REVIEW BY TROY SAXBY
Marxism, Socialism & Religion
Writings by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, VI Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky
Resistance Books, Sydney 2001
158 pages, $14.95
Available at Resistance Bookshops (see page 2) or visit .
"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people" — Karl Marx
These famous words are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in 1843-44. Marxism, Socialism & Religion is a collection of writings from Marx and Engels, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky which provide the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of religion, religious belief and how socialists relate to these.
In formulating their analysis of religion, Marx and Engels laid out the foundations of historical materialism. Georg Hegel had revolutionised German philosophy by developing dialectics. Engels' Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, one of the writings included in the book, explains that Feuerbach dispelled the idealism of Hegel by "once again placing materialism on the throne".
Engels points out that dialectical materialism was built on Hegel's dialectics and the resurgence of materialism. In combining the two, Marx created a method which spelled the end for philosophy as a search for systems of absolute truth. While Feuerbach understood religion as a human creation, he did not go beyond "man" in abstraction.
"Feuerbach resolves the religious essence into the human essence", wrote Marx. "But the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each individual. In reality it is the ensemble of the social relations."
For Marx, religion was created and sustained by the misery of this world. Building on this, Lenin in The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion writes: "The deepest root of religion today is the socially downtrodden condition of the working masses and their apparently complete helplessness in face of the blind forces of capitalism, which every day and every hour inflicts upon ordinary working people the most horrible suffering and the most savage torment".
Religion is a means of explaining natural and social processes which are beyond the control or comprehension of the masses. In Socialism and Religion Lenin points out: "Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on Earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward."
Religion has not only been used to maintain the status quo but has also been the guise behind which some revolutionary struggles have been shrouded. The extract from Engels' Peasant War in Germany proves that the religious struggles of the Reformation were a class struggle. Religion was not only a support for the ruling class but a key power in its own right. Therefore any attack on the ruling order was carried on under the cover of a religious struggle.
Engels demonstrates the radical religious ideas of Thomas Munzer entailed a radical social program for which he won support from plebeians and peasants.
Socialism and the Churches was written by Rosa Luxemburg at the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution. In Luxemburg's native Poland the church played a reactionary role in trying to quell the impact the revolution was having on the masses. Luxemburg posed the question, "How does it happen that the church plays the role of a defence of wealth and bloody oppression, instead of being the refuge of the exploited?"
Luxemburg summarises the history of Christianity, beginning with its original egalitarian, communal practises. Christianity evolved from a system of communist distribution, through voluntary charity until it eventually played an active role in the exploitation of the poor.
The selections from Lenin detail how revolutionary socialists relate to religion and religious believers. Socialists insist that religion be a private affair, that is, they demand the complete separation of church and state and the right of individuals to hold whatever religious views they choose.
According to Lenin, the best form of anti-religious propaganda is the advance of scientific knowledge. Religion will not be defeated by propaganda alone, but will fall as the working class fights, in a united, organised and conscious way, the rule of capital, which is the root of religion.
For Lenin, "unity of class struggle for the creation of paradise on Earth is more important than unity of opinion on paradise in heaven". Lenin also argues that atheism should not be a requirement for membership of a revolutionary party. So long as members adhere to the party's program, the contradiction between religious belief and accepting historical materialism remains a personal one.
The selections from Trotsky and the appendices deal with socialist government policy and religion. One of the many myths of early Soviet history is that the Bolshevik government tried to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church. Trotsky defends the Soviet government's decision to expropriate church valuables to help finance the alleviation of the post civil-war famine.
Rather than suppressing religion, which would only strengthen many people's attachment to religious fundamentalism, the Soviet government sought to widen people's experience and knowledge and increase their control over their own lives.
Trotsky explains: "Religion will only cease to exist completely with the development of the socialist system, that is, when technology frees people from degrading forms of dependency on nature, and amid social relations that are no longer mysterious, which are completely transparent and do not oppress people."
This book provides valuable assistance in understanding Third World Islam. Historical materialism provides the theoretical basis for uncovering the real roots of such movements and struggles. Just as importantly this book offers direction for how socialists should relate to religion and religious believers.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 21, 2001.
Visit the