“Kritik des Gothaer Programms”

28.05.2019, Sitzung 9
John Meyer
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In the course of criticising Lassalle’s attempt at a moderate program for social change,
Marx lays out a few principles for his own notion of the future state of affairs as communism is
established. Though struggle to establish it will take place within the various existing states for
practical reasons, Marx’ communism is fundamentally internationalist. The proletariat finding
itself within the borders of one state will of course focus primarily on its local situation, but it
will not conceive of itself as truly separate from the workers of other nations. Indeed, every
effort will be made to increase international trade and contact, especially since the bourgeoisie
will form its own international ties to suppress the proletariat.
The transition from capitalism to communism will be overseen by a dictatorship of the
proletariat. Workers can’t ask the state to pave the way for revolution, in Marx’ view. Again, the
party of the working class will have chapters in various countries, but it must be truly one party
for one constituency, i.e. the worker. This party will demand in the beginning a single state
which fulfills all the demands previously advanced by the bourgeois revolutions, e.g. universal
suffrage.
Marx seems to distinguish between phases of the revolution. In the first phase, workers
will receive compensation and benefits corresponding to the value of the labor they provided,
minus some costs required for things like maintenance of machinery, investment in new
productive capacity, etc. In the higher phase of communism, after bourgeois social organization
has been well abolished, labor will be engaged in for its own sake and need will be attended to
for its own sake. Compensation for labor will be a thing of the past, as will want. In other words,
Marx’ highest form of communism sounds very much like the society described by Star Trek.