Karl Marx and marxists that have blemished his name.

Have kept in touch via the fringes of intellectual groups debating Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao and other asorted lefty stuff luck Fidel Castro and the recent opening up of Cuba to the capitalist unethical West.

One thing that strikes me as absurd is the stance taken on Marx by rightwing supporters and critics as well as left wing supporters and critics that Karl bequeathed us a system.

Wrong, Lenin and then Mao built systems renowned for their rigidity and incapacity to reassess and reevaluate in the light of developments in society. Stalin and Mao killed people and imprisoned many in the name of their interpretations of Marx.

Karl Popper the most successful critic of Marxism and communism admitted to placing Marx in his top ten of writers, thinkers and philosophers.

Karl Marx wrote a critique of capital. He subjected the capitalist and free market systems to systemic scrutiny and was proved right on numerous occassions, notably the Scramble for Africa as the West desperately sought access to cheaper comodities and labour.

What has been done in his name can hardly be used to judge the man himself. After all, how many have died in the name of Jesus Christ.