Murder in the name of Marxism

Murder in the name of Marxism

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By Macdonald Chimbizi

KARL Marx, founder of communism, progenitor of socialism and a hater of the capitalist bourgeois classes, has been repeatedly touted as the greatest philosopher of all time. Fine and dandy!

But how can it be that a man whose name despots have used to justify grotesque levels of barbarism is hailed as a hero of the civilised world? Perhaps it boils down to a matter of interpretation. The greatest philosopher greater than any others -- and Marx's influence has indeed, been colossal as it was utterly disastrous.

Marx himself wrote: "Philosophers have only been interpreted the world in various ways, the point however is to change it."

That he certainly did. Francis Wheen notes in his biography: "Within 100 years of his death, half the world's population was ruled by governments that professed Marxism as their guiding faith.”

"Some rulers excuse their behaviour at every turn by citing their belief in Marxism. They are happy to kill millions of their own people pursuing an ideal Marxist society"

MCDONALD CHIMBIZI

His ideas justified the slaughter of more people than any other philosophy since time being. His creed of 'equality and freedom' became a fanatical religion that ruled half the world and enslaved hundreds of millions.

Under his name oppression, torture, starvation and genocide became the routine practises of brutal governments all over the world.

Without Marx, there would be no Cold War. No Iron Curtain. No Gulag!

His influence on world affairs has been bigger than that of any other philosopher. But 'greatness' surely means approval. How can we approve of a man whose belief spawned so many monsters, President Robert Mugabe included?

Marx's followers and apologists might accuse me of missing the point and being simplistic arguing he alone cannot be held responsible for those who misinterpreted his creed, those who justify their own ends.

The monsters and dictators wilfully distracted great tracts of his philosophy, selecting bits such as victory of the proletariat that would resonate with their people. Marx, they rightly claim, would have turned in his grave.

This might be true but does it absolve Marx from the horrors that have been committed in his name?

While his followers massacred millions, Marx personally would never hurt a fly and lived the poverty-stricken bourgeois existence of an intellectual in Victorian Soho.

Some rulers excuse their behaviour at every turn by citing their belief in Marxism. They are happy to kill millions of their own people pursuing an ideal Marxist society, his classless Utopian paradise.

In 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge created their Marxist Year Zero in Cambodia, two million were killed.

In 1974, Mengistu Haile Marian and his Marxist Dergue overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia murdering millions more.

Perhaps the most glaring abuses have occurred in Africa where Marxist dictatorships from colonel Gaddafi's Libya to Robert Mugabe have kept our continent in the middle age.

Mugabe, widely feted by the Liberal left when he became the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on a Marxist ticket, has in over two decades in power systematically ruined the country and turned it into a poverty-stricken police state.

His campaigns of terror bear all the marks of a shameless Marxist struggle against whole groups of totally innocent people where the result is starvation, murder and tragedy.

To all those old liberal supporters of Mugabe in the West who say Mugabe has gone mad. I reply: not mad but Marxist!

Macdonald Chimbizi, is a Zimbabwean journalist based in the United Kingdom.
mchimbizi@yahoo.com
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