The minimum program in Marxism refers to a set of demands for immediate reforms, which is in contrast to the maximum program of fully constructed socialism or communism.
One of the first examples of a minimum programme is in the 1880 programme drawn up for the French Workers' Party by Jules Guesde with Paul Lafargue, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. The introductory Preamble, also known as the "maximum section" was given to Guesde by Marx and concludes with the following paragraph (according to the Penguin translation from the German in MEW)
The French socialist workers, who have set themselves in the economic arena the goal of the return of all means of production to collective ownership, have decided, as the means of organisation and struggle, to enter the elections with the following minimum programme.[1]
Further reading
References
- ↑ "Marx, First International and After" pp. 376-377, Penguin, London, 1974. NB the translation from the French at http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/05/parti-ouvrier.htm translates the last phrase as "immediate demands"