In post #96 on the discussion on the "1914 commemoration", Lbird brings up another of his regular preoccupations, that of "Engelsism/Leninism", which he claims is nothing to do with marxism. He claims that there is no "Scientific socialism of the positivist sort" (whatever that means), and that "the opposition of idealism to materialism" is an idea of Engels not Marx. In another post, he approvingly cites Marx's Theses on Feuerbach to show that Marx saw a value in certain forms of idealism (notably Hegelian idealism of course).

But where on earth does he get the idea that Engels and Marx disagreed on this? Here for example is Engels, in the Dialectics of Nature:

"It is an old postulate of dialectics, which has passed into popular consciousness, that extremes touch. We will hardly go wrong in searching for the most extreme grade of phantasmagoria, credulity and superstition, not in that scientific direction which, as in the German natural philosophy, tries to force the objective world into the framework of its subjective thinking, but rather in the opposite direction, that which, insisting on mere experience, treats thought with sovereign contempt, and which has really gone the furthest in its thoughtlessness. This school rules in England."

As for "Engelsian" scientific socialism, Engels' pamphlet "Socialism, Utopian and scientific", which one would think was a pretty definitive statement of Engels views on the question, is drawn from his Anti-Dühring, which was prepared in close collaboration with Marx, who contributed the chapter on economics. Marx also wrote the preface to the French edition of "Socialism..." - which to me is pretty conclusive evidence that Marx and Engels were in complete agreement on the meaning they gave to the notion of "scientific socialism". Not only that, to write Anti-Dühring, Engels had to put to one side his scientific work on the Dialectics of Nature, and all the scientific references in Anti-Dühring are basically taken from that work. Given that Marx collaborated on Anti-Dühring, it seems safe to assume that he agreed with Engels on the scientific outlook incorporated in that work. I would encourage comrades to read this article in the series on communism, which deals specifically with Anti-Dühring [5].
Indeed, Marx often consulted Engels on scientific issues and was prepared to accept Engels' critiques on his ideas.
The attempt to split Marx from Engels and Lenin is neither new nor original, it is more of a hoary old chestnut beloved both by academic philosophers unable to resist the power of Marx's theoretical work but incapable of espousing its socially revolutionary implications, and (more honourably) by councilists trying to avoid the implacable organisational implications of Marx's theory, life, and practice.