David McLelian has just been translated sections from Mar'& Grundrisse. He is also author of works on Marx and the Young Hegelians and the early Marx. He is at present working on a major biography of Marx.
Marx's Grundrisse is his collected notes for Capital. It covers even more ground than that work and contains Mark's fullest exposition of his views on replution, automation, the effect of increasing working class standard of fiving, etc. -In what way does the translation of the Grundrisse modify our interpretation of Marx's thought?
The essential point is that, in the century or so since his thought has become widely known and studied, Marx has been interpreted in an almost Incredible variety of ways: the two central. approaches were either to read him as a rigidly determist economist-as with the German Social Democrats at the turn of the century reinforced later by Stalinist doctrines-or as a philosophical humanist at home in the existentialist movement and having attinities stretching as far as Zen Buddhism. This latter interpretation has been current in the West and inspired, to some extent, by anti-Communist tendencies. Both these interpretations emphasised the writings of one period of Marx's life at the expense of another-either the Marx of Capital was supposed to be the authentic Mark, on the Marx of the 1844 Manuscripts was held to contain the real humanist inspiration that became desiccated in later economic studies. in fact, even in their own terms, these interpretations were mistaken: a careful reading of Capital would show that it is not mere economics (in the current sense of the word) and that its writing was set in a context of political activity that gave the lie to any strictly determinist reading of his work. And too much attention was paid to the philosophical aspects of the 1844 Manuscripts without realising that they contained much economic analysis as well. However, with the publication of substantial extracts from the Grundrisse, we can see the essential continuity in Marx's thought. The Grundrisse is a very long manuscript, getting on for 1,000 pages-in which Marx sketched out, in 1957/58, the result of the 15 years of study since he first became a communist; it contains lengthy meditations on themes that Marx intended to include in his magnum opas on economics, of which he only ever com pleted the first section entitled Capital. Thus the answer to your question is that acquaintance with the Grundrisse would change our interpretation of Marx in two important respects:
Firstly, It shows that there is a continuity in Marx's thought: all his writings, including the later ones, are dealing with human needs, man as a social being, the alienation of men in contemporary society, and the construction of an unalienated society through communism. The earlier writings are, in a sense, deficient as these concepts are not integrated into the somewhat sketchy economic analysis. And the later, writings could equally be held to be deficient in that Marx did not include in them -he did not have the time or space-many of the themes brosched in the Grindrisse.
Secondly-and closely related-is the conclusion that Marx's writings are unfinished: Capital is only a fragment of what he intended to write. Thus his work is open-ended and quite unlike the sort of closed system with which he has so often been saddled. -Whet has been your criterion in selecting passages from the Grundrisse for your edition? I have translated about 150 pages of the 800page manuscript. In choosing my selection, J went for passages that either seemed to illuminate themes obviously central to other of Marx's writings or those that moved into areas the problem of automation w paint here. Although my t very slightest interest to anyone, however, also check with all the authors who had com mented on or quoted from the GrundrisseMarcuse, Klages, Schmidt, Nicolaus, etc. —and compared the list of passages that they referred to with the one I compiled. They more or less coincided -In what way would your amessment of what is important in Mark as a Marx scholar differ from the estimate made by a political activist? That's a rather difficult question to answer as l have to interpret the mind of a political activist Still, It is quite clear to me that what I am trying to do as a Marx scholar is to interpret the mind of Marx in description and commentary: to try and convey what he said and what he was getting at. And it seems to me that what should be important to me as a Marx scholar is what was important to Marx, and this can only be understood by a close study of what Mart said and what he meant by what he said, The latter in particular involves a thorough acquaintance not only with his actual texts but of the context in which they were written, the questions they Were trying to answer, etc. This is not, of course, to deny that there are other possibleand even useful activities, such as asking what Marx's views might have been on such and such a question, whether the implications of Marx's views on certain questions could be carried further than he carried them, or even what Marx's views would be on certain contemporary problems; though this latter-and here we arrive at the crux of the questio to be rather a dubious enterprise. For Marz was by someo enth-century concepts To a century questions It in a quite l prise for a political activist to pick out certain ideas in Marx and apply them today, because they illuminate, for him, the particular aims with which he feels concerned; and again to him-these are no doubt the things that are most important in Marx. But he has no right to call these ideas "the essential ideas of Mark" or *what Marx really relational concept and we must ask; important to whom. What was important to Marx and wh is important to a contemporary political activis may well be very different. To ultra-montane Catholics it seemed that the most important text in the New Testament was "Thou art Peter and upon this rock. * etc. whether Jesus considered it to be absolutaly centrai to his message can only be discovered by looking at the context in which it was uttered, asking the meaning of the word "rock", whether the whole thing is not simply a pun, etc. You see, meaning is bound up with intention, and Marx simply couldn't have intended many of the things that political activists are now interested in. It is the job of the scholar to illuminate these meanings and intentions. in as far as the political activist places himself in a tradition descending from Marx, there will be an overlap of meanings and intentions where what 15 important to the scholar and the activist will coincide, though they will be important for different reasons. And, Incidentally, this overlap occurs to a great extent in the Grundrisse which I consider in a sense Mark's most basic work and which at the same time contains Marx's views on societies that were highly developed technologically. But this does not apply to all Marc's work and goodness knows that the understanding of past utterances is difficult enough without importing into it conceptions and attitudes from a different age that can do nothing but obscure the meaning. -It is sometimes said that alienation is a concept linking the young and the mature Marx. But did not Marx largely abandon it in his later writings, owing to lack of specificity and concreteness, and substitute concepts like fetishism and surplus value which cannot be banalised as allenation has so often been? Yes, I do think that alienation is a concept -linking the young and the mature Marx: and no, I don't think that it was abandoned later 1 know that it was often stated, particularly Dy an older generation of con Jike Sidney Hook or Lewis Feuer, that aliena one. It is not a di risse and in Capital for it does occur there from the concept in the 1844 Manuscripts: in both writings there is the picture of man who has alienated his essential characteristics of dominance and control over his work process the process of his self creation. On the other hand, although there is not a different concept of have given the ide depth that it would have Marx to achieve in 1844.1 ag he with you that alienation is a broad concept and I also agree with you that it has been banalised-usually by writers with no sort of philosophical training. But that doesn't mean that more specific notions like surplus value or the fetishism of commodities seemed to Marx to be in any way superior: they were applications of the idea of alienation to particular areas of capitalist society, surplus value explaining the alienation of man in the productive process and fetishism of commodities the repercussions of this in the field of social relationships.
-Do you think that the increasing literature on Marx published in English will Isad to a rebirth of Marxism in this country?
My guess in this is as good as anybody else's, Now that Marx studies are a respectable aca demic discipline, there will obviously be an area of discussion confined to learned journals The publication of Mark's early writings does not seem yet to have had much affect on Marxism in Britain-as opposed, say, to Eastern Europe.
However, the translation of writings such as the Grundrisse does mean that New Left groups in this country do now have access to a view of Marx's thought that could be held to be very relevant to the second half of the 20th century.
So long as the Commonist Manifesto and Capital were held to contain the whole essence of Marx's thought, it was difficult to make these direct connections: now it is much easier. The Grundrisse deals with such questions as the growth of automation, increase in tree time, immense improvements in the material standard of living of the working class-many of the points that crude critics had held to have refuted Marx's ideas. To what extent this will lead to a rebirth of Marxism is an open question. As Marx himself said: "'Man must prove the truth, ie. the reality and power, the this-sidedness of his thinking in practice."
There are few revolutionaries who are more universally respected than John MacLean. The Scottish working class movement, especially, remembers him as its greatest and best loved leader. Unfortunately there are lew revolutionaries whose ideas and writings have been more thoroughly buried.
Let us drag his ideas out of the cellar. When the dust is blown from them, they will found to be of tremendous relevance for our struggles today, Indeed, until Scottish revolutionaries have thoroughly understood and assimilated them, there can be no reflowering of the revolutionary movement of which he was the pinnacle.
"The working class, when they rise for their own, are more dangerous to capitalism than even the German enemies at your gates."
The Marxist MacLean's parents had been driven as children from the Highlands to find a precarious life in the Clyde industrial belt, and his father died prematurely. But despite the grinding poverty of his upbringing, MacLean's brilliant mind won him a scholarship to Glasgow University, from where be took up employment as a school.
teacher.
He rapidly became radicalised, but the event that changed his life was when he came into possession of a copy of Mark's Capital, he read it from cover to cover, and from then on was an unswerving Marxist.
In 1903 he joined the Social Democratic Federation, and one of his remarkable qualities came to the fore-his unbelievable energy. It was nothing for MacLean to address four or five meetings a week, and at the height of his agitation he was addressing up to eight meetings in one dayl Against the War The must important aspect of MacLean's life was his stand against the First World War. He knew that his speeches had sown the seeds of resistance amongst his hearers, but that this would only make the government more determined to silence him. With this knowindge he stepped up his efforts, trying to spread the maximum amount of enlightenment about the real nature of the war before the inevitable:
happened.
It did happen. His first trial came on November 15th 1915, but the evidence of the police witnesses was so contradictory and the masses of workers who packed the court and thronged outside were so menacing that the Sheriff gave MacLean a mild sentence. His second trial in May 1916 was a different affair:
this time he received three years' penal servi.
The torments he suffered would have broken many other men. As it was, this started the breaking of his former robust health, which was eventually to kill him.
He never finished the sentence: the seeds he RED CIRCLES/RED MOLE CONTACTS BELFAST: Alan Morris, c/o Red Mole BIRMINGHAM: Val Graham, 72 Cambridge Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham 14.
BRISTOL: Dave Prior, 2 Ravenswood Road, Redland, Bristol G.
CANTERBURY: Brian Grogan, Elliott College, Canterbury.
CARDIFF: Susan Lukes, 92 Liandaft Road.
Canton, Cardiff, CHELMSFORD: John Jones, c/o Red Mole.
Colchester, Essex, COVENTRY: John Presland, 27 Paynes Lane, Coventry. Warwicks.
EDINBURGH: Brian Gilmore, 17 Hillside St., Edinburgh.
GLASGOW: Roland O'Brien, 38 Pendeen Road.
Glasgow E.3.
HERTFORD: Malcolm Harding, 8 Parker Ave.had sown began to flower; under the impect of the attacks made in the factories and rising prices and rents, the workers of the Clyde stepped onto the stage to fight against Lloye George and the employers. Through every fight the demand was raised: "Release John MacLean!" On June 30th 1917 he was released.
He emerged from prison to take up his task as Soviet Consuf for Scotland-an honour conferred on him by the victorious Detober revolu Needless to say, he merely launched himself into more intense agitation than ever, and in May 1918 he was again arrested on charges of sedition, At this trial he made the classic speech, which must rank as his testament to the workers of Scotland and the world. He used the dock to explain the reasons for the war, and to defend his actions. His defense was that he had acted in the interests of his class. "I have squared my conduct with my intellect. - lect square and clean for my principles I have nothing to retract. I have nothing to be ashamed of. Your class position is against my class posi tion... My appeal is to the working class 1 appeal to them exclusively because they and only they can bring about a time when the whole world will be one brotherhood on a He was given five years penal servitude. This was to finish the process of breaking his health.
The end of the war, coinciding with ever mounting working class agitation for his release, resufted in his being freed on November "I stand here not as the accused, but as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot."
HULL: Malcolm Ball, Students Union, Hüll Uni IPSWICH: Kevin Barter, 2 Camarthen Close, KEELE:_Jason Hill, Flat 37, The Hawthorns, Keele, Newcastle under-Lyme, Staffs KIDDERMINSTER: Nigel Brown, 44 The LANCASTER: Brian Heron, 29 Clarendon LEEDS: Ron Thompson. 132 Askeren Chase, LEICESTER: Jean Holman, 7 College Street. LINCOLN: Dave Thompson, 65 Tower Cres, NORTH: c/o The Red Mole, 182 Pentonville NORTH-WEST: Tohy Fry, 101 Park Avenue *I stand in the Gorbals, and before the world, as a Bolshevik, alias a communist, alias a revolutionist, alias a Marxist. My symbol is the Red Flag, and it I shall always keep floating on high."
and of Scotland in general, were not swept away by the patriotism which affected the mass of the British working class is almost directly attributable to MacLean. Conceive of thousands of workers turning up week after week for a class in Marxist Economics. Imagine them pas sionately following the speaker's every word, in an atmosphere something akin to a revivalist meeting, then streaming out to spread the word His lectures were never abstract, they were based on the living experiences of his audience;
they would supply him with the raw material of what was happening in the factories and shipvards, and he would axplain every move of the employers, showing the economic reasons for their actions and the way in which Marxism it was the success of this educational work which spurred MacLean to the creation of the Scottish Labour College in 1918. This project, which won wide support in the Labour movement, taught a complete range of subjects, but the core of the teaching was Marxist economics, and its purpose was to train working class leaders, who were conscious of the nature of capitalism, and the interests of their class.
*I have been enlisted in the Socialist Army for 15 years. God damn all other The Scottish Workers Republic His stand, after 1916, for an Independent Workers Republic of Scotland, and for an independent Scottish Communist Party, is generally misudderstood. The source of most of the confusion is Willie Gallacher's book, Revolt on the Clyde. This particular well is poisoned. Too long this pathetic book has been the standard text on the events of the time, It must be rejected, it is so obviously "ghosted"" by the same author as Harry Pollitt's Serving My Time, that it is even doubtful how much of it is Gallacher's- it even misspells MacLean's namel The book asserts that MacLean's suffering in prison had affected his mind, and presents him as being surrounded by people who fed his exaggerated suspicions. Let us leave aside this The significance of his support of the Easter 1916 rising in Dublin is lictle appreciated. The rising caused complete confusion in the Marxist movement of the time: practically the only people apart from Connolly who understood it This shows very clearly the vast gulf which separated him from most of the "Marxists" of his day, and proves that he was a Marxist thinker EALING: Will Rich, & Burlington Gdins, W4, HAMMERSMITH: Eddy Arnavoudian, 20 Thorny Hedge Rd, Gunnersbury, W4. LOUGHBOROUGH: Ann Black, 4 Russell St., MANCHESTER: Steve Cohen, 43 Brantingham Roed, Whalley Range, Manchester 16 NORWICH: John Harris, c/o lan Douglas, 1 Cow NOTTINGHAM: Nick Beeton, 25 Henry Road, OXFORD: Martin Meteyard, 34 Minster Road, POTTERIES: Jason Hill, Flar 37, The HawREADING: Lawrie White, 24 Ramsbury Drive, ST. ALBANS/HATFIELD: Chris Pailthorpe.
& Watsons Walk, St. Albans, Herts SHEFFIELD: Paul Neville, Ranmoor House, of great depth and ability. He understood the process of combined and uneven developmen His contemporaries did not. Heknew that thi workers' movement in Scotland was qualitati shead of the English movement. This was the result of national differences. The historical development of Scottish capitalism; the creat of the Scottish working class out of a comThe fact that the workers of Clydeside especially, land and Irish peasantry; the different inteller pressed and sharp period of attack on the Hig tual tradition of Scotland which made interes in ideas more widespread; the subsidiary position of Scotland in the British economy: survival of a national-radical tradition: - all or these, combined with MacLean's own contrib tion, made a revolution in in Scotland much more likely than in England. Subjection of th Scattish workors to the pace of the English w What MacLean's views on the Communist International were is not clear; it is tragic that he never met Lenin, as there is a good chance that he would have supported MacLean. On dl other hand, MacLean may have wrongly counterposed a Scottish Communist Party to "control from Moscow", Until the document: and other material of the discussion, are uncovered, it is not possible to judge. But wheth or not MacLean was right to refuse to join the CPGB once it was formed, the important fact that his political views have been suppressed and covered up by the Communist Party of Great Britain behind stories about MacLean's The betrayal of MacLean by the CPGB has been compounded by the majority of the Sco tish "revolutionary" left. They have simply taken up the slanders of Revolt on the Clyde, Those who like Hugh MacDairmid have sought to keep the light of Scottish Republic Ism and the ideas of Mackean alive, have bee abused and pilloried by philistines like the Socialist Labour League. Events are proving that, for all MacDairmid's idealism, and Stalin ism, he understands Scotland better than his MOCIAT The resurraction of MacLean's ideas will be taken up by those who understand that Scot land is a nation, and that Scottish politics cannot be understood merely as a segment of "British" politics, A new generation of Scotti revolutionaries will fuse them with the theore tical development of Marxism since his time, particularly the ideas of Trotskyism, which MacLean often foreshadowed, and will recreat the revolutionary movement which MacLean detractors have destroyed.
The works by Maclean that are available are: Condemned frow she Doct published by the Scottis IMG.
John Macheon and Scornish Independener published Ples for a Labour College in Scorland, Ibid.
The John MacLean Society is curently organising a memorial fund. to creet a colen near Mack ean's birth place, and to finance the publication of his works Contact Mrs Nan Mact.ean Milton, Atboll Cottage GUILDFORD: Jahn Masen, House No. 43 Third Court, University of Surrey, Guil KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES: Robin Bon 33 Effingham Road, Long Ditton, Surb SUTTON: Patrick Smith, 58 St. James's R WEST LOTHIAN: Anne MacLellan, 5. Victor YORK: Phil Hearse, Goodricke College. MERCHANT NAVY (at sea): Peter Turner,
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COLCHESTER: Ken Browne, Flat 7, Room 10, Bertrand Russell Tower, University of Essex,
STIRLING: Donald MacDonald, 6 Tarduff Place, Stoneywood, Denny, Stirlingshire. CHERTSEY: Joe Xavier, Engineering Dec