of interest?, caitlin -----Original Message----- >>/** ips.english: 506.0 **/ >>** Topic: POLITICS-EUROPE: Marx Makes a Comeback, Riding on a Magazine ** >>** Written 3:05 PM Oct 31, 1998 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.english ** >> Copyright 1998 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. >> Worldwide distribution via the APC networks. >> >> *** 28-Oct-98 *** >> >>Title: POLITICS-EUROPE: Marx Makes a Comeback, Riding on a Magazine >> >>By Dipankar De Sarkar >> >>LONDON, Oct 28 (IPS) - The man is back in town. One hundred >>and ten years after his death, the German economist Karl Marx >>-- the father of communism -- has been 'relaunched'. >> >>Thanks are due in part to the British magazine 'Marxism Today', >>which this week made a spectacular comeback with a one-off issue >>published to assess Prime Minister Tony Blair's 18-month-old >>government. >> >>The magazine -- an issue devoted to left-of-centre criticism >>of what it calls the 'Blair Project' for Britain -- has been >>a sell out. >> >>Almost every major newspaper store in London sold out of the >>special issue within 36 hours of it hitting the stands, according >>to its editor Martin Jacques. And such is the demand, a major >>reprint has had to be ordered. >> >>''The reaction has been absolutely extraordinary. If I had >>known before, I would gone with a print-run of 50,000 copies,'' >>says Jacques. >> >>With the original print-run of 13,000 copies already exhausted, >>the publishers have ordered 7,000 more copies to meet a rising >>demand. >> >>''This thing is driving us absolutely mad,'' said a street >>vendor of magazines in the North London neighbourhood of Islington >>-- home of the 'Blairite' revolution that brought the Labour >>Party to power last May after 18 years in the political >>wilderness. >> >>Jacques and other left-wing analysts say it also marks a return >>for Marx himself, who wrote much of his weighty tomes while in >>exile in London some 150 years ago. >> >>''A funny thing happened on the way to the millennium: in 1998 >>Karl Marx came back,'' the well-known British historian Eric >>Hobsbawm announces in an article, 'The Death of Neo-Liberalism,' >>in the magazine. >> >>''Ten years after it was assumed that he had been definitively >>interred under the rubble of the Berlin Wall, 10 years after >>the irreversible triumph of liberalism and the end of history >>had been proclaimed, here he is back in circulation....'' >> >>Though the magazine voluntarily shut down in 1991, to an extent, >>the one-off issue of Marxism Today appears to have caught the >>mood of the day. >> >>Jacques and a host of left-leaning and liberal commentators >>and academics have been featured in the British press, television >>and radio recently, taking part in heated debates conducted along >>traditional lines of the political left and right. >> >>But it's not just the sudden appearance of Marxism Today that >>has revived the old-fashioned political debate. >> >>There are three other immediate reasons. The recent global >>financial turmoil has seen middle-of-the- road, and even >>conservative >>newspapers, not only using the much-dreaded 'C-word' -- Capitalism >>-- but also ruminating on its failures. >> >>And that, some say, is because jobs in Europe now look threatened >>by crises in East Asia and Russia. Globalisation's storms are >>coming to Europe. >> >>Then there was the arrest of former Chilean leader General >>Augusto Pinochet in London, following a Spanish request for >>extradition. >>Echoing the noisy protests of human rights activists and families >>of Pinochet's victims, the British media has reversed th >>e habits of two decades and joined the left's condemnation of >>Pinochet's brutality in the 1970s. >> >>Third, the success of left-of-centre, socialist, even 'reformed' >>communists in recent elections in Europe, most lately in Germany >>and Italy, have changed the colour of the continent's political >>map, if not red, then at least a rich shade of pink. >> >>In Britain, the surge in interest in Marx is put down in part >>to growing dissatisfaction in Britain with many of Blair's >>policies, >>including cutbacks in social sector spending and veiled attacks >>on such vulnerable sections of society as single mothers. >> >>''We could be on the verge of a revival of the left,'' says >>Jacques. ''We are seeing the end of free market fundamentalism. >>You can feel the return of a certain historical verities, that >>left and right are important and different. >> >>''Until the Cold War, Marx was a partisan figure caught in >>an ideological schism. Now he is no longer that, but a great >>intellectual available to everyone. He was right about loads >>of things. There's no getting away from that.'' >> >>But some analysts doubt if 'Marxism Today' is the proper vehicle >>to carry the left-wing agenda into British politics. >> >>Although the magazine is credited with introducing the term >>'Thatcherism' in popular political usage, with an early analysis >>of the policies of former premier Margaret Thatcher, some hold >>that Marxism Today's advocacy of Marxism is pretentious. >> >>''I couldn't care less about Marxism Today,'' says John Pilger, >>a left-leaning writer and probably Britain's best known >>investigative >>reporter. >> >>''It is run by a lot of conservative people in order to satisfy >>only themselves. It is definitely not on the left. It's all part >>of the corruption of political language where legitimate political >>terms have been stood on their head. >> >>''The Blair government for instance is called centre-left -- >>it's ridiculous. It is the most right wing government in living >>memory,'' says Pilger, famous for his Vietnam war reports, his >>expose of rights abuses by the Burmese military regime and the >>arm >>s links between Britain and the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. >> >>But Jacques maintains the one-off edition of his magazine can >>change things for good -- at least in Britain. ''It's real effect >>is still to come,'' Jacques claims. And that, according to him, >>is that Blair will never be seen in the same way again. >> >>''If you have 20,000 people looking at him differently, the >>debate about him will be conducted in a different way. And global >>events are going to prove us right,'' he adds. >> >>However, Jacques says, the success of 'Marxism Today' does >>not mean the magazine will be relaunched. ''We are not making >>a comeback,'' he says -- even if Marx himself appears to be doing >>so. (END/IPS/DDS/RJ/98) >> >>Origin: Amsterdam/POLITICS-EUROPE/ >> ---- >> >> [c] 1998, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) >> All rights reserved >> >> May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or >> service outside of the APC networks, without specific >> permission from IPS. This limitation includes distribution >> via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, >> print media and broadcast. For information about cross- >> posting, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. For >> information about print or broadcast reproduction please >> contact the IPS coordinator at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. >> >>** End of text from cdp:ips.english ** >> >>************************************************************************** * >>This material came from the Institute for Global Communications (IGC), a >>non-profit, unionized, politically progressive Internet services provider. >>For more information, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (you will get >>back an automatic reply), or visit their web site at http://www.igc.org/ . >>IGC is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. >>************************************************************************** * >>
