Marxist Group (Germany)
The Marxist Group (German: Marxistische Gruppe, MG) was the largest communist organization of the "New Left" in West Germany. The program of the MG focused on the abolition of private property and of the state altogether. The group aspired to have the free-market economy replaced by social planning according to the specific needs that were present.
The MG emerged from the so-called "Red Cells" (Ger.: Roten Zellen), which arose in the German student movement in 1968. The MG was properly formed in the early 1970s. The MG published among other things the magazine MSZ — Gegen die Kosten der Freiheit (Opposing the Costs of Liberty), the Marxistische Arbeiterzeitung (Marxist Workers’ Newspaper), various university newspapers, as well as the book series Resultate (Results), Abweichende Meinungen (Dissenting Views) and Kritik der bürgerlichen Wissenschaft (Critique of Bourgeois Science). It is thought to have had up to 10,000 members. Local associations of the MG also existed in Austria.
The organization was monitored by the intelligence office (Ger.: Verfassungsschutz; Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution) and was rated "left-wing extremist". According to data collected by the office, numerous members of the MG — particularly in Bavaria — were dismissed from civil service, and some private employers were informed about MG members and asked to dismiss them. In May 1991, the MG announced its dissolution. The reason it stated was that it was expecting intensified reprisals against its members following the appearance of an intelligence office brochure about the group. The party's newspapers were discontinued, but corresponding journalistic work was continued by the publishing house GegenStandpunkt-Verlag and the journal GegenStandpunkt (Opposing Viewpoint).
Read more about Marxist Group (Germany): Agitational Practice
Famous quotes containing the words marxist and/or group:
“One good reason for the popularity of “reductionism” among the philosophical outposts of the Western Establishment is that it can be, and is, used as a device for trying to take the wind, so to speak, out of the sails of Marxism.... In essence reductionism is a kind of anti-Marxist caricature of Marxist determinism. It is what anti-Marxists pretend that Marxist determinism is.”
—Claud Cockburn (1904–1981)
“Belonging to a group can provide the child with a variety of resources that an individual friendship often cannot—a sense of collective participation, experience with organizational roles, and group support in the enterprise of growing up. Groups also pose for the child some of the most acute problems of social life—of inclusion and exclusion, conformity and independence.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)