'What Use Now Karl Marx?'

What use now your fading photo Karl Marx?
What use now you theory of history, class consciousness
Class war
Rising hegemony of the workers
Inevitability of revolution?
What use now to assert that the consciousness
Behind these lines
Is the product of economic determinants
A function of the relations of production?
What use now your Communist Party Manifesto,
Published London, 1850?
What use to call for overthrow
Of big dollar banks USA, London, Tokyo, Luxembourg?
Of tyrants in Moscow
Butchers in Beijing
What hope now for Castro’s last sad isle?
What use anti-capitalist riot
Many injuries
Over one hundred arrests
Tough words from the PM
What use now you image cast in bronze
Oh falsely shamed god
Cast down to oblivion
By hands of angry hoarde?
What use comrade, what use?
What use now a dream of universal equality
Of no state
Global peace
False boundaries dissolved
Money games over
Dinosaurs laid at last to rest
What use to say they trampled
Your principles under foot
What use comrade, what use.

November 2005