Re: [Marxism] What to make of Marx's anti-semitism?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Leon Trotsky wrote:
> Why do you think it's anti-semitic for Marx and Bauer
> to say "Judaism is a religion of huckstering and
> scheming."  Maybe that was part of the actual social
> and political conditions in its history.  It could be
> that so many Marxists post-Marx were Jewish because
> they came to the same conclusion.  This is a critisim
> of a religion not a people.

Actually Jews became Marxists in large part because they were oppressed
by racist pogroms. In the late 19th century Czarism scapegoated Jews who
were blamed for the system's ongoing economic crisis. It of course
helped that some Jews were hated by the Russian peasants for their
middleman role in the Polish and Russian economy. Absentee Christian
landlords used Jews to collect taxes. In the 20th century, Jews were
hated by many blacks for also playing a kind of bloodsucking role in the
ghetto. Rich Christians from the big banks got off the hook because
blacks were so far removed from the top executives who never sold them
spoiled meat, but who were responsible for much worse offenses. Like
redlining, etc.

In any case, Marx does not think that Christianity was superior to
Judaism in terms of lusting after money. He writes:

>>The Jew has emancipated himself in a Jewish manner, not only because
he has acquired financial power, but also because, through him and also
apart from him, money has become a world power and the practical Jewish
spirit has become the practical spirit of the Christian nations. The
Jews have emancipated themselves insofar as the Christians have become
Jews.

Captain Hamilton, for example, reports:

"The devout and politically free inhabitant of New England is a kind of
Laocoon who makes not the least effort to escape from the serpents which
are crushing him. Mammon is his idol which he adores not only with his
lips but with the whole force of his body and mind. In his view the
world is no more than a Stock Exchange, and he is convinced that he has
no other destiny here below than to become richer than his neighbor.
Trade has seized upon all his thoughts, and he has no other recreation
than to exchange objects. When he travels he carries, so to speak, his
goods and his counter on his back and talks only of interest and profit.
If he loses sight of his own business for an instant it is only in order
to pry into the business of his competitors."<<

Needless to say, all this is fairly remote from an understanding of the
labor theory of value or any of the other economic insights that Marx
would eventually discover.


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