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PEOPLE

MAGAZINE SECTION

i. T. No. 10

Ose

5 Cents

Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, March 13, 1943

will his work.”

© “... And now he has died-

beloved,
mourned by millions of revolu-
tionary fellow workers—from the
mines of Siberia to California,
in all parts of Europe and Amer-
ica .. . His name will endure
through the ages, and so also

revered and

Marxism - A Lesacy
For All Of Mankind

e

eee Al Be bivtedl it

5)
i /

By ALFRED C. CAMPBELL

‘XACTLY 60 years ago ,on March 14, 1883, the working
7 class movement of the world suffered a grievous loss.

: ?e great genius of Scientific Socialism — Karl Marx— was

and dead seated in his armchair before his table, where he

d devoted so many hours in writing the great theoretical
wks which armed the working class movement of the world

eth a theory and organization.

far=x as the founder of Scien-
e Socialism was the first to
@ forth and fashion into a pro-
“im of organized activity the
'Wtorical mission of the working
ss—the seizure of political
yer and the building of a elass-
@: society. Marx's theories lit
the pathway of organized
iggle which the working class
st travel to come into its his-
“Becal rights.
‘or the first time in the history
mankind all former stages of
lety were analyzed, placed in
tr proper setting, and general
iclusions drawn which gave a
ablance of historical order,
WRating history and world de-
‘#opment in a scientific manner.

5 ease Was born in the city of

Treves, in Prussia, on May
1818. His family was middle
“ss, and in the normal course
events Marx was destined for
m study of law. Devoting himself
‘lusively to a study of history
d philosophy, it was not long
sore Marx was caught up in the
telstrem of heated controversy
ich at that time was taking
see in the leading universities
| Hurope. &
Warx began his political life as
Seader of the radical bourgeoisie
fi step by step his studies and
Bictical activity rapidly brought
fa to the position where he
ame the foremost leader in
fe: working class movement of
: world,
farx could have lived in well-
fio circumstances by taking ad-
fitage of his class position and
m@yStitutinge his talents, but like
@eniuses who refused to sell
it talents to capitalism, he was
fied and calumniated. And he
@ not hesitate to cut himseif
jp iit from the class to which he
45 born and place himself at the
Hvice of the future of the whole
pmankind. When as a result of
Studies he advanced to a
Hirper and clearer position than
gi: taken by his colleagues of
m Yadical bourgeoisie, they
perted him in the midst of the

i

early political struggles in Ger-
many.

Forsaken by his former asso-
ciates, expelled from Germany,
France and Belgium, in his early
career, he stood alone. A conspir-=
acy of silence greeted his first
theoretical works and if any ref-
erence was made to him it was
only as the signal for a shower
of abuse.

Throughout it all Marx stood in-
domitabie.

@
T is not necessary to write an-
niversary articles or erect
monuments, in the ordinary

sense, solely to remind the work-
ing class of the greatness of Karl
Marx, The facts are that, despite
the attempts to bury Marx’s
memory, his greatest memorial
is the existence of the Soviet
Union, his grandest monument,
the unwavering singleness of pur-
pose and unity of its 180 million
citizens.

And one of the best methods to
remind the working class of the
immortal debt we owe to the
memory of Karl] Marx and his
colleague, Frederick Engels, is a
wider extension of working class
theoretical education and in-
ereased sales of the basic works
of Scientific Socialism.

Marx was no mumified profes-

sor, cloistered in an ivory tower, -

divorced from public activity. He
was in the fullest sense a practi-
Cal politician of public affairs.
He was the leader of the com-
munist movement and guided
its practical activity. He was the
invincible theoretician of sci-
entific socialism and the organ-
izer of the first~ international
movement. Aside from his many
writings, lectures, newspaper ar-
ticles, pamphlets and political let-
ters, Marx devoted his whole life
to his main work—fhe research
for and the writing of Capital,
the basic work of scientific com-
munism.

We contributed to progressive
papers and aiso to the Chartist
newspapers. As a result of his
research and historical studies of
the development of society, Marx

entertained not the slightest
doubt but that the working class
would finally triumph in its his-
torical mission.

ARZX lived in poverty all his

life. Without financial aid
from his friend and colleague,
Frederick Engels, Marx and his
family would many times have
suffered acute destitution. And
for months on end the only fi-
mances which entered the Marx
home were his weekly stipend of
one pound sterling paid to him
by the New York Tribune as its
correspondent.

In his later years Marx suffered
ill health brought on mainly by
bis gigantic efforts to finish
Capital, a task which was later
completed by his devoted friend
Engels. After his wife’s death in
December, 1881, Marx’s remain-
ing days were a train of physical

sufferings from which he never
recovered, and when a year later

his eldest daughter, Madame
Longuet, suddenly died, this add-
ed to his grief.

Broken in health as a result of

-his terrific labors on behalf of

the working class, the great colos-
sus of human thought, the heart
of the working class movement,
the great scientist and genius, at
the age of 67, was laid to his
last rest in Highgate Cemetery,
London, England.

At Marx’s burial, Engels con-
cluded his funeral oration with
these words:

“.. And now he has died—
beloved, revered and mourned
by millions of revolutionary fel-
low workers from the mines of
Siberia to California, in all parts
of Europe and America... His
name will endure through the
ages, and so also will his work.”

ARX did not discover the

class struggle, nor yet the
idea of Socialism. These existed
long before his time. In a letter
to a friend he states: “. .. And
now as to myself, no credit is
due to me for discovering the ex-
istence of classes in modern so-
ciety, nor yet the struggle be-
tween them. Long before me
bourgeois historians had discoy-
ered the historical development
of this class struggle and
bourgeois economists, the eco-
nomic anatomy of the classes.
What I did that was new was to
prove (1) that the existence of
elasses is only bound up with
particular historic phases in the
development of production (2)
that the class struggle necessar-
ily leads to the dictatorship of the
proletariat (3) that this dictator-
ship itself only constitutes the
transition to the abolition of all
classes and to a classless society

Marx wrote many documents
and made many important discoy-
eries. Of particular interest to
us at this time are his two prin-
cipal works, the Communist
Manifesto and Capital, both of
which are invaluable.

The Communist Manifesto, writ-
ten by Marx and Engels in 1847
at the request of the Communist
League, is the most concise and
important single document in
working class literature. Until the
issuance of this historical outline

and program, the early working -

class and peasantry had no clear-
cut progressive policy. Move-
ments rose to great heights and
for lack of perspective and an
ultimate aim fell away in disorder,
or were crushed promptly by the
ruling classes. Movements against
the horrors of the early industrial
factory system took on an anar-
chist character of destroying ma-
chinery, looting and rioting. They
were uprisings more or less of
despair, and at each defeat spread
demoralization throughout the
ranks of the participators.

HE theories of Marx and En-

gels with their direct organ-
izational lead began to impart for
the first time throughout the ad-
vanced countries, an organized
character to the working class
movement.

The Communist Manifesto re-
vealed the historical development
of society and the historic mis-
sion of the working class. Marx’s
Capital laid bare the development
and inner contradictions of the
Capitalist system. Both brought
clarity, hope and organization to
the working class movement.

Marx and Engels were the or-
ganizers of the First International
Association of the working class.
The First International laid the
firm foundations for working
class organization. It brought the
workers of the advanced capital-
ist countries closer together.

Consistent with his views in
both the Communist Manifesto
and Capital, Marx declared that
“the emancipation of the work-
ing classes must be conquered by
the working classes themselves.”

Without in the least departing
from the principles of his own
powerful theories, Marx organized
the First International and com-
posed the Inaugural Address and
the Statutes in such a way as to
make room for all workers ir-
respective of the wrong influences
or tendencies which they followed.
It was the formative years of
working class organization and
Marx never stood aside from the
working-class movement.

Years later Engels was able to
write that “The International, on
its breaking up in 1874, left the
workers quite different men from
what it had found them in 1864.”

t)

V HiLE this was so, yet the
2 working class was unable to
fulfil its historic mission during
the lifetime of Marx or Engels.
The hand of historical justice was
stayed. Capitalism was able to do

(Continued on Page Twelve)
See MARXISM