Ed
Edwards, Max (1999-2016)
Max Edwards was born in York, England, where he grew up with his parents and younger siblings, Esme and Toby. He began writing a blog, The Anonymous Revolutionary in 2014 when he was 15 years old. He continued writing every Friday for the following 15 months, his tagline being ‘Marxism in the modern world’, despite simultaneously studying for his end of school exams and being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The fact that he only mentioned his illness in one blog, on 9th October 2015, under the title ‘Marxism, Opium and Morphine – Terminal Cancer from a Marxist Perspective’, is indicative of his passion for exploring Marxist political theory, and the calm, self effacing bravery with which he lived through an illness that would have destroyed most of us. In the Views section of his blog Max 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.
To develop a more in-depth understanding of the ideals I hold, you can look at writings by and about individuals such as Marx, Engels or Lenin. I'd recommend the free online source Marxists Internet Archive to do this.
Additionally, my posts provide some of my own ideas and theoretical contributions to Marxist theory, although my views have changed significantly over the course of writing this blog, meaning that they may not be a reliable account of my current opinions. For example, I once referred to myself as a Trotskyist. No longer the case.
The foreword to his book of the same title is candid as to how the blogs entries trace the development of his thoughts on current politics and his own political ideology; the entries themselves are honest, witty and modest, whilst also being incisive and illuminating. Max was an articulate and ardent supporter of Marxism; he believed it was relevant, and indeed vital to our progress in the emerging 21st Century. He believed unequivocally in equality for all, in a way which could cause discomfort to some who believe that National, local ties should always come first. Someone he had never met on the other side of the world would be equally deserving of any benefits humanity could provide in his eyes, as those nearest and dearest to him.
But he was also irreverent and funny – no subject was off limits for Max’s sharp humour. And he was a real polymath; there was very little in the world that didn’t interest him (and very little that he didn’t know or want to know about). Max loved his home, his family, his dog Tiger, and Bruce the cat. He was a talented musician, song writer and poet. Max was full of ambition to travel, to study and to write. When he died on 26th March 2016, aged just 16, he left us poems, songs, an unfinished musical, many, many maps of imaginary countries (complete with political systems and economies), was in the middle of teaching himself Russian and had outlined a second book about Marxism. He is deeply loved and missed.