Small Thanks

Memories of Marx

Considering the occasion, the 200 people gathered around the enormous bronze bust in London's sprawling Highgate Cemetery formed a pitifully small cluster. Nor did the perfunctory graveside eulogies give the full measure of the man they were meant to honor. Perhaps no ceremony could truly convey the sheer magnitude of the political and social upheaval Karl Marx's writings have wrought around the world. Still, few disciples of the German theoretician of Communism seemed to know last week just how to observe the 100th anniversary of his death.

Custodians of the Marx memorial were relieved that no fanatic felt driven to pry the philosopher's bearded bust off its granite pedestal, smear it with paint, or try to chisel off the nose, as had happened in the past. Throughout the day, Communist representatives from a number of countries trooped by the monument to lay bouquets of red carnations, tulips and daffodils. "Homage from the Chilean Trade Union Congress," read one card. Another floral tribute was presented "on behalf of the Marxist-Leninists in Bangladesh who cannot be here." Many residents of the city in which Marx spent the better part of his life, often taking refuge in the reading room of the British Museum Library, might have missed the anniversary altogether had it not been for a comic squabble at the Greater London Council. When left-leaning Labor Party members in the city government voted to spend $53,000 on centenary observances, Conservative Spokesman Stanley Bolton reacted with predictable ire. "We don't owe anything to Marx," he said. "We owe more to Harpo and his brothers than Karl."

European Socialists seemed just as eager to ignore their ideological debt to the political theorist. During a press conference that happened to fall on the anniversary, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez conveniently avoided the topic, concentrating instead on the achievements of his first 100 days in office. French President Franc,ois Mitterrand had nothing to say on the occasion, although his Communist partners took the typically Gallic step of convening an international symposium at the University of Paris to discuss Marx's writings.

The leaders of ruling Communist parties did little more than pay lip service to Marx. Speaking under an enormous portrait of the man, Chinese Party Secretary Hu Yaobang praised Marx as "the most outstanding revolutionary and scientist in human history," then devoted the rest of his 90-minute address to promoting Peking's pragmatic approach to reform. Soviet Party Chief Yuri Andropov contributed an anniversary article to the journal Kommunist last month, lauding Marx as "a great practical revolutionary." His own views on the need for workers to be thrifty and responsible had a curiously capitalist ring. Maverick Rumania marked the occasion by announcing a new wage system pegging salaries to the number and quality of items a worker produced. It was a far cry from Marx's adage, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Some followers of Marx mixed praise for their mentor with scathing criticism of wayward comrades. In a special section of the Italian Communist daily L'Unita, Party Leader Enrico Berlinguer sounded off against countries that "reduce the grand, living lessons of Marx to an ideological credo," a pointed reference to the Soviet Union. Viet Nam took China to task in a lengthy commentary on the "Great Teacher of Proletarian Revolution," published in the government daily Nhan Dan. Among other charges, the newspaper claimed that Peking's independent Communist line "negates the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism.''

The most telling tributes came from the group that had most preoccupied Marx: the working class. In Nicaragua, the employees of a soap factory vowed to work double shifts for one week in honor of Marx and "in defense of the revolution." In China, a zealous textile worker went to the trouble of engraving the entire text of the Communist Manifesto (about 20,000 Chinese characters) onto an ivory block 15 mm by 15 mm by 50 mm. It was an odd way to honor the man who had urged the workers of the world to shake off their chains. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.