Who was Karl Marx REALLY? – A reply to CrashCourse

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist and journalist, and above all a revolutionary. He continues to haunt the nightmares of the rich and powerful, just as he inspires workers, the poor and youth to struggle for a future without exploitation and oppression. The popular CrashCourse channel has attempted to explain Marx’s theories and their continued relevance, but we think we can do better…

CrashCourse (established by the Green Brothers) is an educational YouTube channel that provides introductory videos about various topics, including politics and philosophy. A few months ago, they released a video called ‘Who Was Karl Marx? And Why Is Everyone Still Talking About Him?’ (linked below). 

The video correctly points out that the powers-that-be still invoke Marx’s name as a bogeyman, 150 years after his death: a fact that tells us something about the power of his ideas. CrashCourse says that we need to have an honest discussion about Marx’s actual beliefs, which they attempt to provide in an accessible form. 

While we agree with the sentiment, we have some issues with the way CrashCourse characterises Marxism and its so-called ‘limitations’. For example, was Marx wrong to call for revolution, when perhaps we can simply reform capitalism into a kinder, friendlier form? Are aspects of his analysis ‘outdated’? Did he focus on the plight of the working class to the point of ‘ignoring’ the oppression of women and minority groups?

To fill in some of the gaps left by CrashCourse, and deal with some of their misrepresentations, we are delighted to have Josh Holroyd, a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, on the Spectre of Communism. Josh gives a more complete overview of what Marx really stood for, and why we communists still study his ideas today. 

As a body of thought, Marxism is the sharpest weapon we have in the fight against capitalism. After all, as Marx writes, “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it!”

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Listen on Spotify, Apple and anywhere else you get your podcasts here: https://linktr.ee/specom 

Sources:

‘Who Was Karl Marx? And Why Is Everyone Still Talking About Him?’, CrashCourse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imIf8NAcWQ 

‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’, Karl Marx, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/index.htm 

‘Communist replies to MORE right-wing lies’, Spectre of Communism Podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKY5gL5-YvY 

‘The Civil War: America's second revolution’, John Peterson, https://marxist.com/idom-the-us-civil-war-america-s-second-revolution.htm 

‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’, F. Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state.htm 

‘Mondragon through a Critical Lens’, Jill Bamburg, https://www.fiftybyfifty.org/2017/10/mondragon-through-a-critical-lens/ 

‘On Cooperation’, V. I. Lenin, https://marxist.com/on-cooperation-lenin1923.htm 

‘Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’, F. Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-socialism-utopian-and-scientific.htm