Marxism is a political theory, or if you prefer ideology. Therefore the statement: 'Marxism has a lot to do with freedom.' is a theoretical one. And the reason

Marxism is a political theory, or if you prefer ideology. Therefore the statement: 'Marxism has a lot to do with freedom.' is a theoretical one. And the reason of it is, that the basic idea is to free the workers not only from government oppression, but also ( as much as possible ) from oppression created by the economic system. However, to answer your criticism, there are similarities between the already tried forms of socialism, namely that they were tried by states that were part of the eastern block and as such under the influence of the Soviet Union. And I think that the problem is specific to these similarities, not to Marxism. To convince me otherwise, you would need to show that other forms of socialized ownership of capital, for example employee owned companies, produce also disastrous consequences. About your last point, I actually agree. Marxism proved to be a rather dangerous ideology. But I think that it is at the moment more dangerous to forget Marxism, than that a second coming of the Soviet Union is imminent.