In his 1909 pamphlet Marxism & Darwinism Anton Pannekoek strongly rebutted the arguments of bourgeois Darwinists. In doing so he applied a historical materialist analysis of the origins and development of human society through social coexistence, the use of tools and the consequent development of language and thought.
It is through production that human beings are distinguished from animals. Unlike animals, they possess the ability to produce not only for consumption, but also for subsequent acts of production, such as the first rudimentary tools for hunting, fishing and harvesting. It is through work that the ape-man develops into the full human being.
Darwinian science, therefore, cannot be applied to human society; any analysis “based on the natural sciences would almost always lead to wrong conclusions on social issues, because nature remains the same throughout human history, while the forms of society have been changing rapidly and constantly”.
This new translation and book cover design is by Ed Walker