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Contribution short abstract:

Examining Marxist Muslim activism in Indonesia, I argue that activists bring together both traditions/ideologies through establishing affinities between central moral teloi based on negative ethical judgements. I inquire into the usefulness of ethics and morality for an analysis of Marxism.

Contribution long abstract:

In 1960s Indonesia, communists were persecuted and massacred by the military and civil society with the support of Western secret services. Marxism was criminalised and continues to be seen as immoral and anti-Islamic. In spite of this, there have been increasing activist attempts to revive Marxist ideas since the 1980s. Against this frictional backdrop, this paper focuses on my reserach with contemporary Marxist Muslim activist leaders in Java who are engaged in solidarity activism for people confronted with agrarian conflict. Exploring these activist intellectuals' theoretical perspectives as well as practical work, I demonstrate how they employ negative ethical judgements of injustice, oppression, and exploitation to establish affinities between the seemingly distinct traditions of Marxism and Islam. I specifically explore the communitarian ethos that undergirds activists' theoretical and practical work: with regards to their theoretical teaching, emphasising affinities between central moral teloi and principles of both traditions that allows them to disregard metaphysical differences; with regards to practice, focusing on common ground and mutual learning in encounters with the grassroots counterparts they support in solidarity but also the various community leaders and religious authorities they seek to convince to stand up for the former. As a result, activists' practices are quite far removed from the more orthodox Marxist analysis they propose at other times. I engage this friction, enquiring what this may have to say about our conceptual understanding of what counts as Marxism and what doesn't.