Barkley writes: >> It is true that Owen and Fourier proposed small utopias within larger market capitalist settings, and this may have warranted the dismissive "utopian" label attached by Marx and Engels.<< A growing literature suggests that Marx and Engels were _not_ very dismissive toward the utopians (cf. the Vincent Geoghegan and Ruth Levitas books that I cite in the article on utopias that I mistakenly posted to pen-l last month; see also the last volume of Hal Draper's KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION; Krishan Kumar'S book disagrees). In desperate brevity, Marx thought that utopianism was nice in a lot of ways, including giving workers ideas for about how they could organize a post-capitalist society. But he differed strongly in terms of tactics and strategy: propagandizing about how things could be better or setting up utopian colonies was hardly enough. Early on, Engels was much more pro-utopian than Marx; according to Draper, Marx convinced Engels to less effusive in his praise of the utopians in ANTI-DUHRING. But with the development of the German Social Democratic Party and the rise of the Marxist intellectuals' scientific (i.e. positivistic) pretensions, the antagonism toward the utopians grew. This antagonism became violent in the Third International, because any utopianism was implicitly or explicitly a criticism of the USSR. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
