We frequently hear from academics, including more than a few UW political science professors, that Marxism is dead. However, the British government may be having second thoughts. In a report forecasting political trends over the next 30 years, the British Ministry of Defense predicts, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx." The report argues that mounting personal debt and a failing retirement system may fuel disillusionment in capitalism, and "the world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest." A spectre is haunting the Ministry of Defense! Predictions aside, the ministry is correct that increasing inequality and the ongoing massacre in Iraq have caused many people to question our society and ask if there is an alternative. The International Socialist Organization will hold a meeting, "The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx," tonight at 7:30 in 1131 Humanities, to argue that Marxism holds the key to that alternative. The gist of the report's segment on Marxism summarizes what many recent college graduates in the United States already know: The American Dream is a hoax. According to studies at Northeastern University, two-thirds of our generation will have a lower standard of living than our parents did. In the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare, many middle-class workers are one hospital visit away from a mountain of debt. And for the first time in American history, our generation will be less educated than the previous. Of course, not everyone is doing so poorly. Between 2002 and 2004, the average CEO salary increased 25 percent, from $7.8 million to $9.6 million. Economics professors tell us that an individual's income is determined by how hard he or she works. I guess CEOs started working 25 percent harder in those two years. Karl Marx observed that throughout history there have always been haves and have-nots: "Freemen and slaves, patrician and plebian, lord and serf." He recognized capitalism as unique, that it was the first society in which poverty is not caused by a shortage of wealth, but by the way wealth is distributed. For example, today enough food is produced worldwide to provide everyone on Earth a 2,800-Calorie diet, and yet six million children die every year of malnutrition. Starvation is not caused by a lack of food, but because there is no profitability in distributing food to those who need it most. Marxism continues to inspire today because Marx proposed a system based on human need instead of on profit. Many non-Marxists will accept, or even admire, Marx's indictment of capitalism. However, Marx was not satisfied at pointing out what was wrong with society. Instead, he insisted on finding the best way to change it. Liberal commentators have dismissed Marx's vision of working-class revolution as too utopian. However, the strength of Marx's ideas lies in the fact that Marx was not a daydreamer, cooking up elaborate blueprints of a perfect society. Marx started his political career as a liberal, editing a radical German newspaper and trying to fend off government censorship. He developed his ideas by trying to change German society, and discovered that capitalism would only tolerate certain changes, and none too many. Marx's ideas remain relevant because people are still trying to change society, and like Marx, they are discovering that capitalism is resistant to the changes they want. Two weeks ago, 100 UW students stormed Sen. Herb Kohl's office, most honestly believing that their senator would agree to meet with them to discuss how to end the war. When Mr. Kohl's staff threatened to arrest us, after we had endured a night of abuse from the security guards, many people were shocked. One activist wrote, "I haven't been this disillusioned in a while, not since I almost joined the Marines and believed the administration about the WMDs. I was angry and betrayed when I found out they were lying, but here was my senator — my Democratic senator — who had gone against us and used his police and his guards on us." In the process of struggle, illusions in our "democracy" get roughed up by reality. It is this disillusionment that makes people into radicals. Today, many people in the United States (and the United Kingdom, if you can believe the Ministry of Defense) are realizing their country is not the country they learned about in school. For these people, Marxism is worth considering, but not because of Marx's genius. Marxism's strength lies in that it is a theory developed by people struggling to make real the lives capitalism promised them. If you are such a person, you should join us at the ISO's meeting tonight. The last words of "The Communist Manifesto" ring true today: "The workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." Paul Pryse ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism. He is also a member of the International Socialist Organization.