The German Communist Party (the DKP), campaigning in this year’s German elections had a banner proclaiming Die Krise heißt Kapitalismus! A Crisis Called Capitalism.

This claim has been central to Marxist thought since 1848, when the manifesto was published more or less at the same time in French, German and English.

That there is a state of economic crisis is something most adults living in the west since 2007 -2008 would agree on. At least when looking at the standard of living for the majority. Whether such crises are per se endemic to an immoral system or a manageable side effect of this form of economic relations within society is open to question.

Communism is both the late fruit of German idealism that started with liberal thinkers like Kant and a kind of artisanal good-natured collectivism. The highest of Teutonic aspirations and the humblest of early industrial enterprise. Berlin and at the same time Rochdale. The German capital was the home to ideas such as dialectical materialism and the Lancashire town the place of the first co-op. The two do not always sit well together but both are worthy of equal attention.

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