Australian anarchist Kenneth Joseph Kenafick's letter to Dutch council communist Anton Pannekoek (12 February, 1949) on the former's book Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx, Marxian dialectics, and the need for a synthesis of Marxist and anarchist ideas. Part of Pannekoek's reply can be read here. Attached is Kenafick's handwritten copy, obtained from the Association Archives Antonie Pannekoek (Map-016).
Dear Dr. Pannekoek,
I am forwarding you by this post a copy of my recently published book “Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx”, which I hope you will find interesting. No doubt you already know a great deal more about Bakunin and I do, but I thought the conclusion of his ideas to present-day movements might prove of value. As I said at the conclusion of a recent article of mine in J.A. Dawson’s paper, it looks as if a synthesis of Marxian and Anarchist ideas on a higher plane is the only feasible line for the working class movement to take to-day.
I have just finished reading your “Lenin as a philosopher” [sic] which is now in the Melbourne Public Library. Had I read it before I published my own book, I might not have reflected [?] as critically as I did to the “Marxian” Dialectic, as it seems that it is Lenin rather than Marx that is primarily responsible for such misuse of the Dialectic by the “Communist” Party to-day.
You will probably disapprove with some of the points in my book. If you do, I should be glad to hear your views as one can always profit by informed and sincere criticism, as I know that yours would be.
Yours sincerely,
K.J. Kenafick
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