Congressional Caucus Rebukes Juncker for Celebrating Marx

A bi-partisan letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged him not to participate in the unveiling of Beijing-funded statue of Karl Marx in Germany.

On May 5, 2018, the bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke at the unveiling of a colossal statue of Marx in the German city of Trier, the communist ideologue’s birthplace.

Town locals didn’t necessarily want the statue — which in revealing symbolism stands towering 18 feet high — but the city government accepted it anyway. Shockingly, the monument to Marx was a gift of the People’s Republic of China, one of the world’s most ruthless communist-totalitarian governments.

This could not go unanswered. Ahead of the statue’s unveiling, co-chairs of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation‘s (VOC) bipartisan Congressional Caucus — Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Dennis Ross (R-FL), and Marcy Kapture (D-OH) — sent a letter to President Juncker urging him not to speak at the statue’s unveiling; or if he did, not to honor Marx in any way, but rather honor the victims of Marxist regimes.

The letter condemned Marx, noting his 1849 article calling for terrorizing and murdering political opponents, and linked such incitement to the atrocities of regimes hailing his ideas. The letter noted, “Marxism is a toxic ideology that has led to mass death, torture, and enslavement wherever it has been applied… Violence and Marxism go hand-in-hand.”

The letter was referenced by major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Breitbart, The Express, and The Sun. Alarmingly, Juncker’s remarks tried to sever the link between Marx’s ideas and the atrocities they inspired, ignoring well-known historical facts about the call to violence embedded in Marx’s thought.