Interview

Were Bakunin and Marx So Different? An Interview with Mark Leier

Divide and Conquer or Divide and Subdivide? How Not to Refight the First International

By CS Song
Against the Grain
July 5th, 2017

Why didn’t Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin get along? What accounts for the conflict between the two thinkers that led to the momentous breakup of the First International in 1872? Mark Leier discusses and compares the backgrounds and ideas of Bakunin and Marx; he argues that they were more similar than most believe. He also examines the temperaments of the two men for clues into why they disliked and distrusted each so much.

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