by Andreas Peglau
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In “People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching“ I demonstrated, using his endorsement of child labor as an example, that Marx’s belief in progress could lead to inhumane conclusions.[1] In the “Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional Central Council” of the International Workingmen’s Association, written by Marx in 1866, it was stated:
“We regard the tendency of modern industry to enlist children and adolescents of both sexes in the great work of social production as a progressive, healthy, and justified tendency, although the manner in which this tendency is realized under the rule of capital is abhorrent.”[2]
As Marx knew and had documented himself on several occasions, every month of child labor cost thousands of children their health or their lives. Nevertheless, as late as 1875, he still considered a “general ban on child labor” to be
“incompatible with the existence of large-scale industry and therefore nothing more than a pious wish. Its implementation—if possible—would be reactionary, since, with strict regulation of working hours according to different age groups and other precautionary measures to protect children, the early combination of productive work with education is one of the most powerful means of transforming today’s society.”[3]
Marx must have known how futile adequate child protection was in the capitalism of 1875, especially within “large-scale industry.” Yet he gave priority to the future social transformation he hoped for over the real child poverty of his time.
The fact that a fundamental stance on the part of Marx and Engels came into play here is evident in their treatment of other, no less controversial topics. Weiterlesen
