The Basic Tenets of Marxism
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in
various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
I. History and Class Struggle
(Historical Materialism)
•
Human history is the history of class struggles among the classes
in society.
•
A class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of
production.
•
Means of production - the combination of the means of labor and
the subject of labor used by workers to make products.
- Means of labor include machines, tools, factory and
equipment, infrastructure, and so on:
- Subject of labor includes raw materials and materials
directly taken from nature.
- Means of production by themselves produce nothing -- labor
is needed for production to take place.
I. History and Class Struggle
(Historical Materialism)
•
The class struggles that define human
history in each of its stages is between
those that own the means of production
and those that work the means of
production.
I. History and Class Struggle
(Historical Materialism)
Stages of History:
•
Primitive communism – equalitarian hunting and
•
Slave society – largely agricultural production done by
•
Feudalism – largely agricultural production done by serfs,
gathering / tribal organizations
slaves for slave owners
indentured servants, slaves for large landowners
- within feudalism, trade expands leading to
merchants (bourgeoisie) / increased use of money
I. History and Class Struggle
(Historical Materialism)
•
Capitalism -
Economic system in which most of the means of
production are privately owned, and production is guided and
income distributed largely through the operation of markets.
- Based open competition, profit motive.
- Encourages private investment and business,
compared to a government-controlled economy.
- Investors in these private companies (i.e.
shareholders) also own the firms and are known as
capitalists.
- The first Industrial Revolution took place under capitalism.
Marx lived from 1818-1883.
I. History and Class Struggle
(Historical Materialism)
•
Under capitalism, the capitalists own the
means of production, the proletariat own
only their capacity to work.
•
Landlords rule the land, and the peasants
are less significant than workers and are
trapped in the idiocy of rural life.
I.
History and Class Struggle:
Class Consciousness
•
Prior to the overthrow of capitalism the proletariat must
develop its own class consciousness. Other classes have
their own forms of class consciousness.
•
Television, literature, art, music and other forms of
culture tend to reflect the class ideology of the class to
which the artist belongs. However, the ideology of other
classes can also affect the artist.
•
Class hatred is good. Class collaboration is a bad.
II. Revolutionary Change
•
New classes usually win power by revolution.
Revolutions are violent, because the dying ruling class
doesn't give up power without a desperate struggle.
•
The capitalist class wins power over the feudal class by a
bourgeois democratic revolution. A bourgeois democratic
revolution is a progressive step in the right direction.
For Marxists, it is not an end-all stage.
- French Revolution
- Revolutions of 1830 / 1848
II. Revolutionary Change
•
The proletariat wins power by a proletarian revolution.
According to Marx and Lenin, this revolution must be
violent, because the bourgeoisie won't give up power by
electoral means.
•
The proletariat will then begin constructing socialism,
destroying the bourgeoisie and eliminating class
differences in the process.
- This period is also known as “the dictatorship of
the proletariat.”
•
The final stage, the end of history is a classless society
– communism.
II. Revolutionary Change
•
Socialism - The main feature is mixed ownership of the
means of production (with an emphasis on public),
distribution and exchange.
- In the first stages of socialism the state is a
dictatorship of the proletariat., i.e. the
proletariat rules the other classes by
force.
- The socialist slogan is "From each according to his
ability, to each according to his work."
II. Revolutionary Change
•
Communism - a system of social organization in which property
(especially real property and the means of production) is held in
common.
- the movement that aims to overthrow the capitalist order
by revolutionary means and to establish a classless society in
which all goods will be socially owned.
- a system of government in which the state plans and controls
the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds
power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social
order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
- The communist slogan is "From each according to his ability,
to each according to his needs."
II. Revolutionary Change
•
Originally, proletarian (socialist) revolutions were
supposed to occur first in the most advanced
capitalist countries, e.g. Germany, Great Britain,
the United States, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands.
•
It wasn't supposed to occur first in a backward
country like Russia, where capitalism barely took
root, there was a tiny proletariat, an
underdeveloped bourgeoisie and no bourgeois
democratic revolution.
II. Revolutionary Change
•
None of the former or current socialist
countries (Russia, China, Cuba, North
Korea, Vietnam) had undergone a
bourgeois-democratic revolution when the
communists seized power. The
communists tried to build socialism
anyway, and some of their leftist rivals
used the missing bourgeois-democratic
revolution to predict that communist
power would end badly.
III. Marxist Economics
•
Under capitalism, workers "tend" to be
paid the bare amount required for them to
support their families and reproduce. This
is because of competition for jobs from
the reserve army of labor, i.e. the
unemployed.
III. Marxist Economics
•
The capitalist sells the product of the
workers' labor at a price proportional to its
value, which is the socially necessary labor
required to produce it.
•
The difference between what the product
sells for and what the workers are paid is
surplus value and is appropriated by the
capitalist.
III. Marxist Economics
•
Because the workers can't buy the full product of their
labor and the capitalists don't consume all the surplus
value, there tend to be recessions.
- This is one of the major reasons why capitalist
countries sought overseas colonies during the
Industrial Revolution > Imperialism.
•
The steady increase in labor saving machinery creates
unemployment and drives down wages. This emphasizes
the tendency for there to be economic recessions.
III. Marxist Economics
•
The tendency to pay the workers bare subsistence
wages leads to the increasing impoverishment of the
proletariat.
•
As a small number of people become super wealthy, an
even greater number become impoverished, polarizing
the classes.
- “The middle classes must increasingly
disappear until the world is divided into
millionaires and paupers.”
(Friedrich Engels)
IV. The State
•
The state is the means whereby the ruling class
forcibly maintains its rule over the other classes.
•
During socialism, the workers will take control of
the state to begin the construction communism
> “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
•
Communism, which evolves peacefully from
socialism, is a classless society under which the
state will wither away.
V. Religion
•
God is created in the image of man, not man in the image of God.
•
Organized religions have been used to give the poor and oppressed
hope that their afterlife will be better than their current one.
•
Religion and the Church have been used as forms of social control
to preserve the power of the ruling class.
•
With the establishment of communism, the necessity to believe in
God and a better life in heaven will disappear. “Heaven will be
created on Earth.”
- Marx believed religion would eventually wither away. Violent
means to suppress organized religion need not be taken.
- “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
VI. Marxist Revisionists:
Trade Unionists
•
Trade unions are good as training grounds
for the class struggle, but it is capitalist
ideology to suppose that they can make
any permanent improvement in the
condition of the proletariat.
•
The belief that trade unions can make a
permanent difference is a heresy called
economism or trade-unionism.
VI. Marxist Revisionists:
Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932)
•
Argued that it was
possible for workers to
win power peacefully by
winning elections.
Revolution was not
necessary.
•
This was revisionism and
the orthodox Marxist
have used revisionism as
an epithet ever since.
VII. Marxism-Leninism
VII. Marxism-Leninism
•
Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.
- The working class in the mother countries is
bribed to keep it passive by exploiting the labor
of the colonies. This explains why the
working class became more prosperous in the late
19th and early 20th centuries instead of
becoming more miserable as a direct reading of
Marxist theory might suggest.
- The rivalry of the colonial countries becomes more
and more intense leading to imperialist wars. WWI
was a prime example.
VII. Marxism-Leninism
•
The working class needs to be led by a
vanguard party, i.e. the Communist Party
which in turn is led by professional
revolutionaries.
•
The leadership of the working class by the
vanguard party continues into the period
of socialism.
VII. Stalinism
•
Socialism in One Country
- The Soviet Union should concentrate its forces on building
socialism within the country first because worldwide
revolution is not imminent.
VII. Maoism
•
Mao believed that in a country like
China, the revolution could
proceed first in the countryside
which would surround the cities.
•
The peasants, not the workers,
could lead a socialist revolution.
•
emphasized class struggle within
socialism and its evolution
towards communism to be played
out in a series of cultural
revolutions.
VII. Leninist Revisionists:
Fidel Castro & Che Guevara
•
Socialist revolution DOES
NOT have to be led by a
Communist Party.
•
Socialist revolution can be
led by peasants.
•
Soviet Union is obligated to
aid all revolutionary socialist
countries looking to break
away from imperialist
domination (Guevara).
VII. Marxist-Leninist Revisionists:
Kim Il Sung
•
Juche – “self-reliance”
•
A blend of Marxism-Leninism with
Korean nationalism.
•
Adaptation of Marxism-Leninism
to Korean conditions.
•
Self-reliance--the need to rely on
domestic resources, heighten
vigilance against possible
external challenges, and
strengthen domestic political
solidarity.
•
Sacrifice, austerity, unity, and
patriotism became dominant
themes