KARL MARX
FOUNDER OF COMMUNISM
AND THE CONFLICT THEORY
KARL MARX
• Born in Germany 1818
• Began attending Socialist
meetings in Germany
• Wrote The Communist
Manifesto with Friedrich
Engels
• Though ignored in his
life, his ideas gained
rapid acceptance after
his death in 1883
Karl Marx: Personal
•
•
•
•
Full Name: Karl Heinrich Marx
Birth: May 5th, 1818
Death: March 14th, 1883
Enrolled in the University of Bonn studied
Law
• Married Jenny von Westphalen and had
several kids, many of which died at a
young age
• Daughter Eleanor was a committed
socialist who helped in the editing of her
fathers works
G. W. F. Hegel
• Influenced Marx
•Theorized that a thought could
not be separated from its
opposite
•Believed unity could only be achieved by
equalizing all opposites
•History should be viewed dialectically,
through clash of opposing forces
THE COMMUNIST
MANIFESTO
•
Pamphlet written by Marx &
Engels
• Summarized the inevitable
revolution, communist society
that would be born from it
“The history of all hitherto
existing society is the
history of class struggles.”
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a
Communistic revolution. The proletarians
have nothing to lose but their chains.
They have a world to win. Working men
of all countries, unite!”
MARXISM
The theory of the nature
of history and politics as
well as a prescription for
revolutionary action to
bring the industrial working class to
power and create a classless society.
Society divided into two distinct classes:
Bourgeoisie 
class of capitalists
(ruling class)
Proletariat 
class of wage
labourers
(working class)
Marx’s Theory
•Economics formed basis of human activities,
determined who had power in society
• Believed working class (proletariat) was
oppressed by the ruling class (bourgeoisie)
• Marxist Dialectical Method: existing social
arrangement, (thesis), generates its social
opposite, (antithesis), and a different social
form, (synthesis), emerges from the
struggle between the two
to achieve a classless socialist society:
1.) Abolish property in land
2) Raise income taxes
3) Abolish inheritance rights
4) Confiscate emigrant/rebel property
5) Centralize Credit
6) Centralize means of communication
7) Extension of factories, cultivate wastelands
8) Equalize liability to all labourers
9) Abolish distinction between town and country, equalize
population distribution
10) Free education for children, abolish child labour
Bibliography
Engels, Friedrich and Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto.
Trans. Samuel Moore. London: Penguin Books, 1967.
Feinberg, Barbara S. Marx and Marxism. New York: Franklin
Watts, 1985.
“Karl Marx.” 20 Dec. 2004. 17 Feb. 2005.
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUmarx.htm>.
McClellend, Kent. “Conflict Theory.” 21 Feb. 2000. 17 Feb.
2005. <http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/s00/soc11101/IntroTheories/Conflict.html>.