Last year was a rough one with the continued unnecessary war in Ukraine and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Poverty is on the rise, homelessness is at record levels, the oppression of the working class increases daily. I appreciate all the support you have all given me during the last year. It’s a busy time for me right now with my “real” job, but I’ll be publishing more soon.
Until then, here’s a letter Marx wrote to Engels on December 27, 1861. 1861 was a rough year for Marx, just has 2023 was for so many of the working class.
Dear Engels,
When the outside world first began to ‘dun’ me, I wrote — since I didn’t want to be always pestering you — not only to my mother and other relations, but also to Siebel. Now that young man, as I see from his letter, has again written to you. Consider the matter as non avenue.
I am extremely vexed that you should have had to give Dronke an I.O.U. for my sake. Originally, he promised to arrange the matter in less onerous a form and to give longer terms.
I don’t yet know quite how I am to weather this crisis. Whatever happens — since otherwise it would be plainly impossible — I shall write to my landlord and tell him that he cannot be paid now, that I intend to give him a bill, etc.
The court case is also going wrong. Since the point at issue turns on partnership, my lawyer considers it necessary — if I am not to be made to pay the £20 — that the case be removed from the Sheriff’s Court and taken before a Superior Court. I am due to appear at the Sheriff’s Court on January 3rd. My mistake lay in not having concluded a written contract with A. Petsch. Sidney, my attorney, believes I should be pretty safe in the Superior Court.
The rotten Presse is printing barely half my articles. They're jackasses. I wonder how they propose to pay, whether I'm expected to write individual articles on ‘spec’, or what?
In the meantime, may I wish you in advance every happiness for the New Year. If it’s anything like the old one, I, for my part, would sooner consign it to the devil.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Karl Marx suffered under capitalism greatly. The court case referenced in this letter was over a contract with his publisher, A. Petsch. I couldn’t find out the results of the case, but Karl Marx did make it through and would go on to publish Volume 1 of Capital in 1867.
I wish you every happiness for the New Year.
I wish everyone, especially Birrrion, a Happy New Year!
But, for those who share my questionable fortune to reside in the U.S. this is an election year. The demagogues will be out in force preaching for the salvation of our democracy. I despair of the vast fortunes spent to vault what each voter may perceive as the least malevolent candidate over the line.
We will not find candidates competent and capable to call out the vicious destruction of our environment (both physical and spiritual) by the corporate capitalists that call the shots. Having first voted as a nineteen year old in 1972 gives me a rather long insight into the trend of callow choices we have presented to us.
Still, let us imagine that many others will clue in and not waste their vote on any candidate that our two party duopoly fields. Then, perhaps long after this year, 2024 will be celebrated.
Yes, I was thinking of how Dickensian the times are today as I was shopping for our traditional New Year meal. Over night, as the dogs hid, I questioned the spirits as to what in hell anyone had the audacity to celebrate during a conspiratorial genocide. "Don't they know there's mass murder going on in plain view?" I refuse to pretend all is well.