IN PRAISE OF COMMUNISM: KARL MARX'S TAKE ON "BLATANT INJUSTICES" OF THE 21ST CENTURY
In the 19th century, the era rife with class struggle and social conflict, the most comprehensive and influential way of thinking about social, economic, and political issues was developed by German philosopher Karl Marx. He died in 1883, before he could see communism, the idea he codified and fostered, take root. But what if, by some miracle, Marx were alive today? Would he be surprised, shocked or amazed at the way our society has evolved over the last 150 years? If a journalist sat down with "The Father of Communism" for an up-close-and-personal talk, this is what the interview might look like:
Q. Herr Marx, the world has changed dramatically since the mid-1800s. Communist systems collapsed and capitalism thrives in much of the industrialized world. Are you surprised at how the 21st century is turning out?
A: Certainly, the world today doesn't look anything like the one I was part of. The changes are too numerous to mention. So many things - from advanced medicine and technology, to the role of women in today's society -- are mind-boggling. My own country, Germany, is now part of the gigantic political and economic entity known as the European Union, where, as I understand it, workers' rights are guaranteed and upheld. Of course, blatant social and economic injustices still remain and have to be addressed, perhaps not so much in Western Europe, as in other parts of the world.
Q: What, in your view, are some of those injustices?
A: The list is very long, I am afraid. The most blatant injustice that comes to mind is that there is still such rampant poverty in much of the world, and that tens of thousands of people die from hunger every day. I am also shocked that child labor has not yet been eradicated everywhere in the world. And I am quite disheartened to see that more than a century and a half after Friedrich (Engels) and I published the Communist Manifesto, the society of the 21st century is hardly classless, just, or egalitarian. In fact, as I understand it, an average capitalist - I believe they are called CEOs nowadays -- earns 400 times more than his workers!
Q: So, would you say that the more things changed, the more they remained the same?
A: I wouldn't say that, as evidenced by my answer to the first question. However, inequalities are still prevalent and there does not seem to be a concerted effort to remedy this situation. Take labor unions, for example. They have been a great stride forward as far as workers' rights are concerned. However, while they started to evolve, especially in the United States, already during my lifetime, and then peaked in the 1950s, their membership and influence have been steadily declining, but not necessarily because of marked improvement in wages, hours, and working conditions. In some cases, that may hold true, but in so many others the reason for the decline is because employers want to keep their businesses union-free. That, of course, opens the door to all kinds of abuses, especially in countries that don't have strong labor protection laws. I am disappointed to see that business owners care more about their shareholders' interests than their workers.' Another worrying trend is the globalization and outsourcing of labor to save money - the worker is the one being shortchanged in the end.
Q: Will Rogers, an American actor and comic of the early 20th century, said, "Communism is like Prohibition - it's a good idea but it won't work." He made this comment in 1927, 10 years after the creation of Soviet Union. History did prove him right. So, can communism work?
A: Of course! Do you think that I, not to mention countless comrades like Friedrich, or Rosa Luxemburg after me, would dedicate our entire lives to an idea that was flawed? We fervently believed that the social, economic and political system such as it was in our time, had to be improved, and that power and wealth had to be distributed more equally among people. Those noble ideas form the basis of communism. The fact that it turned out to be a failure does not diminish or negate its basic integrity.
Q: Why do you think communism failed in every country that had adopted this system?
A: Well, we don't know for sure that it failed everywhere. Cuba has had some success with it, at least in providing free education and high-quality medical care to all its citizens, which cannot be said of the country that calls itself "the greatest" in the word - the United States. However, it is true that most nations that experimented with communism did not live up to its potential.
Q: Let's see: Soviet Union, Eastern European countries, North Korea - all of them have been dismal failures and all, with the exception of the latter, are now on the way to becoming democratic economies. So why did communism collapse?
A: I think that the common thread among these so-called "communist" countries is that all had pervasive abuses, which, I hasten to add, are not inherent to my undeniably purist vision of communism.
Force and, in many instances, terror, were used to control the population and keep it in line. In North Korea, the famine was and remains widespread, which was also the case in the early days of the Soviet Union, and bore out the shortcomings of the poor planning of collective farming. Also, the corruption was widespread, with party officials amassing fortunes, while the proletariat lived in poverty.
So, to answer this question in the simplest terms possible: the system was mismanaged and misused. This is not a reflection on communism, but on people in the highest ranks of their respective governments.
Q: You still maintain that communism is a superior social system, even with the way it had turned out?
A: Yes. Let's not forget that there are countries where my ideals are still at work today and are bearing fruit. Take Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who has declared himself a proponent of "a new socialism of the 21st century," not just in words but also in action. There are concrete examples of the positive impact he had had on his country since 1998. He has been re-elected twice since then, which proves his popularity among his people, who are, by and large, poor. His government has built clinics in every community so that everyone has access to free medical care. That's one tangible example right there. Can Americans say as much? Under Chavez's leadership, millions of Venezuelans are getting involved in the political process, seizing factories, creating communal councils, etc. So for these people, communism - or in this case socialism, which is just a stepping stone toward communism -- is clearly a superior social, political and economic order. In some countries, though probably not in all, it is still as pertinent today as it was in my time.
Q: With everything that you know now, would you still be an ardent communist?
I still believe in the ideals of communism, yes. Today, I would probably have to focus on and dedicate myself to specific issues - such as poverty, illegal migration, and corporate greed at the detriment of workers - and on specific countries and regions of the world where these issues are still prevalent and largely ignored.
But I imagine that I would spend more time as a "commentator" on CNN than in the trenches.
