March 14th 2008 marked the 125th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx here in London.
At a commemoration organised jointly, as it is every year, by the Trustees of the Marx Grave & the Committee of the Marx Memorial Library, wreaths were laid at the tomb on behalf of the British Labour Movement, the Ambassadors of China, Cuba, Vietnam & South Africa, and other fraternal parties and organisations.
John Callow of the Marx Memorial Library delivered the following address:
“Sometimes I think that the massive bronze head of Marx that towers above us, here in Highgate Cemetery, exists just to keep him down beneath the ground. How many times have we been told that Marx - together with the ‘ism’ he created despite all his best endeavours - are outdated, discredited or simply irrelevant? Thomas Masaryk thought that Marxism was in terminal decline as early as 1898; H.G. Wells was put off by the long Victorian beard on Marx’s statue and could see no further than that; while Francis Fukuyama led the chorus of opprobrium that greeted the collapse of the Socialist countries of Eastern Europe in 1989; and a recent novelist thought that Marx’s entire opposition to capitalism stemmed from his own skin complaints. Alienation and exploitation were no longer the products of injustice and greed, but were external projections - by a disgruntled & aging philosopher - of a personal, physical sickness.
Fortunately, it is not as simple as all that.
One hundred & twenty-five years after Marx’s death in London, a spectre is still haunting the centres of finance capital. Maybe it is not any longer that of Communism - as formulated through the prism of Soviet experience -but it is undeniably that of Marx, the philosopher & fighter, himself.
If Fukuyama’s brand of liberal democracy has burned itself out, amid the tank tracks & depleted uranium rounds in Iraq, offering little more than a mirage of consumerism and a reality of exploitation - then, Marx endures. His name was on the lips of Gagarin as he broke through the bonds of space; he is cited & championed by Zizek in the most challenging and popular works of contemporary philosophy; provided the crucible of thought for Ilyenkov and Mikhailov (who await to be discovered by today’s researchers just as surely as Gramsci did in the 1970s); and stands as an inspiration & a hope for the poor and friendless across the developing world.
Though his vision of equality and economic democracy still remains to be fulfilled, he was able during his life-time to forge a new, optimistic and highly creative philosophy that stressed the ability of men & women to make their own history, and by their own efforts transform their dreams of a fairer & more equal society into a solid and positive reality.
Harold Wilson, a great Labour prime minister, who was right about so many things, was misled in this respect. The answer really does lie up in Highgate … the task is to move beyond the cliches of the past and to look out beyond the monuments, in order to work for the future that Marx would have wanted”.
As reported in ‘The East London Advertiser’; Len Aldis - Committee Member at the Marx Memorial Library - hosted the Prime Minister of Vietnam, H.E. Tran Quang Hoan, during an official three-day visit to London.
Len is also the Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society, and was invited to meet the Prime Minister on his arrival in Great Britain.
Though the schedule was very tight, Len managed to find time for them to visit New Zealand House in the Haymarket to see the plaque recording the stay of Ho Chi Minh in London. As a young man, in 1914-15, Ho worked in the kitchens of what was then the Carlton Hotel.
Tony Benn - as all our readers, members & supporters will know - is a unique figure on the British political landscape. He is a true democrat, a major diarist and a passionate Socialist.
He has been a consistent supporter of the Library’s over many years, lecturing in our hall and attending many of our events.
In the latest volume of his Diaries, “More Time for Politics”, he records a visit to Library on 5 September 2006: “To the Marx Memorial Library … [and] into the room where Lenin worked for a year, 1902-1903, and I must say, it was really quite exciting to be in the room and possibly sitting on the very chair he sat on”.
For further information on Tony - and his 1982 lecture at the Library “Democracy & Marxism, a Mutual Challenge” - see our forthcoming souvenir guide to “75 Years of the Marx Memorial Library”.
The Library was very pleased, on 7 February 2008, to welcome Paul Kenny - the General Secretary of the GMB Union - for a visit.
The Library holds extensive materials on the history and development of the British trades union movement. Tom Mann, one of the seminal figures in the history of the TUC gave the first ever lecture at the Library; and we are delighted that Paul Kenny is helping in re-newing our close links with the unions.
During his visit, the General Secretary of the GMB saw the Library’s International Brigade Archive, looked through the holdings on William Morris, and signed the visitor’s book in Lenin’s Office.
A new edition of this book, by Asa Briggs & John Callow, has just been published by Lawrence & Wishart.
‘Marx in London’ links the story of Karl Marx’s life to the places he lived & worked in the City. It is fully illustrated with photographs, maps and engravings, and includes transport details to places of interest.
Copies are available from the Library, price £8.99 plus £2 postage; or via Amazon.
Pictures of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from the picture archive at the Marx Memorial Library were used on a ‘Time Team’ programme on the industrial archaeology of Manchester, broadcast on Channel 4 on Saturday 17th November.
Presenter Tony Robinson discussed the impact of rapid industrialisation on the radical politics of the city, & highlighted the role played by Frederick Engels both as a social commentator and a campaigner for better living conditions for the new working class.
A recent edition of the Islington Tribune carried the story of how theatre director, Alfio Bernabei came to stage his production of ‘The Trial of Mussolini’.
He told the paper that he had been researching ‘the activities of Italian anti-fascists who had fled into exile into England during the Mussolini regime’.
‘I was looking into archives to track down their writings condemning fascism. I found “The Trial of Mussolini”, written under the pseudonym “Cassius” at the Marx Memorial Library’.
Impressed by the passion, intelligence and integrity of the author, Mr. Bernabei was surprised to discover that the author was not, as he had first thought, an Italian exile but none other than the former Labour Party leader & Tribunite MP, Michael Foot.
The Library was very pleased to have assisted in his discovery, and wishes both him and his production every success.
On behalf of the Marx Library, John Aitken (Library Treasurer), joined with Councillor Bob Skelly, the Russian Ambassador, H.E. Yuri Fedotov, and veterans of the British Arctic Convoys, in laying wreaths at an Act of Remembrance at the Soviet War Memorial, in London, on Remembrance Sunday (11 November 2007).
Mr. Fedotov noted the strength of the alliance which helped to defeat Fascism, and the continuing need to remember those who had fought and died for the sake of humanity and all future generations.
The Library’s thanks go to our friends and colleagues at the SCRSS and the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund, who helped to make this such a moving and dignified occasion. For further information on the Trust’s activities & the War Memorial email: smtf@hotmail.co.uk
The latest issue of the Library Bulletin is now out!
It includes the text of this year’s “Marx Oration” - given by Professor David Margolies - Bill Ash’s thrilling wartime memoirs of his time as a radical Spitfire pilot; together with articles on current Marxist Research in China and the Spanish Civil War.
Copies are sent out free to Library members, but are also available at the price of £2 (£1.50 + 50p postage) to UK residents, and £3.50 to the rest of the world.