From: "Charlotte S. Wellen" <cwellen-AT-pen.k12.va.us>
Subject: Marxism and Religion: Liberation Theology and Class Struggle
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 96 10:35:07 EDT





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Greetings to all comrades from Wei En Lin

I present this quote in the context of our discussion on the
relation between Marxism and Religion.  The question I pose is
this:  Is there anything in the following quotation which in
inconsistent with Marxism or Revolutionary Socialism?  The
quote is from "A Theology of Liberation" by Gustavo Gutierrez. 

This particular passage is written in the context of a
discussion about the nature of class struggle.

Those who speak of "class struggle' do not advocate it --in the
sense of creating it out of nothing -- . . .they recognize it
as a fact.  What the groups in power call 'advocating ' class
struggle is really an expression of a will to abolish its
causes, to abolish them, not cover them over, to eliminate the
appropriation by a few of the wealth created by the work of the
many, and not to make lyrical calls to social harmony.  It is a
will to build a socialist society, more just, free, and human,
and not a society of superficial and false reconciliation and
equality.  To 'advocate class struggle' , therefore , is to
reject a situation in which there are oppressed and
oppressors.  But it is a rejection without deceit or
cowardliness; it is to recognize that the fact exists and that
it profoundly divides men, in order to be able to attack it at
its roots and thus create the conditions of an authentic human
community.  To build a just society today necessarily implies
active and conscious participation in the class struggle
occurring before our eyes.

(274)

Are the ideas in this passage substantially at odds with the
goal of ending the exploitation of man by man?


Wei En Lin
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