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Geoff, I guess it depends on which type of Marxism your talking about. Russian Marxism, Chinese Marxism, Italian Marxism, Continental Marxism, New Left Marxism, or philosophical Marxism or armchair Marxism take your pick!
Central to all Marxism is the notion that one (majority) social class should take power and dictate over another. This implies that human and legal rights are no longer universal. In addition, by a vast expansion of public ownership, political power is concentrated in the hands of the state, without adequate checks and balances.
Consequently, all types of Marxism, in theory and in practice, are severely deficient in this respect. While Marxism in practice has varied in degrees of oppression – compare Cambodia at one extreme with Cuba at another – they are all oppressive. They all diminish human rights. This is congenital to Marxism, as laid out in the writings of Marx and Engels.
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