Marx Bicentenary
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Quote:Shadow chancellor John McDonnell – arguably Britain’s best-known Marxist – will speak on the theme of “Into the 21st century: Marxism as a force for change today” alongside guests from around the world, including Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of the Communist party of India (Marxist), and Luo Wendong, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
This one is going to be a real anti-socialist fest, as it would be being organised by the Tankies who control the Marx Memorial Library.The British Museum exhibition seems much more relevant. I remember that when they last did one on Marx, in 1867, on the centenary of the publication of Capital, we were able to sell lots of Socialist Standards outside the gates.
He is going to be the centre of much media attentionGerman news outlet DW has two articles both far off the mark http://www.dw.com/en/karl-marx-right-ideas-wrong-ideas/a-43591945http://www.dw.com/en/karl-marxs-core-economic-idea-revisited/a-43592271
Xi Jinping called the German philosopher "the greatest thinker of modern times," calling his theories on communism a tool for China to "win the future." He also claimed that putting "Marxism onto the flag of the Chinese Communist party was totally correct."Xi has instructed all party members to read Marxist works and to adopt Marxist theories as a "way of life" and a "spiritual pursuit."German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, meanwhile, sounded a more critical note in a speech honoring Marx. He emphasized that Marx's thinking was "rigid," and that it was impossible to separate his theories from the negative effects it had in socialist and communist countries. For Marx, he said it was about "liberation from poverty and paternalism, from the iron hand of an authoritarian state." But he emphasized that his theories had an "enormous" effect and were all too often abused by authoritarian, communist regimes like the Soviet Union and East Germany."We shouldn't fear Marx, but we don't need to build any golden statues to him either," Steinmeier said.http://www.dw.com/en/karl-marx-a-tool-to-win-the-future-for-china-xi-jinping-says/a-43650796
The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/04/karl-marx-revived-west-neglected-east-still-divides-germany
Quote:Christina Morina, an East Germany-born historian whose recent book The Invention of Marxism examines the people who turned the philosopher’s ideas into a political movement blames Marx’s interpreters for East Germany’s experiment with authoritarian Marxism, she also suggests that the contemporary revival’s pick-and-mix approach overlooks the 19th-century thinker’s absolutist ambitions.“There was a megalomania – and a dash of Prussian authoritarianism – to Marx’s desire to read and write his way into all sorts of scientific disciplines.”Quote:Marx’s theories are thus not simply alive: Marx is a ghost who continues to haunt us – and the only way to keep him alive is to focus on those of his insights which are today more true than in his own time.Independent againhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/karl-marx-anniversary-a8334241.html
Quote:Some of the most switched-on uber capitalists and masters of the universe concede that Marx’s basic analysis of capitalism has never been improved upon. Trump billionaire backer and donor Peter Thiel states that the breakdown of the status quo points either towards libertarianism or Marxism.The Guardian againhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/05/karl-marx-200th-birthday-communist-manifesto-revolutionary
Quote:We need Marx to help us understand the state we’re in, though that is only a prelude to the bigger struggle, for which his writings are less helpful: namely, how to get out of it.DW againhttp://www.dw.com/en/little-trace-of-marxism-in-africa/a-43654592
Quote:In Africa, there were already barriers which prevented socialism from flourishing. The conditions for increased industrial and agricultural production based on the socialist model were not applicable in poor African countries. In Europe, socialism was based on the class struggle of workers and farmers against the bourgeoisie. In Africa, there was neither a strong industry, nor an organized workforce. The arable land was mostly managed by traditional authorities.DW once more http://www.dw.com/en/karl-marx-at-200-what-remains-of-his-legacy/a-43625183
Quote:Certainly Marx cannot be held liable for what Stalin brought about. Nevertheless, one has to consider where the starting points lie, and these are certainly the dictatorship of the proletariat and the question of violence in revolutions. One has to point out in connection to this that there were gaps in Marx's edifice of ideas…For him, it is never about beginning with violence or enforcing any ideas through the use of force.http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44359-karl-marx-s-relevance-in-today-s-world
Quote:Nourished by the resistances to the exploitation of wage earners' work and the accumulation by dispossession that punctuate the capitalist globalization that is under way, its future can ultimately be measured only by its practical results, which remain, when all is said and done, the only test of truth and of the power of ideas.https://theconversation.com/karl-marx-wouldnt-agree-that-worker-power-has-been-killed-by-the-21st-century-95982Carlo Morelli, Senior Lecturer in Business and Economic History, University of Dundee
Quote:this means that there is a tendency towards a falling rate of profit for each player. To offset this and to make their goods even cheaper, the capitalists either become more concentrated through mergers and acquisitions, or by driving down wages through deskilling jobs and making people redundant. As Marx wrote, it becomes a competition between “the generalists, the capitalists … as to who can discharge most soldiers of industry”.This is really funny. Trotskyism,is the Marxism of the 21 cenrtury:http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/07/pers-m07.html Trotsky never had a clear defintion of what socialism really is
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