by Bob Seery

Created on: February 11, 2010   Last Updated: September 05, 2011

'Marxism', in so far as that term refers to what the man actually wrote was an unstoppable success; he completely upended the accepted hierarchy of the day, laying the seeds for almost all of the advances in working rights, pay and entitlements we take for granted today.

I'd say the aristocracy were flabbergasted when they read 'Das Kapital', not merely the ideas, but the tone in which they were presented - it oozed a jaw-dropping self-assurance. All of this 'dictatorship of the proletariat' stuff is seldom found - when it is there it functions more like a bugle call to rally the troops. But what you will find is truckloads of excerpts from established political economists - people who's opinions were only ever assailable by reference to the 'standard works' and who only ever disagreed with one another on the most tangential and irrelevant of points; these learned paragons of erudition are now dragged over Marx's steaming hot coals in the most barbaric orgy of iconoclastic frenzy perhaps ever witnessed in the history of ideas. I can't think of anything even remotely comparable; on the finest points of theory these learned expositors are pulverised by relentlessly logical argumentation backed up by thousands of detailed examples gathered from the four corners of the globe - and all valorising the toiling worker; the man in the mineshaft, the negro in the field, the chimneypot urchin - all at the expense of the 'gentleman' investor; who is now witheringly dismissed as a 'bourgoise capitalist' - absolutely sensational stuff - overnight, the world has been turned upside down.

This had to blow the socks off anyone who read it - the purest high voltage; the grey 'dismal science', the exclusive reserve of Oxford dons and the like, men of 'impeccable integrity' and of the 'highest moral calibre' - are here treated like common criminals, their elaborate economic philosophies unveiled as an immense scam to swindle the 'common man' - none of this 'lower orders' stuff for Marx; here is a 'learned gentleman' talking about them - in the language of an aristocratic - and telling them that the game's up, they've been screwed; as though they're not aware already, sure - but to see it in print, to be able to thumb through it, commit it to memory - to rehearse its arguments - this is the beginning of organised labour proper and the rationalization of the workplace and whoever clocks off at a reasonable hour, has a living wage, proper benefits and entitlements and enough hours left in the week to have a life for themself, well they can first of all drop to their knees and thank the Christ, or whatever God they subscribe to, that the powers that be saw fit to bring Marx into the world.

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