Let’s face it, there is no political philosophy more obsessed with money and its possession (or lack thereof) than Communism (and its slightly watered down version – Socialism). Karl Marx did invent the term ‘Capitalism’ to describe the existing socio-economic status quo, and he was always obsessed with money – because he had little of it. Thankfully his factory owning, fox hunting, chum Engels was around to perpetually sling him some cash in between his own efforts to exploit the proletariat.
My possession of busts of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao (not to mention Comrade Ho) is my own ironic statement on the place where Marxist philosophy really belongs – the trashcan of history. Plus I do appreciate the kitsch value of such effigies.
A friend of mine is decluttering and minimising her material possessions at the moment, so she gifted me her two Ikea Billy bookcases. These were needed because two of my own inferior flat pack bookcases from another furniture store have started to gradually come apart.
And so this week I spent a happy Tuesday rearranging my library, and using a hammer and some nails (not a common experience for me) to restabilise my old bookcases for further use.
One of the newly acquired Billy cases has been used, if you are that interested (and you are if you are still reading this) to hold my collection of books on Ancient History (and my textbooks from my ill fated four year long attempt to learn Latin as a middle aged adult).
The other is to rehouse my collection of books on Shakespeare and his plays (it would come as no surprise to you that I have, over forty years, received three separate hardback copies of the Collected Works of Shakespeare).
The provenance of my newly acquired bookcases is of some amusement to me. My friend used to work, when she was doing her university degree in Community Development (or Communism, as her father goaded her), in a second hand bookshop in Sunshine Plaza over a decade ago called ‘Plato Books’.
It was owned by Dr Andrew Theophanous, a former Labor MP who was very much in the socialist left of the ALP. His doctorate, after all, was in communism rather than medicine. [Dr T’s political career ended rather ignominiously, but I will not dwell on his misfortunes.]. His post political (and post parole) career included opening a few second hand bookshops.
Whilst his oft stated intention was to bring literature and high culture to the Hoi Polloi of Sunshine, flogging a range of second hand books (including some computer programming and share investment texts which were out of date well before 1980) was more about, you guessed it, trying to make money. In that, he had some historical success, as he had apparently founded Academic and General Books many years earlier and sold that business for a tidy profit.
When Plato Books did not work out (I assume he named it after the first major totalitarian thinker prior to Marx), he closed it down, and gave the book cases to my friend.
And there you have it. My book cases used to belong to a Communist. As they are quite large and yet to be completely filled, perhaps it would be good Feng Shui for me to place my busts of Stalin and Mao in them for the time being.
Lost For Words! 
My ridiculously overloaded ‘Billy’ bookcases have started to collapse, so don’t put too much faith in the sturdiness of IKEA products.
Ah, you have made me nostalgic for all the former Marxist bookshops in the city. I especially remember the International Bookshop which occupied large first floor premises at the Elizabeth Street tram terminus. It adhered to some Soviet variety of Marxism, but I forget which one. Perhaps the most ludicrous was the Maoist bookshop in Hardware Street (possibly called Kalkadoon?), which stocked books opening praising the mass murder of the Cultural Revolution and urging readers to repeat it in western countries. I think they all closed at about the same time as communism died.
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