The day and the year that Karl Marx was born — May 5th, 1818 — appear in red letters in the calendar of the social revolution. - Eugene V Debs
Today is the birthday of Karl Marx, revolutionary communist philosopher and economist, among other things. Eugene Debs wrote an homage to Marx on the centenary of his birthday in 1918. In that, he said:
Marx is almost too big to write about, and this is said with the homage commanded by the majesty of the man, but not with the blind adulation with which unthinking idolators regard the so-called great men of history.
Marx would agree - he never supported the great man theory of history since he was an historical materialist. When we celebrate Marx, we should celebrate the ideas of Marx which will bring liberation to the working people of the world.
Marx’s contributions are many - so many that a 2013 study by information scientists from Indiana University found him to be the world’s most influential scholar. One of his greatest contributions to society was his scientific study of capitalism. In his life’s work, Das Kapital, he exposed the inner workings of the capitalist system and its inherent contradictions.
But all methods for the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation; and every extension of accumulation becomes again a means for the development of those methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse. The law, finally, that always equilibrates the relative surplus population, or industrial reserve army, to the extent and energy of accumulation, this law rivets the labourer to capital more firmly than the wedges of Vulcan did Prometheus to the rock. It establishes an accumulation of misery, corresponding with accumulation of capital. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital. - Karl Marx, Capital Vol 1
And not only did he expose capitalism for his failures, he also determined scientifically what must be done to end this exploitative system and advance to a better future, a communist future where everyone’s needs are met.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.
The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.
The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.
Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto
Easier said than done, but nevertheless the prescription for change remains the same. In order to end the misery of capitalism, the communists must overthrow this rotten capitalist system.