Spencer Hoey
Howard Zinn’s Karl Marx in Soho play provides a first person narrative from “Karl Marx” about how he believes that his ideas are still relevant today. The character engages with the audience as if he was still alive. Throughout the play, Karl Marx argues that the capitalist system from 200 years ago is still relevant today causing so many to suffer which is why a change is needed.
The play begins with Marx talking about how the Marxist Society of London misinterpreted his ideas and how much stress this caused him. He wanted his ideas to be the ignition to form a worker’s union revolt, not another call for the proletariat to gain power. Marx goes on to talk about where society went wrong, but how society is smart enough to realize a change is needed. One main problem is class division which is causing millions of people to suffer each year. Marx pointed out that 1 percent owns 49 percent of the wealth in America while millions of Americans remain homeless or trapped in poverty. These numbers hold true because society is still controlled by a proletariat and bourgeoisie system where factories such as Walmart thrive when the workers are compensated barely enough to survive. Marx sees these problems stemming from the fact that all people think about is profit and how work will lead them to some form of comfort. This is the goal of the capitalist system, but why, when the system causes so many to suffer. A change is needed to branch away from this idea because without change, society will be stuck in the system set in place. Society will not only be stuck but actually becoming worse as other problems such as drugs, alcohol and violence become more prominent in such a divided system. Marx knew 200 years ago what was wrong with society and people today still have not realized. A change is needed if society wants to branch away from the system that has hurt so many for so long, and a change will indeed come.