The permanent revolution today is reform struggles against the general ,
secular , day to day aggravations of the 99 % by capitalist society and
economy, blues due to Bourgeois rule.
"Permanent revolution' according to Marx and Engels
Marx first used the phrase in the following passage from The Holy Family
(1844). He wrote:
Napoleon presented the last battle of revolutionary terror against the
bourgeois society which had been proclaimed by this same Revolution, and
against its policy. Napoleon, of course, already discerned the essence of the
modern state; he understood that it is based on the unhampered development of
bourgeois society, on the free movement of private interest, etc. He decided to
recognise and protect this basis. He was no terrorist with his head in the
clouds. Yet at the same time he still regarded the state as an end in itself
and civil life only as a treasurer and his subordinate which must have no will
of its own. He perfected the terror by substituting permanent war for permanent
revolution [emphasis added]. He fed the egoism of the French nation to complete
satiety but demanded also the sacrifice of bourgeois business, enjoyments,
wealth, etc., whenever this was required by the political aim of conquest. If
he despotically suppressed the liberalism of bourgeois society — the political
idealism of its daily practice — he showed no more consideration for its
essential material interests, trade and industry, whenever they conflicted with
his political interests. His scorn of industrial hommes d'affaires was the
complement to his scorn of ideologists. In his home policy, too, he combated
bourgeois society as the opponent of the state which in his own person he still
held to be an absolute aim in itself. Thus he declared in the State Council
that he would not suffer the owner of extensive estates to cultivate them or
not as he pleased. Thus, too, he conceived the plan of subordinating trade to
the state by appropriation of roulage [road haulage]. French businessmen took
steps to anticipate the event that first shook Napoleon’s power. Paris
exchange-brokers forced him by means of an artificially created famine to delay
the opening of the Russian campaign by nearly two months and thus to launch it
too late in the year.[1]
In this passage, Marx says that Napoleon prevented the 'bourgeois revolution'
in France from becoming fulfilled: that is, he prevented bourgeois political
forces from achieving a total expression of their interests. According to Marx,
he did this by suppressing the 'liberalism of bourgeois society'; and he did it
because he saw 'the state as an end in itself', a value which supported his
'political aim of conquest'. Thus, he substituted 'permanent war for permanent
revolution'. The final two sentences, however, show that the bourgeoisie did
not give up hope, but continued to pursue their interests. This tells us that,
for Marx, 'permanent revolution' involves a revolutionary class (in this case,
the bourgeoisie) continuing to push for, and achieve, its interests despite the
political dominance of actors with opposing interests.
P
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