A Prominent Marxist Memorial

In the early 1990s I went with an English friend for a walk in Highgate Cemetery in North London. Neither of us had much money and walking is one of the great British pastimes. Before we began our stroll, I did not know that Karl Marx was buried there and was thrilled when we came upon his tomb. We stood and watched a man with a bowed head and a hand on the pillar as he had a moment of silence with the man who articulated a philosophy that would change the world.

The tomb was constructed in 1956 by the British Communist Party and it apparently attracts thousands of visitors a year. Marx died in 1881 and was buried in a family plot and was moved to the tomb 75 years later.

On the tomb there are a couple of inscriptions.

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point however it to change it.”

“Workers of all lands unite.”

The second one is predictable, and it is understandable that it was chosen for the tomb. The first one tells more truth than the British Communist Party in 1956 likely anticipated. If Marx was about changing the world no matter the human cost, he succeeded.

Marx was anti-Semitic and racist. His philosophy influenced or, at minimum, provide the intellectual foundation for the establishment of totalitarian governments resulting in more human suffering and death than any philosophy ever articulated. His influence on history is worth remembering.

It has never crossed my mind that the Highgate cemetery tomb, which is really a memorial, should be less prominent or removed. But if you want to change the world, you work to remove those statues or memorials that reflect a rich past. The people who would change the world are winning and those elected to positions to resist are cowards. Look out.