden Monat greift er daher die unenglische Politik des Herrn Disraeli an, denn Disraeli, "das asiatische Rätsel", stamme nicht von der angelsächsischen Rasse ab. Aber was nützt es dem Levy, den Herrn Disraeli anzugreifen und ein Y für ein I zu vorzumachen, wo Mutter Natur ihm seinen Stammbaum in tollster Frakturschrift mitten ins Gesicht geschrieben hat.“

1867 schrieb Marx in seinem Buch „Das Kapital“:

„Der Kapitalist weiß, dass alle Waren, wie lumpig sie immer aussehen oder wie schlecht sie immer riechen, im Glauben und in der Wahrheit Geld, innerlich beschnittene Juden sind, und zudem wundertätige Mittel, um aus Geld mehr Geld zu machen.“

Am 25. August 1879 schrieb Marx an Engels über den englischen Badeort Ramsgate:

„Viel Juden und Flöhe hier selbst.“