WI Marx moves to Texas?

I know it's ASBey, but it'd be nice to see him becoming a politician. Kinda like a Carl Schurz parallel.

BTW, was this related to Adelsverein?

I have a picture in my head now of cowboy Marx running around the CSA freeing slaves and shooting up the Bourgeoisie.

Karl Marx' body lies a-mouldering in the grave... :p
 
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The American Labor movement was active and agitating in the 1890's. Not the 1840's. In the 1840's, Marx has a better chance of being killed by outlaws than inspiring solidarity in the American Labor movement. The only thing I can see him being involved in will be the Abolition movement, and even then, he is still just a German immigrant and his word is worth about as much as shit to most in America. He'll also have to face racism and the realities that go with racism in America.

The Workingmen's Party begs to differ. It had ceased to exist by the 1840's, but the memory of the radical politics in New York state of the 1830's would still be fresh. The anti-rent war, the Equal Rights Party, the Workingmen, the Barnburners, the van Buren men.

New York City in the 1840's was one of the most politically radical cities on the planet. Marx would feel right at home. I imagine that's where he ends up when he gets bored of Texas.
 
The Workingmen's Party begs to differ. It had ceased to exist by the 1840's, but the memory of the radical politics in New York state of the 1830's would still be fresh. The anti-rent war, the Equal Rights Party, the Workingmen, the Barnburners, the van Buren men.

New York City in the 1840's was one of the most politically radical cities on the planet. Marx would feel right at home. I imagine that's where he ends up when he gets bored of Texas.
That could be quite interesting, could he enter politics?
 
It would be interesting. Marx would either get with the don't mess with Texas program or leave. There were some very unusual Jewish situations with Texas in the 1840-1910 period, like the Henry Halff ranch:

http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tx/odessa.html

It was something like 4 thousand square miles, if recalled correctly, near the King ranch in size. I have personally abstracted property formerly belonging to the ranch. The daughter moved to New York City, I recall, to study being a playwright or such.

Most likely, as Karl Tex would find excessive hardship. As many Germans
were quite educated and the situation very primitive, the upper level did not do as well as the lower. A similar thing happened with the Bohemian
Czech colony in Kansas (or was is Nebraska) that Willa Cather personally knew. They were artistic, musical and atheistic, and had hard times with the nation's highest suicide rates, or so was in a Willa Cather description of the book.
 
The American Labor movement was active and agitating in the 1890's. Not the 1840's. In the 1840's, Marx has a better chance of being killed by outlaws than inspiring solidarity in the American Labor movement. The only thing I can see him being involved in will be the Abolition movement, and even then, he is still just a German immigrant and his word is worth about as much as shit to most in America. He'll also have to face racism and the realities that go with racism in America.

Uh, what racism was there against Germans?
 
Uh, what racism was there against Germans?

Race was not what we know it as. Maybe Nativism is the correct term, but the fact is, Anglo Americans, who dominated politics at the time, held a lot against the Germans for being one, foreign, and two, slightly more liberal.
 
Truth be told, Marx would have probably settled with or near his sister and brother-n-law in the creatively named Sisterdale, west of San Antonio. It was a community of German "Free-Thinkers" who wanted

  1. Equal pay for equal work
  2. Direct election of the President of the United States
  3. Abolition of capital punishment
  4. Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles
  5. Free schools – including universities - supported by the state, without religious influence
  6. Total separation of church and state
Unfortunately, the residents of Sisterdale were contentious objectors to the ACW (loyalist) and were attacked by confederates in 1862 after marshal law was declared. Most were killed in what was called today the Nueces Massacre but some escaped to Mexico. What does a world with Karl Marx as a Mexican refugee look like? Or just no Marx?
 
Many people assume here that Texas will be annexed by the USA. That's not always the case, especially if Henry Clay won the 1844 presidential election.

I believe Marx will be free to spread his ideas around in a surviving Republic of Texas.
 
Many people assume here that Texas will be annexed by the USA. That's not always the case, especially if Henry Clay won the 1844 presidential election.

I believe Marx will be free to spread his ideas around in a surviving Republic of Texas.

Yes, it's possible that Karl Marx moving to Texas in 1843 could alter the course of the RoT's history. It's probably not a big enough butterfly to alter the 1844 presidential election, but could be a big enough one to adversely impact the annexation/statehood movement in the Lone Star State.

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What I find interesting in this thread is how many people assume that Marx's OTL theories about society, economics and politics (as laid out in works such as The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital and developed in cities such as Paris, Brussels, Cologne, & London) won't be altered/changed as a result of his moving to Texas in 1843.
 
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