GTFF CO-SPONSORS THE SECOND COMING…OF KARL MARX!
By Nathan Moore and Kate Downing
Karl Marx packed up his bag and took a last swig of cold beer before he left the EMU ballroom to return to a humorous, though somewhat bureaucratic afterlife. As he strode down the center aisle, the crowd of more than 300 audience members delivered a standing ovation.
On Tuesday, February 27th, the talented actor, Bob Weick, portrayed Karl Marx in a production of historian Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho. The play was organized and sponsored by the U of O Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF), an organizational affiliate of ESSN, and the U of O Cultural Forum, the Survival Center, and the Department of Sociology.
GTFF and ESSN member Becky Clausen was one of the main organizers of the event. According to her, the performance provided an engaging opportunity to introduce Marx’s ideas to students and community members. Clausen said, “It’s not just a one time event…with everything that’s happening in the world, people are looking for another means of figuring out what’s going on.” Clausen hopes that the performance of Marx in Soho will spark a discussion surrounding contemporary issues of social justice, labor and capitalism, and environmental concerns.
Weick’s passionate performance certainly brought to life the contemporary emphasis embodied in Zinn’s play. Armed with newspaper clippings of current events, his character pointed out the resemblance between the social inequity of his age and ours. Using dignified rage, ironic humor, and a sense of tragedy, Weick called attention to, among other topics, the massive gulf between rich and poor, the follies of war, and corruption in electoral politics.
The success of the play was also due to Zinn’s look at the human side of Marx. Bob Weick took the audience on a tour through the life of Karl Marx, stopping to show us scenes of Marx’s family and friends. His alternately comedic and tear-jerking remembrances of his rebellious cigar-smoking daughter Eleanor, his wife and greatest literary critic Jenny, and his anarchistic rival—and sometimes friend—Mikhail Bakunin provided emotional and historical depth to the story of Karl Marx.
When asked about the size of the crowd and the enthusiastic response to Marx in Soho, Becky Clausen was ecstatic. “It was great to see such a broad base of people there,” she said. “Bob was thrilled at the response.” And it was a thrilling night. A contingent of ESSN members held an informal gathering after the show was over to discuss the relevance of Marx in Soho in terms of local community and labor concerns. A consensus was reached—the struggle for social and economic justice is just as essential today as it was in 1848 when Marx first published his famous Manifesto.
For specific follow-up events to Marx in Soho visit iso.breadlandpeace.org