Jacob Bronowski TV - David Harvey - Tony Benn - Masters of Money: Marx TV - J A Schumpeter - Cornel West - Jordan Maxwell - Paul Foot - Lee Harvey Oswald - Vladimir Lenin - Che Guevara - Alexei Sayle - Mikhail Gorbachev - Edmund Wilson - Kenneth Clark TV - Philip Gardiner TV - Bettany Hughes TV - Christoher Hitchens - Zbigniew Brezinski - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Portrait of a Great Man 1969 -
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the Communist Manifesto didn’t create the revolutions in Europe, but they gave it the voice. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 12/13: Generation Upon Generation, BBC 1973
This is what the bourgeois political economists have done: they have treated value as a fact of nature, not a social construction arising out of a particular mode of production. What Marx is interested in is a revolutionary transformation of society, and that means an overthrow of the capitalist value-form, the construction of an alternative value-structure, an alternative value-system that does not have the specific character of that achieved under capitalism. I cannot overemphasize this point, because the value theory in Marx is frequently interpreted as a universal norm with which we should comply. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people complain that the problem with Marx is that he believes the only valid notion of value derives from labour inputs. It is not that at all; it is a historical social product. The problem, therefore, for socialist, communist, revolutionary, anarchist or whatever, is to find an alternative value-form that will work in terms of the social reproduction of society in a different image. By introducing the concept of fetishism, Marx shows how the naturalized value of classical political economy dictates a norm; we foreclose on revolutionary possibilities if we blindly follow that norm and replicate commodity fetishism. Our task is to question it. David Harvey, A Companion to Marx’s Capital
It is wholly wrong to blame Marx for what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in his. Tony Benn
Well I came across Marx rather late in life actually, and when I read him, two things: first of all I realised that he’d come to the conclusion about capitalism which I’d come to much later, and I was a bit angry he’d thought of it first; and secondly, I see Marx who was an old Jew, as the last of the Old Testament prophets: this old bearded man working in the British Library, studying capitalism, that’s what Das Kapital was about, it was an explanation of British capitalism. And I thought to myself, ‘Well anyone could write a book like that’, but what infuses, what comes out of his writing, is the passionate hostility to the injustice of capitalism. Tony Benn, interview January 2003
Dover: the most dangerous man in Europe is about to arrive on Britain’s shores. His preachings are so incendiary he’s been forced out of his native country. Only liberal Britain will tolerate his presence on her soil. He heads to London to live in exile. The year is 1849. But today that man’s writings are still dangerous. They’re so radical, so revolutionary, they continue to divide the world. Masters of Money III: Marx, BBC 2012
Is Karl Marx turning out to be right? ibid.
For Marx, the best argument against capitalism is that it was inherently unfair ... Karl Marx had the most radical advice of all: get rid of it. ibid.
It’s what he said about capitalism that rings so true today. ibid.
For Marx, it all begins with private property. ibid.
They always need to make more profit. But in seeking out profit, they end up eroding the basis on which it’s made. ibid.
He saw capitalism as endlessly adaptable. ibid.
Credit provided an answer to all of capitalism’s woes. But only for a while. Remember, Marx thought the system was fundamentally flawed. ibid.
Capitalism’s only ever as strong as its latest temporary fix. ibid.
But the idea that low wages may have contributed to the crisis is gaining ground. ibid.
Marx would insist the trap is inescapable. ibid.
Nobody else has been able to describe a convincing alternative to capitalism either. ibid.
Could there ever be an alternative to capitalism? ibid.
Marx died in 1883 ... Did Marx change the world? Of course he did. ibid.
The cold metal of economic theory is in Marx’s pages immersed in such a wealth of steaming phrases as to acquire a temperature not naturally its own. J A Schumpeter, ‘Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy’, 1942
In a time in which Communist regimes have been rightfully discredited and yet alternatives to neoliberal capitalist societies are unwisely dismissed, I defend the fundamental claim of Marxist theory: there must be countervailing forces that defend people’s needs against the brutality of profit driven capitalism. Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader
Karl Marx in fact did not write the Communist Manifesto. He was merely a front man who put his name. The Communist Manifesto was put together by a group of men called the League of Just Men. Jordan Maxwell, The Dawn of a New Day
Before Marx and Engels, socialism had been seen mainly as an ideal, to be imposed from on high by idealists. It was an almost ethereal concept of an equal society in which everybody shared – far too beautiful to be achieved or administered by the rather selfish and ignorant masses. Such idealists were inclined to dismiss the rising clamour for the vote as irrelevant to the socialist cause, at best a diversion, at worst an obstacle. Marx and Engels took an entirely different view. As Hal Draper puts it, ‘Marx was the first socialist figure to come to an acceptance of the socialist idea through the battle for the consistent extension of democratic control from below.’ Paul Foot, Socialism & Democracy
The way to change it was the exact opposite of waiting to see if a scientific experiment would work out. It was for human beings to involve themselves in the struggle on the side of the oppressed. Marx’s life was a model of that involvement. In his youth, in quick succession, he was thrown out of Germany, Belgium and France, because he threw himself into the struggles of workers in all three countries. In France he associated closely with the fighting elements in the working class, and never forgot his admiration for them. Finally in 1849, aged 31, he came to England (where there was no immigration control) and settled here for the rest of his life. Paul Foot, ‘Karl Marx: The Best Hated Man’
Well I have studied Marxist philosophy, yes sir, and also other philosophers. Well I would definitely say that I am a Marxist, correct, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a communist. There’s a great deal of difference. Lee Harvey Oswald, interview New Orleans television
Marxism is incompatible with nationalism. Vladimir Lenin, On the Jewish Question
Complete equality of rights for all nations; the right of nations to self-determination; the unity of the workers of all nations – such is the national program that Marxism, the experience of the whole world, and the experience of Russia, teach the workers. Vladimir Lenin, The Right of Nations to Self-Determination
The merit of Marx is that he suddenly produces a qualitative change in the history of social thought. He interprets history, understands its dynamic, predicts the future, but in addition to predicting it (which would satisfy his scientific obligation), he expresses a revolutionary concept: the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed. Man ceases to be the slave and tool of his environment and converts himself into the architect of his own destiny. Che Guevara
We, practical revolutionaries, initiating our own struggle, simply fulfil laws foreseen by Marx, the scientist. Che Guevara
As Marxists we have maintained that peaceful coexistence among nations does not encompass coexistence between the exploiters and the exploited, between the oppressors and the oppressed. Che Guevara
Despite its flaws, Marxism still seems to explain the material world better than anything else. Alexei Sayle
If people don’t like Marxism, they should blame the British Museum. Mikhail Gorbachev
Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals. Edmund Wilson
There is still no centre. The moral and intellectual failure of Marxism has left us with no alternative to heroic materialism. And that isn’t enough. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation 13/13: Heroic Materialism, BBC 1969
Following these warnings, the revolution in Russia became a reality; it was fostered by the Freemasons from the several lodges still remaining. Even texts written by Karl Marx himself have been shown to be blatant copies of the writings of Adam Weishaupt of the Illuminati from the 18th century. Philip Gardiner, film Angels, Demons and Freemasons
Big bold dangerous ideas that would bring the world as we know it kicking and screaming into being. Bettany Hughes, Marx: Genius of the Modern World, BBC 2016
Karl Marx dramatically transformed our world. ibid.
Marx’s childhood was on the face of it pretty idyllic and thoroughly bourgeois. ibid.