From the article:
“Like Lenin after him, Engels understood that materialist philosophy cannot be defended and further developed if it does not constantly take into account the latest advances in the natural sciences.”

The article quotes Engels’ Dialectics of Nature:
Nature, he wrote, is “the proof of dialectics,” which “comprehends things and their representations, ideas, in their essential connection, concatenation, motion, origin and ending.”

The decision by the WSWS to ignore these basic lessons in a central and vital issue will disarm the working class. Rather than simply rehash theory, Marx and Engels applied it to the work of raising the consciousness of the advanced workers in their day.

“The latest advances in the natural sciences” would have to include genetic modification or genetic engineering. Furthermore, the virus’s protein structure and origin in labs could not be separated anymore than the work of Marx and Engels. In order to see the true nature of the virus, one would have to, as Engels states, “comprehends things and their representations, ideas, in their essential connection, concatenation, motion, origin and ending.” The laboratory concatenations of the virus and its origin, as well as its motion through workplaces, schools, and other super-spreader locations express the dialectical idea of the virus, its representations in various reports and studies, as well as in scientific literature describing SARS outbreaks or even in references in popular culture such as movies like 12 Monkeys and games like Plague Inc.. In Plague Inc. the player must manipulate the virus in the laboratory to change various traits of the virus, affecting its virulence and contagiousness. Then they watch the virus spread as headlines appear describing its effect on various countries.

The WSWS has also misapplied Marx’s theory of surplus value to describe the return to work. Without a clear understanding of the productive forces and their effects on the relations of production, the WSWS will lose the struggle to lead the workers before it can lose the struggle on behalf of the workers. Rather than struggle with various professors over academic questions, Marx and Engels sought to bring the scientific viewpoint to the movement of the working class revolution and its leaders. They also defended their views against encroaching forces that sought converts within the revolutionary party or other revolutionary groups. To the extent that they dealt with the pervasive theories of certain professors with influence over the universities, they did this to find meaning and value in their work, as well as to convert and incorporate their following through revolutionary stances against medievalism, terrorism, and parliamentarianism.