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the 2006 Marx memorial add re s s

2007 Karl Marx orat i o nby Mary Dav i s editor of Communist Rev i ew

‘Marx also revealed the special law ofmotion gove rning the pre s e n t - d aycapitalist mode of pro d u c t i o n , and theb o u rgeois society that this mode ofp roduction has cre at e d . The discove ry ofsurplus value suddenly threw light on thep ro bl e m , in trying to solve which allp revious inve s t i g at i o n s , of both bourg e o i seconomists and socialist critics, had beeng roping in the dark.’

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We are here today to commemora t eM a r x ’s birth in May 1818, but lest itbe thought that the annual ora t i o n

is a cranky fo rm of stone wo rs h i p, it isa p p r o p riate to remind ours e l ves of thee n d u ring importance of Marx’s ideas. G i ve nthat Marx’s writings would fill at least 55vo l u m e s , I cannot pretend to do justice to hiswo rk . H owe ve r, one of the best summaries ofhis contri bution was given by his friend andc o l l a b o ra t o r, F ri e d rich Engels, in the eulogy hed e l i vered to Marx three days after the latter’sdeath in 1883.

Engels argued that Marx made two majord i s c ove ri e s :

1 . the law of development of human history– that is, h i s t o rical materi a l i s m , a n d

2 . the special law of motion gove rning thep r e s e n t - d ay capitalist mode of production

In Engels (much misunderstood) wo r d s :‘Just as Darwin discovered the law of

d e velopment of organic nature, so Marxd i s c overed the law of development of humanh i s t o ry : the simple fact, h i t h e rto concealed byan ove rg r owth of ideology, that mankind mu s tfi rst of all eat, d ri n k , h ave shelter and clothing,b e fore it can pursue politics, s c i e n c e, a rt ,r e l i g i o n , e t c. ;

I say much misunderstood because thispassage is often used by those who rejecth i s t o rical materialism to assert that Marx wasa crude economic determ i n i s t : the infamousb a s e / s u p e rs t ructure arg u m e n t . A nyone whohas read the ‘18th Bru m a i r e ’ , ‘Class Struggles inF ra n c e ’ or the ‘ G e rman Ideology’ (and mu c hmore) will know that there was nothing cru d eabout Marx’s analysis and it betrays no signs ofeconomic determ i n i s m .

B u t , as Engels arg u e s , h i s t o rical materi a l i s mwas not the only great discove ry.

‘Marx also revealed the special law ofmotion gove rning the present-day capitalistmode of production, and the bourg e o i ssociety that this mode of production hasc r e a t e d .The discove ry of surplus values u d d e n ly threw light on the probl e m , in try i n gto solve which all previous inve s t i g a t i o n s , o f

c rucial in the struggle of black people inB ri t a i n .

Also bu ried here are three members of theC e n t ral Committee of the Iraqi Commu n i s tPa rty – a party which has been persecuted ormaintained an illegal existence for much of itsh i s t o ry. Amer Abdullah played a prominentp a rt in the 1958 revo l u t i o n .Thabit Habib-al-anialso bu ried here was expelled from Iraq in1956 by the British gove rnment for anti Ira q iactivities! Saad Ali (brother of a curr e n tprominent Central Committee member) isalso interred here. Saad was one of thefo u n d e rs of CA R D R I .

And over there is Yusuf Dadoo, ( p i c t u r e da b ove) Chairman of South A f rican Commu n i s tPa rt y, fi rst president of the A f rican NationalCongress and a close associate of NelsonM a n d e l a . H o u rs before his death in September1 9 8 3 , Dadoo sent a message to the Centra lCommittee of the SACP in which he upheldthe vital importance of Marxism in theideological stru g g l e. He wrote:

‘Our strength in the past has been bu i l tupon the depth of our Pa rt y ’s and cadresideological knowledge and unders t a n d i n g .T h efierce ideological battle being waged on manyfronts must not find our Pa rty wanting. It is in

this context that we need to assess heret o d ay, and in our fo rthcoming delibera t i o n s ,our weaknesses and strengths, our successesand failures.We must fra n k ly, h o n e s t ly andr e a l i s t i c a l ly provide direction for enhancing ourwo rk in the testing time that lies ahead….Ofp rime importance is the ideological wo rk ate ve ry leve l .We need to cri t i c a l ly assess oure f fe c t i veness in this key area.’

The fierce ideological battle continues today.C o m munists have to contend with ana g g r e s s i ve resurgence of neo-liberalism and, i nits wake, an array of divisive ideas ranging fromreligious fundamentalism (with its homophobicand misogynistic connotations) to sectari a nl e f t i s m .We have to re-assert the primacy ofclass and class struggle against those whowould either deny its relevance, m i s u n d e rs t a n dits composition or wreck the potential fo runited struggle for short term advantage.

And thus we too have to measure up tothis ideological and political battle of whichDadoo wrote.We must do this not bya s s e rting (as some did in the past) that‘marxism is omnipotent because it is tru e ’ , bu tby understanding and applying Marx’s greatd i s c ove ries to our own era .This is what mu s tunite commu n i s t s , the inheri t o rs of the Marxistt radition – a secular socialist tra d i t i o n ,throughout the wo rl d .

The essence of the struggle - to endexploitation and oppression fo r e ver remains aconstant goal and provides an organic link withMarx and the socialists of his century.The taskstill remains to interpret our wo rld in order tochange it.

M a ry Davis is editor of Communist Rev i ew and amember of the executive committee of theCommunist Pa rt y.

She is professor of Labour History, d e p u t y - d i r e c t o rof the Wo rking Lives Research Institute and headof the Centre for Trade Union Studies at LondonMetropolitan Univers i t y

‘His real mission inlife was toc o n t r i b u t e , in oneway or another, t othe ove rt h row ofcapitalist societyand of the stat einstitutions whichit had brought intob e i n g , to contributeto the liberation ofthe modernp ro l e t a r i at , w h i c hhe was the first tom a ke conscious ofits own positionand its needs,conscious of theconditions of itse m a n c i p at i o n .’

both bourgeois economists and socialist cri t i c s ,had been groping in the dark .’

S u p p o rt e rs and detra c t o rs alike all have toa c k n owledge the profundity of Marx’s analy s i sif the inner wo rkings of capitalism.

Both these major contri butions must neve rbe seen as fossilised dogmas – as the lastword on all aspects of social reality; but ra t h e ras the key to opening an ongoingu n d e rstanding of the wo rld in which we liveand the way it deve l o p s . So Marx did not sayit all, it is up to us who inherit the tradition hefounded to constantly renew it by applying itsmethod to an analysis of 21st centuryc a p i t a l i s m .

H owe ve r, as Marx wrote in the 11th thesison Feuerbach (and is up there on hisg rave s t o n e ) , it is not enough to unders t a n dthe wo rl d : the point is to change it.

Marx was thus a revo l u t i o n a ry. As Engels saidin his eulogy:

‘His real mission in life was to contri bu t e, i none way or another, to the ove rt h r ow ofcapitalist society and of the state institutionswhich it had brought into being, to contri bu t eto the liberation of the modern proletari a t ,which he was the fi rst to make conscious of itsown position and its needs, conscious of theconditions of its emancipation.’

He went on to cite all the newspapers andp e riodicals to which Marx contri bu t e d , bu tadded that his crowning achievement was thefo rmation of the International Wo rking Men’sAssociation— ‘an achievement of which itsfounder might well have been proud even ifhe had done nothing else.’

Because of his revo l u t i o n a ry activities ‘ M a r xwas the best hated and most calumniated manof his time. G ove rn m e n t s , both absolutist andr e p u bl i c a n , d e p o rted him from theirt e rri t o ri e s .’ (Engels) But nonetheless he died,again according to Engels ‘ b e l ove d , r e vered andm o u rned by millions of revo l u t i o n a ry fe l l owwo rke rs—from the mines of Siberia toC a l i fo rn i a , in all parts of Europe and A m e ri c a ’

Engels could not have fully appreciated the

e n d u ring ve racity of this statement. W riting inthe 19th century he could not have fo r e s e e nthe huge wo rldwide influence of Marx wayb e yond Europe and A m e ri c a .

From the 1920’s onwards, fo l l owing thedebacle of Wo rld War One, the bankruptcy ofsocial democracy and the momentousinfluence of the Russian revo l u t i o n , C o m mu n i s tPa rties were fo rmed and remain activethroughout the wo rl d . Just as Marx was ‘ h a t e d ’and ‘ c a l u m n i a t e d ’ by reactionary gove rn m e n t sand was deported by them, so it is withc o m munists of our era .

We need only cast our eyes a few ya r d sfrom Marx’s grave in this ve ry cemetery to seet h i s . B u ried here are communists from Ira q ,South A f rica and the USA. L i ke Marx, all we r ein exiled from regimes where the party wasillegal or semi-legal where communists we r ei m p ri s o n e d , t o rtured and were eitherd e p o r ted or forced to escape.

S o, here lies the black A m e ri c a nC o m mu n i s t , Claudia Jones (pictured above ) ,fe m i n i s t , black activist, c o m munity leader,j o u rnalist and who has been described as themother of the Notting Hill carn i v a l . S h efounded and edited the West Indian Gaze t t ewhich despite financial problems remained

designed by Nick W ri g h t

We have to re -a s s e rt the primacyof class and classs t ruggle againstthose who wo u l deither deny itsre l eva n c e ,misunderstand itscomposition orw reck the potentialfor united stru g g l efor short terma dva n t a g e .