At the five days long international conference on Karl Marx’s life, ideals and influence which was opened here on Saturday, scholars from the universities abroad paid tributes to Marxism and pointed out that greater economic freedom and the rise of a dominant middle class would ultimately lead to situation where greater political freedom would be demanded, culminating in the flowering of democracy in China.
Delivering the keynote address lord Meghnad Desai said Marx’s theories hold great lessons for the contemporary world, mainly the role of capitalism in the context of globalisation. He said Marxism has gained a new lease of life since the financial crisis of 2008.
The conference, under the aegis of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), is being held in the memory of Pijushendu Gupta and Radha Krishna Choudhary, who were the chief organisers of the national seminar on the sesquicentennial of Karl Marx convened in Begusarai in 1967.
Prof Dipankar Gupta highlighted the irony of the formation of political parties by communists. He said, “Marx in his Communist Manifesto did not favour the formation of political parties by communists, neither did he approve the formation of their own sectarian principles. This would disqualify all Communist parties.”
Gupta said neither Marx nor Friedrich Engels ever propounded the concept of violence for social change. Marx, in fact, particularly propounded the vanguard role of women in social revolution. He lamented the misinterpretation of Marx’s ideas over time. Attributing this tendency of scholars to their spontaneous association of Marxism with Communist dictatorships like those of Stalin, Mao, Ceausescu and others, Gupta pointed that popular critiques by Hanna Ardent, Max Weber and Milton Friedman were scathing in their criticism of Marxism even though much of it was based on weak grounds.
Kipton Jensen, Associate Professor, Morehouse College, Atlanta, US, delivered his lecture on
‘The History of Black Marxism in the USA’ by quoting Martin luther King regarding his visit to India in 1959: “To other countries I go as a tourist, to India I go as a pilgrim.” The Black rights crusader was obviously speaking in reference to Mahatma Gandhi.
Saying that the ordeal of slavery accelerated the economic power of Europe, Jensen traced Marxism’s 150-year journey in the US through different phases — the Reconstruction Period in 1868; the aftermath of the Civil War; the heights of the Socialist Party in 1918; the poor people’s campaign in 1968 following the assassination of Martin
luther King; and the use of Marxism by different scholars to explain the meaning of the present geopolitical moment in 2018.
Ish Mishra, Associate Professor, Hindu College, Delhi, said in India’s current political scenario, the invocation of caste identity by a section for social justice groups was as big a speed-breaker as the invocation of religious identity by communal forces by way of spreading class consciousness among workers, peasants, Dalits, Adivasis and others on the road to their emancipation.
Other key speakers included Prof Craig Brandist, University of Sheffield, UK, Prof Riccardo Bellofiore, University of Bergamo, Italy and Barbara Harriss White, Emeritus Professor, Oxford University. Shaibal Gupta, Member-Secretary, ADRI, said the conference was not only remembering Marx, but has dedicated 38 memorial lectures to philosophers, economists, academics and political figures who either influenced him or were influenced by him.