(Queensland, Australia) — In Australia, we have a city called Melbourne, located in the state of Victoria. Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria but is also becoming known as the heartland of radical leftists, intellectual activism and neo-Marxism. It wasn’t always like this. The discovery of gold in the 1850’s and 60’s was the most significant event in the evolution of the state of Victoria. Fueled by extravagant stories of wealth gained at the 1849 Californian gold rush, gold fever hit Victoria. When eight tons of Victorian gold arrived at London’s port in April 1852, the Times of London declared: “…this is California all over again, but it would appear, California on a larger scale…” In fact, between 1850 and 1900, the goldfields of Bendigo produced the most gold in the world – around nine billion dollars in today’s money. Not surprisingly, this led to a period of extreme prosperity for Victoria and an influx of population growth and financial capital for Melbourne. As a result of this procurement of wealth, the city was dubbed “Marvellous Melbourne.” 

Fast forward to 2023, and all that has changed. Rather than “Marvellous Melbourne,” the city should be called “Marxist Melbourne”. Victoria, like so many other places throughout the world, is succumbing to the agenda of radical leftists and their neo-Marxist worldview. In fact, Melbourne is the location for an annual pro-Marxism conference, this year held, perhaps somewhat deliberately and rebelliously, over the weekend when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a sad fact that, like so many other places, Marxism is gaining political ascendency throughout Australia and is capturing the minds of the younger generation. Reporters attending the most recent conference indicated that most attendees were 35 or younger. Those in attendance seemed to have both an aversion to capitalism and COVID-19. Mask-wearing was compulsory in all sessions they declared. Everyone enthusiastically agreed. Although, nobody seemed to ask if the lockdowns, mandatory shots and mask-wearing were all perpetuated by capitalist Big Pharma. But I digress. 

One of the most intriguing sessions was, “Chip technology is a new imperialism.” Hmmm, I wonder how they will feel about the Antichrist? As evidenced by the overall agenda of the Marxism Conference 2023, perhaps they would flock to his side if he is a perceived minority. After all, the weekend was spent railing against all forms of oppression concerning women, races, LGBTIQA+ and all and sundry minorities. It remains to be seen whether the young people in attendance truly understand what Marx’s vision was but since there is an enthusiasm for the ideology which is resonating amongst the Australian people, it would be foolish to ignore the wave of support for neo-Marxism.

In hindsight, the problems we experience with Marxism in our age really began in universities and colleges. The general Marxist approach is to shame or eventually stop any ideas beyond what is politically correct at the time. When we think of Marxism, we generally tend to think of economics, but that was Marx’s third concern. His second was politics and the first was religion. So, in original Marxism, the centre of opposition was between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. However, in neo-Marxism the confrontation is now between Western culture and exploited minority groups. In America, for example, its strength was found in its relationship with Jesus Christ. Hence, for Marxism to succeed, it had to compete in all of the institutions that have a Christian presence. Therefore, Marxism must marginalise the dominant ideology in opposition to it and that is why it aggressively seeks to displace Christianity. What this has meant in America and similar Western nations is the slow, incremental destruction of Christian principles in society to make it a fertile ground for a lasting Marxist revolution.

After Marx’s failed campaign, his acolytes believed that the way you could really bring about utopia was to change the culture. The effect therefore is similar to original Marxism – it seeks to impose its worldview by suppressing anybody who dares to dissent. After all, the key factor in Marx’s intellectual legacy in our present-day society is not “philosophy” but “critique” or, what he described in 1843 as “the ruthless criticism of all that exists.” This is where the social justice movement is closely aligned with core ideas from Marxism – such movements recognise, as did Marx, that the ideas that rule every society are those of its ruling class and that overturning those ideas is fundamental to true revolutionary progress. 

The reason that Marxism has been so successful in permeating every facet of modern society is that there was a deliberate ploy on the part of neo-Marxists to acquire positions of influence within the social hierarchy to advocate for the transformation of culture. In his book, Marxism in the United States, author Paul Buhle succinctly answers the question: where did all the 60’s radicals go? He says, “neither to religious cults nor yuppiedom, but to the classroom.” Because these people had rejected God, neo-Marxism became an intellectual anchor. 

A key plank to the successful march of Marxism is its destructive criticism of the main elements of Western culture including Christianity, capitalism, authority, the family, morality, tradition, sexual restraint, loyalty and patriotism. Therefore, over time, Critical Theory has been used to attack Christians, absolute morality, the Ten Commandments, traditional culture and even Boy Scouts. It has been described as a psychological battering ram which is used to force society to submit to Marxism. It was and is used so forcefully that political centrists became too scared to admit the truth of important issues and strived to not be found guilty of “wrong think.” What this led to is a large segment of society tolerating everything in order to avoid being called offensive names. 

Herbert Marcuse (a name often overlooked when discussing this silent revolution) argued that revolutionary change could only come about through the use and manipulation of those who were alienated by society. In many ways, Marcuse was an essential revolutionary linchpin because he was the link between the original Frankfurt School ideas and the 1960’s counterculture, which gave birth to political correctness. In fact, in his infamous essay entitled “Repressive Tolerance” which he wrote in 1965, he argued for the toleration of everything on the Left and the intolerance of everything on the Right. This is a concept that we are now all too familiar with. 

In fact, many people ascribe to the idea that Marxism ceased to be a threat after the 1960’s but in fact what happened is that radical left-wing Marxists merely fragmented into multiple activist groups including those active within radical feminism, environmentalism, animal rights and the peace movement. You can essentially identify them by the usual trigger words such as: tolerance, social justice, peace, reproductive rights, pro-choice, diversity etc. These groups are merely strands of neo-Marxism which disguise themselves within the so-called social justice causes. You can also identify modern Marxists because they often share the following similar characteristics:

1. Shutting down dialogue. This is all too common today. Instead of engaging with a political opponent and making solid arguments, Marxists tend to shout, name-call, ostracise, slander and attack those who oppose their views; 

2. Aggression. Marxists tend to be vehemently antagonistic to their perceived opponents. This is often expressed in extreme language and methods. In particular, political opponents are targeted for character assassination by any means possible. This includes: false propaganda, lies, slander, libel, scapegoating, shouting down, incitement of riots, incitement of physical attacks and so on.

3. They are incompetent economists. Marxist economic theory does not work. It does not work at a theoretical level and it has never worked in practice wherever it has been tried. In fact, it always leads to famines, depression, social deprivation and a lack of prosperity. Marxism promises utopia but delivers misery and poverty. 

4. Many Marxists lack education around the true impact and outcomes of Marxism. In fact, many people end up supporting Marxism (often without realising it) as a result of conditioning in the education system. The Marxists that control education make sure that the teaching of history is dumbed down and that all references to the evils of Marxism in history are ignored.

Because of the actions of classical and modern Marxists, society is now demoralised, disjointed, discouraged, destabilised and disoriented and many don’t even understand the reason why. It’s time that Christians expose this agenda for what it is – an evil system that does not save society, it condemns it.

Dean Dwyer has served for over 20 years as Pastor and President of Eiser Street Baptist Church in Queensland, Australia.