An investigation of the formula of 'ethical fidelity versus tactical practicality' as elaborated in the polemic between Marx and Bakunin concerning the proper role of the State in libertarian communist revolution

This essay is focused on analyzing the debates between Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin concerning what role should be accorded to 'the State' in the course of working for libertarian communist revolution. I will be considering these debates as a case study for elaborating how certain challenges faced by 'anarchist organization' are formulated according to the polemically fixated conflict of ethical fidelity versus tactical practicality. In this case, the polemic is set between: (1) Bakunin' idealistically-oriented anti-Statist position which asserts an ethical fidelity to the practice of matching immediate means with their ultimate ends; and (2) Marx's pragmatically-oriented Statist position which asserts the tactical practicality of working with methods that strategically differentiate certain necessary immediate means from their proposed ultimate ends. My intention is to complicate this polemic-dilemma formula of 'ethics versus tactics' and its proposed solutions, suggesting that this formulation of the challenge does not offer an adequate model for resolving the practical problems it poses.