THE ANONYMOUS REVOLUTIONARY

Five months ago sixteen year old Max Edwards was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His book, The Anonymous Revolutionary, was published earlier this month.

 MAX EDWARDS IS the author of The Anonymous Revolutionary, a collection of his writings based on his blog of the same name. Max launched his blog in January last year. He says that, according to the stats, 19,000 people read The Anonymous Revolutionary in 2015. I think he's pretty proud of this and rightly so.

Although only sixteen years of age, Max has focused his blog on discussing revolutionary socialism -  in an age where neoliberal capitalism has been in ascendancy and in an age when the traditional social democratic parties have either collapsed or have embraced 'the market'.

At his age I had nominal interest in politics but, if asked, I would have said I supported Labour - and only because I came from a Labour-voting family. There was no intellectual coherency to my Labour-supporting ways. But young Max is unambiguous and concise about his politics. He writes:

"I am a Marxist, Leninist, Bolshevist and internationalist. I’d consider myself a Marxist in the orthodox sense, which is to say that I uphold the traditional view that the tyrannies of capitalism shall only be quashed through class struggle. In that sense, I’m also an anti-revisionist and am opposed to tendencies like Post-Marxism."

He's not a big fan of British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and thinks he's, well, a bit wishy-washy:

 "I’d say he’s more of an in-the-middle leftist, a political island between social-democracy and communism; a radical moderate. And as a result, I believe he’ll do more harm than good."

I don't think Max has read Rosa Luxemburg's Social Reform or Revolution, her classic essay on the question of reformism. It would probably provide him with something to think about.

Max with Jeremy and Ed.

A blog post titled 'Marxism, Opium and Morphine', published in October 2015 is moving. Here is a young lad trying to remain dispassionately analytical about receiving some very bad news:

"Last Wednesday I was told of a tumour in my spine after experiencing some pain and immobility in my neck and right arm. I was operated on the following day (coincidentally the 66th anniversary of the 1949 Chinese Revolution) and have since been bed-bound and unable to do a great deal, this being the reason why I didn’t post last Friday. The bonus is the fact that the food in Leeds General Infirmary is actually quite good, and the downside is, well… cancer, but it can’t be helped; it’s the problem with having naturally revolutionary cells."

He goes on to say:

"On Wednesday I was told my that my cancer, on a I – IV grading system, fell into the most aggressive, Grade IV category. No one could commit to giving me a death date, but I’m left with the impression that, after chemotherapy, radiotherapy and physiotherapy (to regain movement), all of which should begin next week, I’ll have months to live."

An article by Max was published in the Guardian on Saturday. He talks about his illness and his life. You should read it.