In Defence of Marxism

Today, as the whole world knows is September11^th. It seems that from now, and so long as the USA remains under the rule of the American ruling class (personally I hope this will not be too long), 9/11 will be marked with hypocritical eulogies and all the “civilized world” as George W Bush calls the capitalist market orientated, American dominated part of our beautiful planet, will doff their hats as the servants of old used to, to their upper class masters. And they will dutifully mourn, some like Tony Blair in genuine backside licking and others in fear less they should be called supporters of Al-Qaeda, and have American soldiers come and “rescue” them, like in Iraq.

But for me personally September 11^th has a completely different meaning! You see it’s my mother’s birthday. My mother alas is no longer alive, she died in 1997 two months short of her 92^nd birthday. The fact that a poor woman with no formal education who came to the UK from Poland in 1936 managed to reach such a venerable age is all down to one thing, the thing that has dominated all my thinking since I was 14, Socialist ideals! [or the Welfare State, editor].

When I was two years old my father died, he had been a tailor sitting cross-legged on a table for 14 hours a day for a pittance. So here was my mum a seamstress left with a two year old child with no means of support, except that is for her widow’s pension. I don’t know how many countries then or now have automatic widow’s pensions, but I do know that here in Israel it does not exist today.

We lived in the East End of London, Stepney as it was called in those days, and Tower Hamlets as it is known now, which has always had a Labour run council. This socialist run borough, in the hub of the capital of the financial world London, provided me with a free child care place or kindergarten as it was know then, enabling my mum to go to work.

I left the UK to live in Israel as I’m Jewish, so when I went to school we had kosher dinners provided for all the Jewish pupils. For people like my mum who was regarded as poor, the meals were free. But this was done in such a discreet and decent way so that no one knew who paid and who did not.

I was a sickly child, so my mum was always taking me to the doctor, all of course free of charge. I was once very ill, but the much maligned National Health Service saved my life free of charge. Some twenty years after I had left the UK for Israel, my mother, who at first thought of going with me to Israel, but changed her mind and stayed in England (clever lady!) had a slight heart attack, so my wife and I came to the UK. My wife who has had extensive experience of Israeli health care, both professionally and as a patient, was dumbstruck by the care and kindness my mum received at the hands of the wonderful staff at The Royal London Hospital. And nothing had to be paid for, not even the ambulance that brought mum home. Home was a pensioner block of flats where, because of my mother’s low financial position, she lived rent FREE.

I am certain that the reason my mother and others like her that I knew lived into their nineties was because of socialist ideals, the same ideals that America is so afraid of. Why does the richest country in the world have the worst health care system in the so-called developed world? Why do people like Bush and Blair think that helping those that cannot help themselves is something wrong? I’ll tell you why, because all these so-called self made men are all free-loaders, thieves and liars. They claim to be Christians, they brag about it. But what does what they preach have to do with Jesus who (as the Gospels relate) helped the poor, comforted the sick?

Osama-Bin-Laden and George W Bush are persons of the same ilk. They are both rich, both religious fanatics and don’t give a damn about anyone but their own personal ideology. And like all the fanatics that have gone before them, they will fail, but the human race will have to pay a heavy price for their goals. And like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, and Sharon history will remember them with disgust and distain.

So for as long as I live, 9/11 will be for me the day I remember Kier Hardy, Aneurin Bevan and all the great people of the old British Labour Party, because without them I would probably not be writing this, and my mum would certainly not have reached the venerable age she did.