In May 2018, Karl Marx would have been 200 years old. His birthday will probably receive far less attention in countries such as China and Russia, where now state capitalism is predominant, than in the Western world, where the financial crisis of 2008 suddenly encouraged even conservative thinkers to first doubt the economic order. And where do the progressive forces stand? At times they had made peace with capitalism. Adjusting instead of confining was the motto. But in times of growing inequality and global market forces mocking the primacy of politics, the critique of capitalism seems en vogue again.
