Karl Marx - The Pioneer in Labor Movement

Photo Credit : www.marxists.org


Sometime during 1995, I was attracted to Karl Marx and his philosphy. That got intense once I moved into the NGO world in 1996. Thanks to my friends who were (are) hard core marxists.

Karl Marx, who was born on 5th May in 1818 in Germany is more worshipped across the world more than Germany itself !!!

I always wondered what this marxism is all about. I got the answer only in 1996. During 1970s and 80s when my mother was working in BHEL, she used to be part of the Gate Meetings by the Trade Union leader MS Krishnan who was part of Communist Party of India. So, I had a little bit of exposure about the trade unions and their philosphy which spoke about Marxism.

The Communist Manifesto which is a kind of sanctum sanctorum for the communists, is something which I can say is one of the biggest contributions by Karl Marx. This manifesto, which was arrived at in collaboration with Engels, spoke about communist League's purposes and how they would go about it. (Forget about it. Today's "communists", be it, Karats, Yechuris, Bardhans, DasGuptas, Basus, and etal can't even swear by this manifesto as their work does not even come close to it) This document very surprisingly did not talk about anything concrete.

It was Das Kapital, which in English means Critique on Political Economy, which brought forward Karl Marx's thoughts, where he spoke about capitalism which exploits and eliminates labor. How true it is in even today's world. Even though Das Kapital focused on the labors, artisans and peasants, this still holds good for every person who is a "Labor" who works more for others than himself. Very sad part of it is that the Governments are being run by these same capitalists whom Karl Marx calls" dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks"

But, I believe that most part of what Karl Marx believed was relevant to the kind of society he was living in. Not sure whether he anticipated the concept of "Global Village". Possibly yes and possibly no.

Just remembered all these things as today is his birthday and interestingly, this is very close to the May Day which is called as International Labor Day.

Do we still relate ourselves to Marxism and May Day??