This excellent book telling the story of Eleanor Marx grips from start to finish, bringing out the myriad qualities of the daughter of Karl and Jenny Marx.
A socialist, political
activist, orator, journalist, actress, translator and intellectual, Eleanor
Marx died at a tragically young age.
The book charts
the development of the international labour movement with all its different
elements in the latter part of the 19th century. Eleanor Marx and
Frederick Engels particularly always see the importance of organising with the
working class in order that they can emancipate themselves from virtual wage slavery.
There is always a wary eye to the middle class inspired actions to help the
working class, whilst always remaining in control themselves.
The book has many
lessons for a world today which in terms of class consciousness seems to have
gone backwards to a period that predates the early optimistic developments of
the late 19th century. Today,
the working class are largely written out of the script in many forums, being
described in derogatory terms like chavs, whilst the middle classes do charity
for the poor.
A fascinating
element of the book is the constant battle of Eleanor Marx for feminist
liberation. She finds early on, that despite her efforts on behalf of the
struggle for socialism she is still getting tied down by the tasks that fell to
women, even in the enlightened world of the Marx household.
She then gets stuck with her “husband” Edward
Aveling who proves a drain on her personal and emotional life, acting as the
worst type of male parasite. Sadly, he eventually drags her down, bringing
about a premature death in 1898 at the age of 43.
Eleanor Marx is a
book that inspires but also raises much cause for reflection., The biggest
question arising has to be how far have the class and feminist struggles progressed
since the 1890s?
The close of the
19th and beginning of the 20st century were times of
grinding poverty but also hope. There were visionary figures like Marx and
Engels, the development of the new unions, a fledgling Labour Party and the
sight of working people gaining consciousness and really flexing their own
industrial muscles. There was the suffragete movement that did much to advance
the cause of women to at least receive a vote in the society that they did so
much to maintain.
Then came the
First World War, which was a convenient way of halting the march of organised
labour by dividing the peoples of Europe on nationalistic grounds so that once
again worker fought worker on behalf of the ruling elites.
Today, women have
gained more rights but they still remain second class citizens in society. The
hope must be that as women come to dominate the workforce that they will carry
the beacon of Eleanor Marx forward and also lead the trade union movement.
The labour
movement generally though needs reinvigorating, reinventing and renewing in the
present age. It is a sobering thought that if the labour movement in the form
of the unions and representative left of centre parties, like Labour, were functioning
in anyway effectively beyond tokenistic status, then the capitalists would not
have been able to so easily dump the cost of the banking crisis on the workers.
There is much to do.
There have been
advances in the status of women but they remain, in the main, second class
citizens in a largely male dominated patriarchal world. The largest exploited
class. One interesting question that the life of Eleanor Marx does pose, is how
far the position of women can ever advance as long as the patriarchal
institution of marriage continues to assert such a dominant role in society.
There has to be a better way of both sexes living, working and procreating
together than this restrictive covenant on life.
Eleanor Marx
offers a beacon of hope but also a warning of the need to fight on for justice
both in the world of work and the domestic setting in which many people live,
work and have their being.
*Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel
Holmes is published by Bloomsbury, cost £25
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