No Tears as Marx Faithful Gather in London on His 172nd Birthday

LONDON — It has been a bad year for Communists, but there were no tears Saturday as the diminished ranks of the socialist fraternity paid respects to Karl Marx, commemorating his 172nd birthday.

Delegations from China, Mongolia and East Germany made a pilgrimage to the London cemetery where the father of communism is buried, bringing flowers and their versions of the kinder, gentler communism of the 1990s.

"It (Marxism) is not dead. Misinterpretation of Marx is dead," said Joachim Mitdank, the East German ambassador. "We have more than ever before to make correct interpretation."

Marx came to London in 1849 after being expelled from his native Germany. He lived in London's Soho district, researching his criticism of capitalism, "Das Kapital."

He died in 1883, his writings almost unknown.