With financial meltdowns and labour protests, is it the springtime for Marx?

[CHIMO]

In Highgate Cemetery, the faithful still come to drape flowers over the giant bust inscribed with some of Karl Marx's most famous words: “Workers of all lands unite” and “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point is to change it.”

It is the most-visited grave in the cemetery, even if most of the pilgrims don't come from Britain, the land of Marx's exile, where he died in near-obscurity in 1883. One of the volunteers at the cemetery, where fewer than a dozen mourners gathered at his funeral, says, “We get lots of Chinese visitors. They seem to think he's the greatest man who ever lived.” Around the base of his monument, crocuses have pushed their way through the cold earth.

Still, with the West suffering from the after-effects of the financial crisis and revolution in the air in parts of the world, could it possibly be springtime for Marx? Could Marxism, the Union Carbide of political brands, possibly be rehabilitated – or, more likely, mined for the bits that are still relevant in a chaotic world?

The signs may be sparser and more frail than those spring flowers around his grave, but students of the historian's work point to a few potential indicators: Striking workers in Egypt provided crucial leverage in the downfall of Hosni Mubarak; thousands of people have poured onto the streets of the American Midwest to protest against draconian labour legislation in various states. In Britain, trade unions are organizing marches on Saturday that will probably be the largest seen in the country since the anti-war demonstrations of 2003. Workers may not be the gravediggers of capitalism, as Marx and Friedrich Engels prophesied, but they may no longer be its zombies, either.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/with-financial-meltdowns-and-labour-protests-is-it-the-springtime-for-marx/article1957597/

[Ozymanithrax]

1. China has married Capitalism and Marxism...

So, you might be right.

[iamtechus]

2. It's a dysfunctional match-up that won't last

It's my understanding that there are two distinct classes in China: The workers and the party members who enslave them.

[AndyTiedye]

3. At the Rate that Marx Must be Spinning in His Grave

…they should wire him up, and they can shut down those dangerous nukes.