In this Weil is echoing Marx's statement in Poverty of Philosophy (1844; pp.69-70):
"So long as the proletariat is not yet sufficiently developed to constitute itself as a class, and consequently so long as the struggle itself of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie has not yet assumed a political character, and the productive forces are not yet sufficiently developed in the bosom of the bourgeoisie itself to enable us to catch a glimpse of the material conditions necessary for the emancipation of the proletariat and for the formation of a new society, these theoreticians are merely utopians who, to meet the wants of the oppressed classes, improvise systems and go in search of a regenerating science."
Marx further expounds on this theory in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844, p, 55):
"(2) It further follows from the relation of estranged labor to private property that the emancipation of society from private property, etc., from servitude, is expressed in the political form of the emancipation of the workers. This is not because it is only a question of their emancipation, but because in their emancipation is contained universal human emancipation. The reason for this universality is that the whole of human servitude is involved in the relation of the worker to production, and all relations of servitude are nothing but modifications and consequences of this relation."
Ultimately, although most dyed in the wool Marxists (and even some socialists) will deny it, the concept of "productive forces" is magical thinking, every bit as much Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand," or laissez-faire capitalism's "free market."
First it presupposes that those in power will do nothing to prevent their overthrow.
Second, Weil's statement, that Marx's belief that, "The essential task of revolution consists not in the emancipation of men, but of productive forces;" is based upon a false premise in terms of morality. As I have demonstrated in the quotes from Marx I used above, Ms. Weil is writing a true representation of Karl Marx's thought, and that thought is morally wrong. Placing the attainment of a "thing" ahead of the needs of human beings is at the heart of all human evil. As I have stated several times before--beginning with my August 5, 2009 OpEdNews article The Hope for Audacity --putting things ahead of people--whether it is a mugger who places his need for the money in an old woman's purse ahead of the old woman's well-being, or the Nazis placing their ideology of "racial purity," ahead of the millions that they exterminated in the Holocaust--differs only in the degree of evil, not in the moral wrongness of the act. As Weil stated "It was this assumption [of the inevitability of productive forces creating the reality of universal human emancipation--RJG] that enabled him to establish a harmony, indispensable to his moral tranquility, between his idealistic aspirations and his materialistic conception of history." Marx's subconscious knew he was wrong, he could simply not think of another means by which he could guarantee the inevitability of his theories becoming facts, other than "productive forces" leading to the emancipation of all humanity. From the several biographies I have read about Karl Marx, I can say that introspection and self-knowledge were not Marx's strong suit.
Thirdly, as Ms. Weil states about Marx's productive forces above, "Every social system, every dominant class has the 'task,' the 'historic mission,' of carrying the productive forces to an ever higher level;" may no longer be a viable option in the era of global warming and declining resources. I believe that we are entering an era where we must look to a policy of sufficiency, not unlimited, unplanned growth. In the future, it will be those nations that best use renewable resources (especially in energy), and most efficiently recycle their non-renewable resources, which will economically dominate the World. This will require a complete rethinking (and probably the preemption) of traditional "free market" capitalism, which minimizes risk and other costs while maximizing profits. This in turn will require a system of cooperation between the owners and workers of businesses that was totally unimaginable in Marx's time, if our civilization is to survive.
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