Untold Stories of Great Communist Visionaries

Karl Heinrich Marx

 
Karl Heinrich Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany. A philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist, Marx's work in economics laid the foundation for how we understand labour and its relation to capital. Most of the subsequent economic thought is based on his works.

At the height of his fame, he was known as a demon by many and as a hero by others. He was the man who laid the foundation for a political system that existed for most of the 20th century and which affected millions. It is a different matter that the system was noted for its remarkable failures, yet it continues to have plenty of followers.

On his birth anniversary today, here are five interesting facts about Karl Marx that you did not know.

1. He once famously said, "All I know is I'm not a Marxist."

He is reported to have said this at a conference for Marxists which he had gone to attend. However, incensed by how they had twisted his works, he had said that if these are Marxists, then he's not one.

2. As a student, Marx was a social butterfly and his father had to bail him out when he was in university because he had racked up an enormous debt.

3. A self-proclaimed champion of the working class, he never once in his life did a labour job. Karl Marx: An exclusive interview with his biographer

A holder of various degrees, no university allowed him to teach as he proclaimed himself to be an atheist. His writings in a radical newspaper got him expelled from Germany. He married Jenny, a baroness, who loved him and was devoted to him. They moved to Paris, from where he was expelled again due to his writing. On their return home to Germany, they were expelled again after he insulted the church and the government.

The couple moved to London, where they stayed for 30 years. They had six children. Marx also had a child from a mistress. The Marx family lived in dire and abject poverty. He tried to find gainful regular employment only once - as a clerk in a railway office - but was turned down because of his illegible handwriting. Living in abject poverty and deep in debt, three of his children died of malnutrition or lack of proper care.

Their condition was said to be so dismal that he couldn't afford to buy a coffin for one of his children. Soon, Jenny also died and Marx was left with only two children. Later, he looked back at his life with regret and said, "You know that I have sacrificed my whole fortune to the revolutionary struggle. I do not regret it. Quite the contrary if I had to start my life over again, I would do the same. But I would not marry."

4. He lived a painful life.

Despite his good humour, Karl Marx did not keep very well. He had liver problems, rheumatism, sciatica and had frequent headaches, toothaches, insomnia, hemorrhoids. He also suffered from a disease that made him break out frequently in carbuncles, or boils. Sometimes these boils would cover his whole body or would be limited to his leg or genitals causing him great pain until they went away. During these episodes, he couldn't write anything and simply had to wait for them to heal before he could carry on with his projects. Perhaps it was this that led him to say, "The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain."


5. Marx had suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 19. Perhaps he never recovered his mental composure after that.

Perhaps that is what led author Saul K. Padover to say this about Marx in his book Karl Marx: An Intimate Biography:

"In private life he is a highly disorderly, cynical person, a poor host; he leads a gypsy existence. Washing, grooming, and changing underwear are rarities with him; he gets drunk readily. Often he loafs all day long, but if he has work to do, he works day and night tirelessly. He does not have a fixed time for sleeping and staying up; very often he stays up all night, and at noon he lies down on the sofa fully dressed and sleeps until evening, unconcerned about the comings and goings around him..."

Marx was a hypocrite. While he wrote with such sympathy for the men who worked in factories, calling them slaves, though the money he lived on and the charity he received from was of his friend Friedrich Engels, came from the Engels family interest in a factory. So the ’slaves’ were supporting the Marx family, while Marx sat and thought.

He watched his children go hungry, seeing them live in filth. Why did he allow this neglect, which tantamount to abuse, if he was not capable of giving his children a good upbringing. What was the need for having 8 children. He had an education and could have earned an income, and he knew where he had come from, a comfortable life with his parents. He could have provided for his family as his father had provided for him, but obviously that was not important to him.

Karl Marx was not well known in his lifetime. It was only a small circle of fellow Communists who knew who he was by his writings.

Marx was an intellectual academic who had a poor understanding of human nature.  He believed in perfect government, and that under direct governmental control the forces of economy could be carefully controlled for the public benefit.  What he failed to take into account was the fact that human beings are imperfect to begin with; therefore anything they build will likewise be imperfect.

The ultimate problem that Marx had was that he overlooked the human desires for money and power. Pure Communism stated that once all the laborers and craftsworkers were trading equally, the state (government) would wither and die from lack of necessity. What he overlooked was that government enforcement of the rule of law is always necessary because it is human nature to either avoid or break laws. Only money can successfully motivate people, while those who seek power will do anything to get it, and will kill to keep it!

Marx was worse than unrealistic, he was a romantic fool!

Marx based much of his philosophy on the teachings of Christianity, primarily the book of Acts "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

In Capitalism we can say "To each according to his productivity, From each according to his ambition"

Che Guevara

The real Guevara was a reckless bourgeois adrenaline-junkie seeking a place in history as a liberator of the oppressed. But this fanatic’s vehicle of “liberation” was Stalinism, named for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, murderer of well over 20 million of his own people. As one of Castro’s top lieutenants, Che helped steer Cuba’s revolutionary regime in a radically repressive direction. Soon after overthrowing Batista, Guevara choreographed the executions of hundreds of Batista officials without any fair trials. He thought nothing of summarily executing even fellow guerrillas suspected of disloyalty and shot one himself with no due process.

Che was a purist political fanatic who saw everything in stark black and white. Therefore he vociferously opposed freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, protest, or any other rights not completely consistent with his North Korean-style communism. How many rock music-loving teens sporting Guevara t-shirts today know their hero supported Cuba’s 1960s’ repression of the genre? How many homosexual fans know he had gays jailed?

Did the Obama volunteers in that Texas campaign headquarters with Che’s poster on the wall know that Guevara fervently opposed any free elections? How “progressive” is that?

How socially just was it that Che was enraged when the Russians blinked during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and withdrew their nuclear missiles from the island, thus averting a nuclear war? Guevara was such a zealous ideologue that he relished the specter of millions of Cuban lives sacrificed on the altar of communism, declaring Cuba “a people ready to sacrifice itself to nuclear arms, that its ashes might serve as a basis for new societies.” Some humanitarian.

Che was a narcissist who boasted that “I have no house, wife, children, parents, or brothers; my friends are friends as long as they think like me, politically.” This is a role model for today’s “post-political” voters claiming we should get beyond partisanship?

Adding to the ridiculousness of the Che cult is that he was virtually a complete failure. As a medical doctor, he never even had a practice. When put in charge of the Cuban economy at the start of Castro’s government, his uncompromising communist diktats ran it completely into the ground, from which it never recovered. Humiliated, and also angry that Castro wasn’t fomenting enough revolution abroad, he then tried to lead such quixotic adventures in Argentina, the Congo, and Bolivia, failing miserably everywhere while sacrificing the lives of scores of naïve, idealistic young followers as deluded pawns in the service of his personality cult.

Another reason he fled Cuba in the mid-1960s was the complete mess he made of his private life. Though he preached sexual purity to his colleagues, he was a shameless adulterer who abandoned two wives and many children, some legitimate, others not. As a grandson put it, “he was never home.” The public Che who supposedly had such great love for humanity privately couldn’t stand most folks.

Guevara’s promiscuous communist adventurism was the pattern of a terminal adolescent running away from his problems to get caught up in some heroic crusade against his eternal bete noir, “Yankee imperialism.”

“The blacks, those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing, have seen their territory invaded by a new kind of slave: the Portuguese.”

“The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself, even independently of his own individual aspirations.”

 Che’s views on racism smack of similar political opportunism. When it was useful to abandon his previous racial views to fight in the Cuban revolution, he readily did so. When it was convenient to use racial stereotypes to cover-up the deficiencies of his fellow Cubans he didn't hesitate.

In fact, an increasing number of modern leftists and anarchists are waking up to the fact that Che was not a 'revolutionary hero', but just one of a long line of communist murderers of the 20th century.

 Che should be remembered for the political terror he was involved in and publicly defended on a number of occasions. This was a man who was a defender of the North Korean regime and who deeply mourned the death of Joseph Stalin. 

Even sympathetic biographers, such as John Anderson, concede that Che oversaw many executions at Cuba’s notorious La Cabaña prison following the 1959 revolution. Though the exact number of killed is unclear, thousands were killed in Cuba’s post-revolutionary purge and forced labor camps. There is even some evidence that Guevara personally carried out some of the murders associated with the revolutionary period.

Che Guevara is dead....

And, as the Huffington Post points out, Guevara hoped the Soviets would launch nuclear attacks on American cities, for some reason confident that the communists would win a nuclear war that would have killed millions.

Che's severed hands being fingerprinted after execution

Perhaps the best reason for condemnation of Guevara then isn’t the racist statements buried away in his diaries but in fact the very visible blood on his hands.

 "Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!"

"Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become … "

..a scared and shaken Che after being captured by Bolivian army

The coward begged for his life glamorously saying... "I am much more valuable to you alive than dead," he told his captors pleading for his life. Unfortunately for him, the Bolivian army gave him some of his own medicine

Cuban-American CIA agents Julio G. García (left) and Gustavo Villoldo who helped capture Guevara

...and did you know of millionaire Fidel Castro? click here

Pol Pot

The leader extreme-left Khmer Rouge Pol Pot has won the power in Cambodia in 1975. In the course of the class revolution and for accelerated transition to a fully classless society and “total equality” uncontrolled Pol Pot issued a decree on the abolition of money and blew up the national bank, so in one moment destroyed the entire economy of Cambodia. Cities as nurseries of evil, and the ancient culture were destroyed also. Political dissent and opposition were not permitted. Priests, doctors, scientists, teachers and all educated people were murdered. He entered an order that all residents must leave the city and move to the province to engage in agricultural activities. The "equal among equals"*, using the UNLIMITED POWER, deceit and the violence, it forced other "equals" to the slave labour for two bowls of rice soup per day and to dig their graves themselves. The combined effects of backbreaking toil, malnutrition, poor medical care, and perverted executions resulted in the deaths, according to different sources, from 20 to 40% of the Cambodian population.

 EMS Namboothiripad

The first communist govt under the Brahmin, EMS Namboothiripad, came to power in 1957 promising to solve rice scarcity, providing clothes for poor, and controlling price rise by opening fair price outlets across the state.
EMS signed contract with a leading rice dealer in Madras named D Ramalu P Suryanarayana without going for a tender or seeking a lowest quotation leading to hue and cry then over allegations of corruption and breach of ethics.  The rice dealer in Madras was an ex-communist and the terms and conditions of the contract was drafted to give undue advantage to the dealer.

An enquiry commission that investigated the matter found glaring irregularities in the contract and cited that it cost the excheuquer a fortune.

The price was fixed at a far higher rate than the running market rates. The corruption money raised therein was diverted to the Andhra unit of the communist party, to fund election expenses of the party.

The moot point is that, the worlds first communist regime came to power by exploiting the blessings of democracy and went on to exploit people who were reeling under severe scarcity and hunger.

To consolidate its position in the secular state of Kerala, it sought to drive its roots deeper into the society and hold it in its vice-like grip by hammering a communal wedge between communities by carving out, Malapuram, an exclusive district for Muslims, to become the apple in the eyes of muslim community and get their votes.  He was the only chief minister of India who who refused to donate even a single penny to construct the Swami Vivekananda Memorial in Kanyakumari.

Mao Zedong

At the peak of the Cultural Revolution, everyone had to carry a copy of Mao Zedong’s little red book. It was a powerful brainwashing tool, and its omnipresence ensured that only ideas consistent with Mao's quotes were considered acceptable. Formally known as “Quotations from Chairman Mao”, the red book contained 427 quotes on subjects such as the Communist Party, class struggle and socialism, youths, women and the arts.

It is estimated that more than five billion copies of the red book were printed, in more than 40 languages, making it the second most popular printed book after the bible. Marshall Lin Biao, who was Mao's right hand man, played a pivotal role in promoting the red book, and wrote the preface. After Lin Biao fell out of favour with Mao, many people had to cross out his name from the red book to show their allegiance.

There was a huge personality cult surrounding Mao Zedong. About two billion badges of Mao are estimated to have been produced during the Cultural Revolution. After 1969, production slowed - reportedly because Mao said the aluminium was needed for aeroplanes. The badges were most prevalent between 1966 and 1969, when everyone of “good character” wore one to show their loyalty to the “Great Leader”.

Many families in China kept objects from the Cultural Revolution as memorabilia. This badge belonged to a member of Yuwen's family.

Mao’s personality cult also went beyond the badges and the little red book. There were propaganda posters inside homes, classrooms, meeting halls, office buildings and factories. The line beneath Mao’s image says: Wishing Chairman Mao a long life.

This is an armband for the youth organisation generally known as the Red Guards. They were first set up in high schools and universities in Beijing in the summer of 1966 and soon spread across the whole country. The Red Guards regarded themselves as defenders of Chairman Mao - many beat those considered bourgeoisie or disloyal, including their teachers.

During the Cultural Revolution, universities and schools were run like semi-military institutions. Young people carried army water cans and military-style green bags when they marched to rallies and worked in the fields.

While Chairman Mao was revered, religious objects were defaced. The Red Guards attacked objects related to the "Four Olds": old thinking, old culture, old customs and old habits. Temples, tombs and heritage sites, and rare books and paintings, were destroyed. This statue of Buddha, in Ling Yin Temple in Hangzhou, China, is plastered with signs that read "destroy the old world" and "establish a new world." (courtesy: http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-36274660)