Rev Left Radio Reflecting on Engels' "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, & The State" (pt. 3)
Aug 7, 2023
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State Emerges From Class Division
- Engels argues the state arises only after society splits into classes and serves to manage class conflict on behalf of the ruling class.
- He predicts the state will wither away when class antagonisms disappear and production is reorganized on free association.
Stateless Societies Prove Possibility
- Engels and the hosts show that societies existed without a state, proving statelessness is historically possible.
- That historical precedent strengthens the Marxist claim the state is not eternal and can end with class abolition.
Elections Measure Proletarian Maturity
- Engels sees universal suffrage as a gauge of proletarian maturity, not a solution in itself.
- As the proletariat organizes independently, it will form its own party rather than remain the left tail of bourgeois politics.