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| Chinese students at the ceremony |
By New Worker
correspondent
THE
FIRST act of this year’s annual commemoration of Karl Marx at his tomb in
Highgate this year was a one-minute silence to mark the deaths of two giants of
the working class movement in Britain: Bob Crow and Tony Benn – and of course
to remember Marx himself.
Daphne Liddle from the Central Committee
of the New Communist Party joined around 60 people to remember the life and
times of Marx, who together with Frederick Engels, laid the foundations of
modern scientific socialism.
Diplomats from China, Cuba and Vietnam
along with comrades from all over the world stood in the warm spring sunshine,
the air filled with birdsong, in front of the massive granite monument to Karl
Marx, and saluted our heroes.
The event was organised by the committee
of the Marx Memorial Library, who are the trustees of the Marx monument in
Highgate cemetery and conducted by MML chair Alex Gordon, who is a former
president of Bob Crow’s union, the RMT. He was a close friend of Crow and
clearly deeply saddened and shocked by Crow’s sudden death.
This year the main oration was given by
John Douglas, president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He spoke without
notes on the history of the Irish trade union movement, of James Larkin and
James Connolly and the influence of Karl Marx on their struggles.
And he spoke of the modern struggles
against the crimes being committed against the working class in Ireland and all
over Europe and America in the name of austerity. He ended with a quote from
Larkin: “The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.”
Liz
Payne from the Communist Party of Britain read a prepared speech on the effects
of capitalism on women’s rights.
Then the Internationale was sung and
dozens of wreathes and floral tributes were laid at the monument; hundreds of
photos were taken of comrades old and young standing with raised banners or
just raised clenched fists in front of the monument..
Then the party departed with many going
on to a small reception at a nearby public house.
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