Dictionary

[fozzie]

Can anyone tell me what a proto Marxist is or does ?

[Yeah Bee]

I guess it is someone who is a marxist before . Proto meaning before or early example, like prototype car. And I hhope you understand what marxist is. Maybe it is a marxist in a pre-industrialized society

[Quizmonster]

'Proto' in such word-formations means first, primitive or ancestral. Proto-Marxists would, therefore, be people such as Lenin, Engels and so forth...ie the very earliest believers in communist beliefs...the 'fathers' of the movement.

[JohnPPotts]

Surely Proto-Marxists were Marxists before Marx had written his theories (which would exclude Lenin - he's definitely post-Marx). One of the earliest recorded examples of a Communist society would be somebody like the Apostles ("They lived together and held everything in common", Acts of the Apostles, ch 2, v. 44) - about 1800 years before Karl Marx!

[fozzie]

Thank you one and all - very informative

[Quizmonster]

'Proto' does, indeed, mean 'first in time' - as the words 'primitive/ancestral' in my earlier answer suggested. However, it can also mean 'first in rank/principal', according to 'TOED'. I'm pretty sure Lenin would be disappointed to hear he failed to qualify under that secondary heading. But what the hey!

[bernardo]

Proto-Marxists would be those who had ideas or principles similar to Marxism, but before Marx formulated the theory.  e.g. Levellers, Cromwell, kibbutzim, ancient tribal societies, etc.

[Yeah Bee]

Once again Bernardo comes to the rescue but this time JohnPPotts gave the best answer. You win a weekend at London Hilton. A well known proto-marxist must be those romans, a couple of brothers in the senate who wanted to divide all the lands in Rome exactly alike. Name those Bernardo