Filed under: Historic Wight | Tags: Communism, corruption, council, IOW. IW, Isle of Wight, Karl Marx, Ryde
arl Marx has always been somewhat of a hero of mine in fact he is almost my favourite Marx, coming in a very close second to Groucho. 
So when I caught wind that the father of communism used to stay at 11 Nelson Street in Ryde I immediately despatched one of my spies to investigate. Karl and his wife Jenny stayed at Nelson Street for some weeks in 1874 whilst Karl was recovering from a bout of illness. His doctor had forbidden him to work, Marx did however study the numerous island newspapers of the time and it is recorded he commented on the local electioneering. 
Quite what impact the way the island was run had on Karl’s ideology we can only speculate but Marx was concerned about corruption within 
the socialist movement itself as the very progress of the movement was threatened by the corruption of its leaders the source of the corruption was bourgeois society and its wealth. It seams that our Karl also had a jovial side as he and Jenny would have bouts of uncontrollable laughter to the extent that they dare not even glance at each other for fear of going into one.
Quite why the council haven’t acknowledged the presence of the great man on the island, with a plaque to commemorate him, I feel raises further suspicion that Karl’s views of the islands leadership were far from favourable. Could they still be in fear of revolution? 
So I have designed a plaque, and shown how nicely it would adorn number eleven if the council would only get their collective finger out, as a celebration of the father of communism who together with Friedrich Engels produced the Communist manifesto.
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