EDITORIAL
The Marx millennium
Karl Marx has been attacked and ridiculed by the bourgeoisie
for 150 years. They can never forgive him for having developed
a comprehensive, scientific view of social development and a
critique of capitalism that not only unravels its deeply
ingrained contradictions but predicts its overthrow and
replacement by socialism.
As Frederick Engels said in 1883 at Marx's graveside, "Marx
was before all else a revolutionary. His real mission in life
was to contribute in one way or another to the overthrow of
capitalist society and of the forms of government which it had
brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the
present-day proletariat.... Consequently, Marx was the best
hated and most calumniated man of his times."
But Marx was also "beloved, revered and mourned by millions
of revolutionary fellow-workers," said Engels. "His name and
his work will endure through the ages."
And so they have. This is despite the best efforts of the
owners of the mass media, who have done everything they could
to bury Marx.
They must be scratching their heads these days, for Marx is
the winner of a worldwide online poll, taken by BBC News in
September, that asked: "Who was the greatest thinker of the
last 1,000 years?" Karl Marx beat out such luminaries as
Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Immanuel Kant and Rene
Descartes.
Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, which was a
clear and stirring call to uproot the chaotic system of
capitalist private property and replace it with a planned
system of social ownership.
BBC News, in announcing the results of its poll, printed the
comments of those who participated. Dag Thoresen of Norway
wrote: "Karl Marx has inspired thousands of liberation
struggles. He was the father of modern political thinking."
Becky Branford said, "Karl Marx's theories are so versatile
that they can be used to understand and explain situations that
confront us in today's world." Jyotsna Kapur of the United
States wrote, "Marx analyzed best the working of capitalism.
Given that that is the system that characterizes the world at
the end of the twentieth century, his work is as relevant to
understanding the world we live in as it was for understanding
the nineteenth century."
Bravo! So it turns out that the age of radio, television and
the Internet has not paralyzed people's ability to think after
all. It is said that, as effective as is hypnosis, it cannot be
used to make people go against their most basic interests--for
example, to commit suicide or murder. We believe the same can
be said for all the propaganda that is conveyed, whether open
or concealed, by the mass media. It is the conditions of real
life, not the fiction spooned to us each day, that in the long
run shape the actions of social classes. And a lot of people
seem to recognize that, according to this poll.
Marxism does explain the world today as no other system of
political thought can. It also shows in general terms how the
world can be changed--that is, it explains the material basis
for the class struggle. Eminent Marxists like V.I. Lenin used
Marxism to analyze the further development of capitalism into
its imperialist stage, and recognized the great importance of
the struggle of oppressed nations in this modern period.
With the new millennium comes once again the question of how
to carry out the revolutionary transformations predicted by
Marx and so urgently desired by workers and oppressed around
the world.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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