The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
The Birthday of Marx

/ the decline OF capitalism and the pro-
letarian revolution, is the name and
works Of Karl Marx that it seems
strange that this man was born one
hundred and nine years ago, Just after
the close Of the Napoleonic wars.
When we consider other historical
figures Of that time they seem to be-
long to the dim past, while Marx is
Of today. Others who played their
roles upon the stage Of history in his
time recede farther and farther into
the past.
But Marx looms ever larger and
his impress upon the world grows
deeper and deeper.
Participating in the revolutionary
struggles Of his day he formulated the
theory of historical analysis that en-
abled him to see beyond those stfug-
giles. In the light of the revolution
airy periods of 1880, of 1s48, he re-
examined the history Of the past and
discovered that the development of
civilization can be explained only by
analyzing the struggles between var
1 ious classes; that each class as it APP
/ pears upon the scene Of action de-
velops its own theology which is a
reflex Of its economic condition in
society. The real test of any historic
cal theory is its ability to explain it's
own origin and development. Marx
/ ism has stood that test. By apply
ing the MARKHAM theory itself we can
explain Marx and his work. There
may have been. before the period in
which Marx lived, men as capable as
he of analysing social forces, but
without the environment in which
Marx lived they could not have made
the contribution that he made. Only
in a period of intense class conflicts,
such as the first half of the past cen
fury, could the motive force in his
tory become clear. When Marx per-
ceived that the history of his day was
a history Of class struggles, he pro-
ceeded to take inventory Of all past
history from the days Of the tribal
matriarchy and discovered the law Of
history.
But he was not content merely with
discovering laws for explaining past
history. He proceeded to formulate
methods of making history, which i'm
PEELED him to endeavor to discover in
the society in which he lived the class
that would next rise to power, the
class that must be the carrier of the
future development Of society. That
class, as Marx proved, must be the
proletariat-the workingclass.
He declared it to be the dismal des-
tiny of the capitalist class to sink
into the grave prepared for it by the
workingclass. He then set about
studying the method by which this
could be brought about. In every re-
volution he sought the proletarian
thread that ran through At, proving
that it was the worlSingclass that al
ways bore the brunt of the fighting
even in the capitalist revolutions
against feudalism. In the Paris Com
mune of 1871 Marx saw the prole-
tariat for the first time emerge as a
ruling class and he drew therefrom
the revolutionary lessons that served,
long after his death, to guide the re-
vOlutionists in Russia in 1905 and
again in 1917 when they had to con-
struct new revolutionary form of
state. The germ of the Soviet form
of government was found by Marx
in the combined legislative and exc
cutive system developed during the
short life of the Commune. Marx was
the first to perceive, upon the basis
of that experience, that the working
class cannot use the old cumbersome
state apparatus for revolutionary pur-
poses.
In studying revolutions of his day
and the revolutions of the past he also
developed the theory of revolutionary
uprising by recognizing the fact that
instruction is an art, something that
must be studied in all its intricacies.
This part of his work was utilized by
Lenin and the leaders of the Russian
revolution in all the conflicts with
the enemy before and after the 1917
revolution. And a special institute
exists in Russia for the purpose of
gathering every scrap of the writings
and correspondence Of Karl Marx and
his great co-worker, Frederick Engels,
as guide to workingclassT leaders in
their struggles against the master
class.
Marx is the only figure Of his time
who influences society to this day
because he worked for the triumph
Of the wofkingclass and it is the tri-
umph of the workingclass in Russia
that vindicated the theoretical works
Of Marx and erected, in the workers
and peasants government in Russia. a
monument that testifies to the utter
bankruptcy Of all the capitalist class
economists and historians who have
tried on hundreds of occasions to re-
flute the MARKHAM conclusions.
One-sixth Of the entire world is
dominated by the class that achieved