Karl Marx oration 2021 March 14 2pm

Lydia Samarbakhsh Head of the International Department French Communist Party

Chair of the Communist Party of Britain Liz Payne oration 2021

Lydia Samarbakhsh head of the International Department of the French Communist Party

promotes awareness of the nature and meaning of the capitalist system, however we experience it across the world. In France, this 150th anniversary takes place a little less than three years after a movement that is also unprecedented and still continuing, that of the “yellow vests” which, although many did not realise it, took over the communard slogan of “Power to the people”. This also was repressed very violently on the orders of President Macron and his Minister of the Interior. For the French ruling classes – far more likely to be moved by the defacement of a public monument than by the eyes and arms torn off by the grenades and flashballs thrown at the demonstrators by the police – there is no question of commemorating and let alone celebrating the Commune. Thus one of our most famous historians, Pierre Nora, answered without hesitation on national radio the question “Should we commemorate the bicentenary of Napoleon and of the Paris Commune?. His answer was Yes Napoleon but not the Commune”. For this court intellectual on a promotional tour for a book of “memories”, the Commune has “lost its subversive charge”. Napoleon, on the other hand, “has a historic dimension. He brought revolution to the countries he conquered. He is the founding father of the revolutionary institutions that modernised Europe.” s The flag of the 143rd I would first like to send you greetings from the national And the Commune. No historical dimension? No Battalion of the National leadership of the French Communist Party and its members, positive consequence. Let us note the nuance - not Guard of the 1871 Paris and to thank very warmly the Communist Party of Britain heir to the institutions or to the revolutionary scope of Commune. and Robert Griffiths, its secretary general, as well as Alex 1789 or 1793? ? Gordon and the Marx Memorial Library for this initiative and Hence, the ideological battle is still raging on this the invitation extended to me to speak on behalf of the PCF. 150th anniversary. It focuses on the historical front, on Cover image This is an important meeting for all of us because if the knowledge of facts, their interpretation, and on the Barricade, the Paris the ideas and the works of Marx have found in recent representation(s) of the Commune in terms how it is Commune, May, 1871 years a new vigour in the intellectual field, and commemorated. André Devambez particularly in the universities, they remain a source of The commemoration of the Paris Commune is inspiration and analysis of ever-growing importance for therefore a political battle. The Commune retains its the women and men of our time whose aims go “propulsive force” as my comrade Patrick Le Hyaric, beyond simply understanding the nature of director of Humanite wrote. “In spite of everything, it exploitation, domination and alienation of the existing decided basic issues immediately, issues which the capitalist order. Republicans would take a long time to implement and This anniversary of the death of Karl Marx then not fully”. corresponds in this year 2021 to an important As Jean Jaures put it, the Commune, was “in its anniversary in the history of the international workers essence, the first great battle of labor against capital”. movement, the 150th anniversary of the Paris Today this battle composes the fields of acute Commune. It also takes place in a global context of confrontation between the forces of capital and the pandemic and health, economic, social and political forces of labor in all its aspects – whether this is about crisis of unprecedented scale, a crisis which also social issues, modes and means of production or the issue of power and democracy, whether it is about the its emancipation.” place and the essential role of women in society and in From the moment of this statement, it became the revolutionary movement – and the emancipatory imperative for the ruling classes to superimpose the potential of feminist struggles to overcome the idea that violence, brutality, blood are the work of the capitalist order – whether it is about the demand for Communards – and also of all the forces of labor who internationalism, secularism, human fraternity and dare to challenge the established order, to seek to peace. abolish it and attempt to build a new social order, to Karl Marx saw the Commune come into existence, clear new democratic paths. And on the contrary that fight for its survival and then be crushed in blood. Karl this bloodshed is not on the side of those who seek, Marx drew lessons from it – as did many socialist and by all means, to hinder this historic movement in order anarchist revolutionaries of the time. But Marx, more to preserve their privileges, and who for that end have than any of his contemporaries and comrades in killed and are ready to kill again. struggles, except Louise Michel, remains the most Of course, de Poncins’ tweet is used to justify, in the hated of revolutionaries by the bourgeois classes and light of bourgeois morality, the ferocious repression the bourgeois state itself, even today. The same is true against those who had dared “to storm the sky”. Of for the Paris Commune. course, this only serves to remind us that it will always Despite the 150 years that separate us from the be so and to underline the idea that revolutionaries, Commune, it represents the revolutionary episode the communists, of yesterday or today, are, in the light most feared by the French bourgeoisie and – like the of the dominant ideology. , destroyers, not builders. Russian Revolution of 1917 – the most slandered by This false characterisation by an ambitious diplomat the bourgeoisies around the world. And this is has the essential objective of masking the most because its power, its own state system, its class important fact. It was, as Marx noted, the pre-existing objectives, were determined by the people, by war wth Prussia: conscious thinking people, the popular “mass”. “Paris could not, however, be defended without The Commune was initiated by the democratic arming its working class, without organizing it into an decisions of the people of Paris on March 18, and it effective force and teaching it through the nature of inaugurated a new revolutionary era, one of the war itself. Armed Paris was the armed revolution. experiment, of positive transformation, of positive A victory for Paris over the Prussian aggressor would change, of scientific engagement. have been a victory for the French worker over the It marked the end of the ‘old governmental and French capitalist and his state parasites.” clerical world, of militarism, of officialdom, of The terrible repression by the Versaillese, of the old exploitation, of trading, of monopolies, of privileges, establishment, was of exceptional violence, and as to which the proletariat owes its serfdom, the inflicted on the Commune constituted a kind of relief homeland its misfortunes and disasters.” for the bourgeois classes. They made it last as long as These were the words of its Declaration to the necessary to be reassured that they had removed all French people of April 20, 1871. The bourgeoisie danger. They wanted to be vindicated by the blood of heard this declaration perfectly. The bourgeoisie their adversaries like a macabre trophy: 10,000 dead in answered and still answers with unvarnished class the Bloody Week of May, more than 4,500 deported hatred. It does not need or want to pretend. to New Caledonia, nearly three hundred condemned Thus the former French ambassador to the United to forced labour and a hundred condemned to death States opened the discussion on Twitter, two weeks and executed. And the flight of tens of thousands of ago: “The Paris Commune was an armed insurrection Communards into exile. against an Assembly which had just been elected by This relentless violence of bourgeois power remains universal suffrage. It burnt down the monuments of in reality poorly acknowledged by its representatives, the city in a spirit of destruction and did so under the even today. The bourgeoisie has to coat it with eye of the (German) enemy who drink champagne.” morality and with religion as well. The bourgeoisie built This is a far-fetched summary at the historical level. an imposing basilica overlooking Paris so that “the At the political level it has a specific goal that his Parisians” but especially the bourgeoisie could colleague, the current French Ambassador to Ukraine, remember “forever” the anguish that was theirs – but Étienne de Poncins, hastened to explain to those who also, perhaps? its inhuman enjoyment of its attempt to had not yet understood: exterminate any threat to its existence as a class. “The Commune is also a foreshadowing of Soviet Even today, the French State, the heirs of Thiers communist totalitarianism, its rule through terror and must put down their class adversaries in order to block the massacres it carried out. Politically, the Commune any alternative, to divide the forces of those who was the blueprint for Lenin for 1917.” labour. They still must justify the violence then Indeed, it is not wrong to see in it a unleashed against this historic popular movement, “foreshadowing”. But not of “totalitarianism”. Of this against “this Sphinx who torments so much the there is no basis in historical facts. It is, however, of its bourgeois understanding” to use Marx's words. This is most central achievement which Karl Marx put very the violence they will systematically unleash as soon as clearly in his The Civil War in France: their existence is called into question. “The working class cannot be content with simply This is undoubtedly why, to quote Marx, the 72 taking over the machinery of the state and operating it days of this “impromptu revolution, neither wanted for its own sake. The political instrument of its nor prepared”, still resonate in our collective political enslavement cannot serve as a political instrument of memory like a “beacon”. H Karl Marx oration 2021

Liz Payne Chair of the Communist Party of Britain

On the150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, The Civil War in France provided not only a we revisit that momentous event in awe and with penetrating analysis of the immediate past but the deepest gratitude to the working class of the theoretical basis for class struggle going forward, French capital who, in ten heroic weeks (18 March for future revolution. Thousands bought copies and – 28 May 1871), changed forever the course of the work was translated into 10 major European history. languages. From this point, the name of Karl Marx, Writing to Ludwig Kugelmann on 17 April 1871, as both the leading voice of the First International when the Commune was just one month old, Karl and author of The Civil War was identified with the Marx stated: Commune and revolutionary struggle. It was a step change for Marx and . “The struggle of the working class against the But the movement in Britain learned of the capitalist class and its state has entered upon a Commune not only from the analysis of Marx in new phase. Whatever the immediate outcome Civil War in France and other writings but first-hand may be, a new point of departure of world- from the 3,500 who fled from the barricades and wide importance has been gained.” bloodbath - from arrest, torture, imprisonment, deportation and worse - to seek safety in Britain. And, just hours after that first government of the Among them was Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray, working class had been so ruthlessly put down, participant in and historian of the Commune. His when the blood of the many thousands of the History of the Commune, completed in 1876, was murdered - women, men, and children – was still “entirely revised and corrected” by Marx and fresh on the ground of Paris, Marx completed his served as the perfect companion to The Civil War. analytical address to the General Council of the The Marx home was from the outset a magnet First International, The Civil War in France. Writing to the refugees and Marx devoted much time and on the 20th anniversary of the Commune in 1891, money to organising practical support for the Engels praised this work as an outstanding example penniless, the injured and the traumatised. Yvonne of Marx’s remarkable gift for grasping with Kapp in her biography of Eleanor Marx, profound insight the character, significance, and characterised the house on Maitland Park Road in necessary consequences of great historical events the months after the Commune as a “vortex”. while they were still happening or had only very This is what Jenny and Eleanor Marx arrived recently taken place. back from France to find in autumn 1871. They had In The Civil War in France, Marx showed how, for been visiting their sister Laura in Bordeaux and the first time, the working class had seized power were detained and released, their posture as ‘the and, in so doing, had demonstrated the imperative Williams sisters’ leaving their true identities of destroying the capitalist state with its anti- undetected. Jenny married the exiled Charles worker apparatus and replacing it with a workers’ Longuet the following year, while Eleanor was for state. “Wonderful” wrote Marx “was the change several years the fiancée of Commune historian the Commune wrought in Paris!” - as he spelt out Lissagaray, bringing the Commune quite literally in detail the nature of the Commune, the multitude into the heart of the Marx family. of measures taken directly in the interests of Despite the Paris bloodbath, many survivors and masses and their immediate impact on the quality refugees saw the final defeat of capitalism as of people’s lives. Marx also exposed the true imminent only depending on the awakening and nature of the reactionary ruling class of France and unification of the working class to that end. One its government at Versailles, their horror as they such was Eugene Pottier, elected to the Commune came to understand that workers really could end in March 1871, who, while in hiding in June that forever the oppression and exploitation that kept year, wrote the first version of the Internationale: the expropriators in place. They were the Commune’s “exterminators” and were “already “Tis the final conflict nailed to that eternal pillory from which all the Let us unite and tomorrow prayers of their priests will not avail to redeem The International them”. Will be the human race.” In the period immediately following the Internationale Commune the ruling classes of Europe lived in perpetual fear that the Commune’s ideas would take hold. In France, communards and their Written by Eugene Pottier after the murderous supporters were hunted relentlessly, and spies and assault against the Paris Commune in 1871. The agents pursued the exiles in Britain and across the melody was added later by Pierre Degeyter. continent. The ideological onslaught was immediate and Arise, ye starvelings, from your slumbers huge. As Marx demonstrated in his writings on the Arise, ye criminals of want role of the mass media, it did everything in its For reason in revolt now thunders power to supress awareness of the true nature of And at last ends the age of cant the Commune and ensure that the working class Away with all your superstitions was turned against the Communards and their Servile masses, arise, arise achievements. We'll change forthwith the old conditions This is why, from the begining, the political And spurn the dust to win the prize meetings of refugees and the huge annual events organised in London to commemorate the Then comrades, come, rally, Commune were of such importance. They went And the last fight let us face ahead despite every obstacle put in their way by The Internationale the authorities and soon took on an international Unites the human race character. In 1886, the 15th Commune anniversary Then comrades, come, rally, at the South Place Institute drew representatives of And the last fight let us face the movement from France, Germany, Italy, and The Internationale Russia. Unites the human race It was at this event that Eleanor Marx made what was certainly one of the finest speeches of We peasants, artisans and others her life on the role played by the women of Paris in Enrolled among the sons of toil spring 1871. Among the refugees in England, and Let's change the earth henceforth for brothers known to Eleanor, were many women who had Drive the indolent from the soil been involved in mass struggle for the first time in On our flesh too long has fed the raven history - as leaders and organisers, providers of We've too long been the vulture's prey support and on the barricades. Marx described But now farewell the spirit craven them as “the real women of Paris – heroic, noble The dawn brings in a brighter day and devoted”. In March 1887, wrote in Commonweal that the Commune had been subject to “slander, lies, hypocritical concealments, and false deductions.” But through celebrations, he insisted, the truth should be asserted and those who had not been touched by socialism could learn. Although the Commune was defeated at enormous cost in May 1871, the aims of its battle for the complete political and economic emancipation of workers lived on. Thus, Lenin wrote in the Rabochaya Gazeta in April 1911 on its 40th anniversary that the Commune is “immortal”. Comrades, the lessons learned from the Commune - the theoretical understanding of capitalist expropriation and of working-class struggle for a workers’ state, the knowledge and understanding of the practice of revolution – are as fresh and relevant today as they were in that Paris spring two lifetimes ago. The Commune has inspired and enabled the revolutionary transformation of societies, given substance to the aspiration of the peoples of the world and has, from the past, from history, bequeathed a promise of the future. Yes, Comrades Marx, Engels, and Lenin, – The Commune is immortal.

Long live the Paris Commune! Long live international working-class struggle! Long live peace and socialism! . H

An introduction to Marxism a series of five weekly online zoom classes

This course of five weekly zoom classes running 7-830pm on Tuesdays focuses on the fundamentals of Marxism and its relevance to understanding and action. This course will cover an introduction to Marxist theory, applying it to a discussion of relevant issues today, such as: the changing nature of work and exploitation, austerity and the gig economy, racism, women’s oppression, class society, climate change, and revolutionary practice. The course is structured around four interrelated and overlapping themes: 1 Marxism and history. History is fundamental to everything - it deals with what exists, how it came to be, how it functions, and how it changes. Historical materialism is probably the most fundamental ‘discovery’ of Marx, providing a tool for analysing the whole of human development and especially the ‘laws of motion’ governing all forms of class society and capitalism today. Why is it so important and how does it help us challenge conventional accounts – of class, technology, racism, sexism and religious belief today? 2 Marxist philosophy. Philosophy addresses fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, ethics, mind, and language, both in the abstract and concretely (as in ‘natural philosophy’), through the methods of science. Dialectical materialism provides an analytical alternative to academic ‘idealist’ philosophy as well as to commonplace views of human nature and our relationship to the natural world. What’s its relevance today to understanding ourselves as human animals, and to the future of the planet on which we live? 3 Marxism and economics. Marxist economics – perhaps, better, ‘political economy’ - addresses questions to do with how the goods and services on which we depend are produced, by whom, and who benefits – questions which are normally ignored by ‘orthodox’ economics which treats the market as an inviolable ‘given’. Its analysis of the nature of commodity production in terms of value, price and profit includes the changing nature of exploitation of people as workers and consumers, the role of economic crises and why workers appear to ‘consent’ to their exploitation. 4 Marxism and revolution. A Marxist perspective is central to understanding the role of the state and how the ruling class retains power. But how can we secure a society ‘for the many’? Can capitalism be reformed or must it be overthrown, if so what should replace it? What do we mean by ‘revolution’? Can we learn from the experience of socialist revolutions past and present and – given the results of Britain’s most recent parliamentary elections - what are the prospects for socialism and a future classless, communist society? A fifth theme –Marxism, ecology and the environment runs as a thread through all four topics. This is particularly important given the growing recognition over the past half-century that the crisis of capitalism is not just a social, economic and cultural crisis; it is also an environmental crisis which threatens the continued existence of our own species – amongst others.

The course is structured around five weekly sessions, each starting at 7pm and each divided into two parts as follows:

1 Tuesday 9 March: Introduction to the course // Topic 1: Marxism & history 2 Tuesday 16 March: On-line workshop // Topic 2: Marxism & philosophy 3 Tuesday 23 March: On-line workshop // Topic 3: Marxism & economics 4 Tuesday 30 March: On-line workshop // Topic 4: Marxism & revolution 5 Tuesday 6 April: On-line workshop: // Conclusion and feedback

The workshop sessions will each consist of a live discussion around some questions to be selected by the group at the end of the previous week’s topic presentation.

37a Clerkenwell Green, Marx Memorial Library & Workers School, London, EC1R 0DU https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/event/264 Contact [email protected] Phone: 02072531485 Communist Party of Marx Memorial Library Britain & Workers’ School

THE COMMUNIST PARTY was founded 100 years MARX HOUSE was built in 1738 as a Welsh Charity school. It educated boys ago from the unification of the marxist and and later a few girls – the children of Welsh artisans living in poverty in revolutionary workers’ organisations which traced Clerkenwell. Gradually the intake became too large and the school moved to their lineage from the International Working Man’s new premises in 1772. After this the building was divided into separate Association and the Communist League of Karl Marx workshops one of which became the home to the London Patriotic Society from and Frederick Engels. 1872 until 1892. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia The Twentieth Century Press occupied 37a and 38, and expanded into 37 by in 1917 had a tremendous impact on the working 1909 – thereby returning the House to single occupancy for the first time since class in Britain and across the world. There was a its days as a charity school. The Twentieth Century Press was founded by the great movement of solidarity with the Russian Social Democratic Federation as printer for its journal . It was the first workers, against military intervention by the socialist Press in Clerkenwell. An early benefactor was William Morris, who imperialist powers. guaranteed the rent of the Patriotic Club to the Twentieth Century Press. During In the decades that have followed the Communist its time in Clerkenwell Green, the Twentieth Century Press produced several of Party has fought both for the immediate demands of the earliest English editions of the works of Marx and Engels. The Twentieth the working class and for its conquest of state Century Press remained at the building until 1922. power. Lenin was exiled in London and worked in the building from April 1902 to The Communist Party believes that socialist May 1903. During this period he shared the office of Harry Quelch, the director revolution and the construction of a fundamentally of the Twentieth Century Press, from there he edited and printed the journal new type of society to replace capitalism is essential ISKRA (The Spark), which was smuggled into Russia. The office is still preserved for the future of humanity and our planet. and open to visitors. In all three countries of Britain, capitalism has In 1933, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, a delegate meeting become a barrier to balanced economic comprising trade unionists, veteran socialists belonging to the Labour Party and development, environmental security, social justice Communist Party, and representatives of the Labour Research Department and and meaningful democracy. The big business profit Martin Lawrence Publishers Ltd., considered setting up a permanent memorial to system has to be replaced by a new system – him. That year also saw the Nazis in Germany burning books. In these socialism – based on mass participation in decision circumstances the meeting resolved that the most appropriate memorial would making, social ownership of the economy, be a Library. Thus the Marx Memorial Library and Workers School (as it was democratic planning and solidarity. then known) was established at 37a Clerkenwell Green that year. Study classes, But fundamental change will also require a held in the evenings, became the distinguishing feature of the Workers’ School, transfer of political power, taking it out of the hands which was divided into faculties of science, history and political economy. of a small number of monopoly capitalists whose The Library expanded to occupy the whole building over the years. The interests dominate our society. premises achieved Grade II listed building status in 1967 and in 1969 the façade Such a revolutionary process will have to be led was restored to the way it had originally looked in 1738. During further by the working class – the producers of society's refurbishments in 1986, tunnels were discovered underneath the Library. Their wealth – at the head of an alliance of forces origins are obscure but they significantly pre-date the building. representing the interests of the people as a whole. Since its establishment the Marx Memorial Library has been the intellectual home of generations of scholars interested in studying Marx and Marxism. The Library is home to an impressive number and variety of archives and collections including the full run of the Daily Worker and Morning Star, The International Brigade Archive, Bernal Peace Library, the James Klugmann Collection and an extensive photograph Library. As a registered charity we rely on your support to continue our work as one of the foremost institutions serving the British labour movement and working people, in preserving their past and in providing practical education for the future.

CPB Workers of all lands, unite! CP BRITAIN CP BRITAIN Marx Memorial Library & Workers' School Communist Party 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0DU Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Tel: +44(0) 207 253 1485 Croydon, CR01BD [email protected] [email protected] https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk 0044 (0) 208 686 1659