Marx, Engels and Bakunin in 1848 Paris

On the 28 August in 1844 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels meet for the 1st time in the Café de la Régence in Paris. Engels later remembered Marx outlining the "economic determinism" of his "materialistic theory"

On the 28 August in 1844 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels meet for the 1st time in the Café de la Régence in Paris. Engels later remembered Marx outlining the "economic determinism" of his "materialistic theory"

The anarchist Michael Bakunin had also arrived in Paris earlier that month and in 1871 he recalled of meeting Marx "As far as learning was concerned, Marx was, and still is, incomparably more advanced than I. I knew nothing at that time of political economy, I had not yet rid myself of my metaphysical observations …. He called me a sentimental idealist and he was right;…."

In 1864 when Marx invited Bakunin to join the 1st International he wrote to Engels saying "On the whole he is one of the few people whom I find not to have retrogressed after 16 years, but to have developed further"

Modern accounts tend to focus on the conflict between the two figures rather than the co-operation.

You can read more about what Bakunin thought of Marx and what he advanced as a model for revolutionary organisation at http://www.wsm.ie/c/bakunin-dictatorship-revolutionary-organisation and some additional articles on Marxism at http://www.wsm.ie/marxism

WORDS Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter )