Long march through the institutions

The long march through the institutions (German: der lange Marsch durch die Institutionen) is a slogan coined by socialist student activist Rudi Dutschke around 1967 to describe his strategy for establishing the conditions for revolution: subverting capitalist domination of society by entering institutions such as the professions.[1] The phrase "long march" is a reference to the prolonged struggle of the Chinese communists, which included a physical Long March of their army across China.[2]

Rudi Dutschke
Mao on the Chinese Red Army's Long March

Influences

Similarities have been noted between the long march and Antonio Gramsci's idea of "war of position".[3][4] Evidence is lacking, however, that Dutschke was aware of Gramsci's work at the time.[3] There is no mention of Gramsci in Dutschke's diaries or biography, contrasting with many mentions of György Lukács, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong.[3]

Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch met Dutschke at Bad Boll in 1968, and admired his integrity and determination, qualities that he had written about in The Principle of Hope (Das Prinzip Hoffnung) as being essential for the achievement of utopia.[5]

German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse and Dutschke worked together at least as early as 1966, when they organized an anti-war conference at the Institute for Social Research.[6] Marcuse wrote to Dutschke in 1971 to agree with this strategy: "Let me tell you this: that I regard your notion of the 'long march through the institutions' as the only effective way..."[7] In his 1972 book, Counterrevolution and Revolt, Marcuse wrote:[8]

To extend the base of the student movement, Rudi Dutschke has proposed the strategy of the long march through the institutions: working against the established institutions while working within them, but not simply by 'boring from within', rather by 'doing the job', learning (how to program and read computers, how to teach at all levels of education, how to use the mass media, how to organize production, how to recognize and eschew planned obsolescence, how to design, et cetera), and at the same time preserving one's own consciousness in working with others.
The long march includes the concerted effort to build up counterinstitutions. They have long been an aim of the movement, but the lack of funds was greatly responsible for their weakness and their inferior quality. They must be made competitive. This is especially important for the development of radical, "free" media. The fact that the radical Left has no equal access to the great chains of information and indoctrination is largely responsible for its isolation.

See also

References
  1. Huffmann, Richard (March 2004), "The Limits of Violence", Satya Magazine, archived from the original on 26 April 2021.
  2. Kimball 2001, p. 15.
  3. Frost, Daniel (April 13, 2022). "Long marches, long revolutions". Monthly Review.
  4. Parsons, Nicholas T. "THE LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS – DOUGLAS MURRAY'S BOOK ON OUR CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS". Hungarian Review. 11 (3).
  5. Degroot 2014, p. 110.
  6. Ulrich Chaussy (2018), Rudi Dutschke, Munich, Droemer, ISBN 978-3-426-27752-2
  7. Marcuse 2014, p. 336.
  8. Marcuse 1972, pp. 55–56.

Works cited

Further reading
  • Dalton, Russell (1987), "Generational Change in Elite Political Beliefs: The Growth of Ideological Polarization", The Journal of Politics, 49 (4): 976–997, doi:10.2307/2130780, JSTOR 2130780, S2CID 154318378
  • Flechtheim [in German]; Rudzio; Vilmar; Wilke (1980), Der Marsch der DKP durch die Institutionen: Sowjetmarxistische Einflußstrategien und Ideologien, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, ISBN 3-596-24223-1
  • Horchem, Hans Josef [in German] (1973), "The Long March Through the Institutions", Conflict Studies, Institute for the Study of Conflict, vol. 33
  • —— (1975), Extremisten in einer selbstbewussten Demokratie, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, ISBN 3-451-07515-6
  • Niedenhoff, Horst-Udo (1979), Auf dem Marsch durch die Institutionen, Köln: Deutscher Instituts-Verlag, ISBN 3-88054-325-9
  • Ross, Robert (2010), "Reflections on the Sociology Liberation Movement of 1968", Crisis, Politics and Critical Sociology, BRILL, ISBN 9789004179486
  • Rudorf, Reginald [in German] (1994), Die vierte Gewalt, Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, ISBN 3-548-36635-X
  • Schelsky, Helmut (10 December 1971), "Die Strategie der "Systemüberwindung". Der lange Marsch durch die Institutionen.", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  • Suri, Jeremi (1 February 2009), "The Rise and Fall of an International Counterculture 1960–1975", The American Historical Review, 114 (1): 45–68, doi:10.1086/ahr.114.1.45
  • Waldman, Eric (1976), Deutschlands Weg in den Sozialismus, Mainz: V. Hase + Koehler, ISBN 3-7758-0922-8
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