Mal Fletcher

MARXISM ON RISE IN UNIVERSITIES Marxist thought is apparently enjoying something of a resurgence in popularity on Britain's university campuses, as an emerging generation realises that it may face worse economic prospects then its parents.

A poll released this week shows that twice as many young people regard big business as a danger than are fearful of communism.

Meanwhile, Marxist groups are using the 200th anniversary of the philosopher's birth and the 50th anniversary of the 1968 student protests to promote militancy.

One leader of a university Marxist society said recently that, 'Despite the monstrosity of the stalinist regime, we can see the power and strength of a planned economy.'

The question is not whether there is planning behind an economy, but who does the planning? Arguably, in practice, history reveals that communism serves vested interests more than capitalism.

However, under capitalism - married to liberal democracy - markets at least have power to change things, markets which are driven in part by the tastes and behaviours of individuals. For all their utopian rhetoric, marxist governments morph very quickly into introverted, self-serving cultures sustaining the interests of their senior members.

Following the path to Marxism will lead a generation of passionate, reformist young people into disappointment, disillusionment and in some cases despair - just as it did some students in the late 1950s and '60s. Students, that is, who lived in capitalist democracies in which they were still free to express even unpopular views.

Mal Fletcher (@MalFletcher) is the founder and chairman of 2030Plus. He is a respected keynote speaker, social commentator and social futurist, author and broadcaster based in London.

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