When Juncker talks about Marx…

Article by Yiannakis Colocasides, member of the C.C. of AKEL

The news on 5th May informed us that in the city of Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx, an event was held on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. And the speaker at the event was European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker!!!

How comes Juncker was a speaker at an event dedicated to Marx?

Marx revealed in a scientific manner the exploitative and inhuman nature of capitalism. He documented and proved the need for its overthrow and the construction of a communist society. Marx’s entire life was an uncompromising struggle against capitalism.

Juncker and his allies are outspoken apologists of capitalism. They glorify it. They defend its exploitative and criminal nature and are doing everything in their power to perpetuate it.

Marx pointed out the historical role of the working class. He fought for the self-consciousness and emancipation of the working class. He struggled for its organization at both an national and international level. He supported its struggles to win rights and gave it ideological weapons to achieve the goal of changing the world. Marx supported every strike action or other struggle that was an expression of class struggle. He was at the forefront of the great revolutions of 1848. He passionately supported the Communards of Paris.

Juncker and his associates denigrate the camp of labour. They are undermining working people’s organizations and abolishing their gains that have been won through struggles and sacrifices. Furthermore, they send repressive forces against strikers and demonstrators. They support the persecution of Communists.

Marx supported all the struggling peoples of his time. He backed the Irish people’s struggle for independence, the Polish people in their struggle against Tsarist tyranny. He supported the Italian people for the democratic union of their country. Marx stood on the side of his country’s compatriots for a democratic union of their own country. He supported all those who fought for the abolition of slavery in the American civil war.

The hands of Juncker and their hands are drenched in blood from the crimes committed by imperialism in Palestine, Yugoslavia, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Cyprus, as in every corner of the world where the European Union supported or tolerated NATO’s crimes and invasions. Juncker and his associates are responsible for tens of thousands of lives being lost in the seas; lives that are also rotting in the shameful conditions in concentration camps of the otherwise “democratic” and “humane” European Union.

Marx projected out and fought for the Communist ideal, which embodies the real freedom of humanity.

Juncker and his counterparts are at the forefront of the anti-communist campaign, equating Communism with fascism and backing neo-Nazi regimes in the name supposedly of democracy.

They could not ignore the immensity of Marx and the 200th anniversary of his birth. But, they honored him by defaming him!

What did Joncker tell us? Juncker spoke of a philosopher who was looking ahead and was not responsible for what subsequently happened in his name. So, in one sentence, he did away with Marx and Marxism. He alienated Marx from the essence of his ideas and from the entire international movement that drew inspiration and was guided by his ideas and ideals.

Juncker and his colleagues would have liked Marx to have been just a philosopher confined to his academic world. Indeed, how harmless would such a philosopher have been for capital! But Marx was not just a philosopher. And he certainly was not a philosopher confined to his academic studies. He was a REVOLUTIONARY philosopher. His own philosophy and own life and actions were at the service of the goal of changing the world, for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of a new communist society. They tolerate Marx the philosopher. They may even admire Marx the economist. They detest and fear Marx the revolutionary. Marxism haunts them because even in the moments of their all-powerfulness and supremacy they know that Marxism is the future and that they themselves represent the rotten past.

Marx and his ideas will live on for centuries and guide the struggles of working people and the peoples so that we can change the world.

Juncker and his likes will sooner or later end up in the dustbin of history where they really belong, together with the system they represent and express.