Karl Marx photo Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons

Karl Marx photo Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Norman Hall, South Tyne and Wear Socialist Party

For a second, I thought I had picked up ‘Socialism Today’ by mistake. There in the Economist, an authoritative journal of the bosses, was the heading: “The Labour leadership is right – Karl Marx has a lot to teach today’s politicians.”

The 13 May article lists some of the points where Marx was correct in his analysis of capitalism. It concedes that “much of what Marx said seems to become more relevant by the day.”

There’s the greed of the bosses: “In 1980 the bosses of the biggest list firms earned 25 times more than a typical employee. In 2006 they earned 130 times more.” The term “earned” is highly questionable.

“Marx predicted that capitalism would become more concentrated as it advanced. The number of listed companies has declined at a time when profits are close to their highest levels ever.” Here they also expose the lie that there is a shortage of money in society.

And, among many other points: “Marx was also right that capitalism would be increasingly dominated by finance, which would become increasingly reckless and crisis-prone.”

The reason for the appearance of the article is to warn the capitalist class. Consequently the tone changes.

It calls (in vain) for an end to excesses: “End the CEO salary racket” and “close the revolving door between politics and business.”

It warns against going too far in driving down living standards: “Average wages are still below their level before the financial crisis” and “the rise of the Uber economy threatens to turn millions of people into casual workers who eat only what they can kill.”

It hails the past “genius of the British system… reform in order to prevent social breakdown.” But even the creation of the NHS in 1947 was part of a ‘genius’ system to prevent revolutionary upheavals from an angry, organised working class after World War Two.

“As Trotsky once put it, ‘You may not be interested in the dialectic, but the dialectic is interested in you’.” So “the best way to save yourself from being Marx’s next victim is to start taking him seriously.”

Its final analysis is that “the problem with Marx is not that his analysis is nonsensical… but that his solution was far worse than the disease.” From the viewpoint of the parasitic capitalist class this is certainly true, but for the rest of humanity it is the great lie.