2. TABLE OF CONTENT
• 1.WHO IS KARL MARX?
• 2.WHAT IS THE MARXISM?
• 3.TYPES OF MARXISM
• 4.CRITICISM OF MARXIST IDEA.
• 5.CLASS STRUGGLE.
• 6.STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
• 7. ANALYSIS
5. COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
• -Published by Karl Marx and Engels on behalf of a group idealistic workers.
• -Originally drafted as a program for an international “communist league”
• -Become one of the most important political documents of all time
• -Left an incredible mark on human progress.
6. WHAT IS MARXISM?
• Marxism is an economic and social system based upon the political and economic
theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. While it would take veritably volumes
to explain the full implications and ramifications of the Marxist social and
economic ideology, Marxism is summed up in the Encarta Reference Library as “a
theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change
in Western societies.” Marxism is the antithesis of capitalism which is defined by
Encarta as “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of
production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market
and motivation by profit.” Marxism is the system of socialism of which the
dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution,
and exchange.
Under capitalism, the proletariat, the working class or “the people,” own only
their capacity to work; they have the ability only to sell their own labor. According
to Marx a class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of
production. He proclaimed that history is the chronology of class struggles, wars,
and uprisings. Under capitalism, Marx continues, the workers, in order to support
their families are paid a bare minimum wage or salary. The worker is alienated
because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The
capitalists sell the products produced by the workers at a proportional value as
related to the labor involved. Surplus value is the difference between what the
worker is paid and the price for which the product is sold.
• An increasing immiseration of the proletariat occurs as the result of economic
recessions; these recessions result because the working class is unable to buy
the full product of their labors and the ruling capitalists do not consume all of
the surplus value. A proletariat or socialist revolution must occur, according to
Marx, where the state (the means by which the ruling class forcibly maintains
rule over the other classes) is a dictatorship of the proletariat. Communism
evolves from socialism out of this progression: the socialist slogan is “From
each according to his ability, to each according to his work.”
The communist slogan varies thusly: “From each according to his ability, to
each according to his needs.”
What were the Marxist views of religion? Because the worker under the
capitalist regimes was miserable and alienated, religious beliefs were
sustained. Religion, according to Marx was the response to the pain of being
alive, the response to earthly suffering. In Towards a Critique of Hegel’s
Philosophy of Right (1844), Marx wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the feeling of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless
circumstances.” Marx indicated in this writing that the working class, the
proletariat was a true revolutionary class, universal in character and
acquainted with universal suffering. This provided the need for religion.
7. TYPES OF MARXISM
• 1. COMMUNISM-is the end state of
having key means of production owned
in common without class.
• 2.SOCIALISM-is an intermediate
transition state where a social revolution
(that is, of the workers, the vast majority
of society) is required to get to
communism.
8. CRITICISMS OF MARXIST IDEAS
• Criticisms of Marxism have come from various political ideologies
which include ethical and economical criticisms.
• Democratic socialists and social democrats reject the idea that
socialism can be accomplished through class conflict and a
proletarian revolution.
• Some thinkers have rejected the fundamentals of Marxist theory,
such as historical materialism and the labour theory of value and
gone on to criticise capitalism and support socialism using other
arguments.
• Some contemporary supports of Marxism argue that may aspects
of Marxist thought are viable, but that the corpus is incomplete or
somewhat out dated in regards to certain aspects of economic,
political or social theory.
• According to Marxists, and to other scholars in fact,
literature reflects those social institutions out of which it
emerges and is itself a social institution with a particular
ideological function. Literature reflects class struggle and
materialism: think how often the quest for wealth
traditionally defines characters. So Marxists generally
view literature "not as works created in accordance with
timeless artistic criteria, but as 'products' of the economic
and ideological determinants specific to that era" (Abrams
149). Literature reflects an author's own class or analysis
of class relations, however piercing or shallow that
analysis may be.
9. CLASS STRUGGLE
• CLASS STRUGGLE- An active
expression of class conflict looked
at from any kind of socialist
perspective.
• CLASS- refers to the hierarchical
distinction between individuals or
groups in societies or cultures.
• MAIN CLASS STRUGGLE
• 1.BOURGEOISIE
-Petite Bourgeoisie
• 2.PROLETARIAL
• 3.LUMPENPROLETARIAL
• 4.LANDLORDS
• 5.PEASANTRY AND FARMERS
10. BOURGEOISIE
• -those who own means of
production
• -control the process of production
• -buy labor power from Proletarial
• -Their wealth depend on the work of
the proletarial
• -exploit proletarial
• PROLETARIAL
-Individuals who sell their labor power
-add value to the products
-do not own means of production
-labor power generates surplus value
greater than the workers.
11. STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
• 1.PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM
• 2.SLAVE SOCIETY
• 3.FEUDALISM
• 4.CAPITALISM
• 5.SOCIALISM
• 6.COMMUNISM
12. PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM
-
• -as seen in cooperative tribal societies.
• -everyone would share in what was produced by hunting and gathering
• - no private property
• -there would have been no state
13. SLAVE SOCIETY
• -when the tribe becomes a city
state
• -systematic exploitation of labour
• -compelled to work for another
• -deprived of the right to leave, to
refuse to work or to receive
compension in return for their
labour.
14. FEUDALISM
• - MERCHANTS develop into capitalists
• -composed of set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the
warrior nobility
• -revolving around the three key concepts
• 1.lord
• 2.vassals
• 3.fiefs
15. CAPITALISM
- Ruling class who create and employ the true working class
- -economic system in which the private ownership of property is protected
by the law.
- -mode of production characterized by.
- -predominant private ownership of the means of production distribution
and exchange in a mainly market economy.
16. SOCIALISM
• -Workers gain class consciousness
• -share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power
• -achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents
the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.
17. COMMUNISM
• -Classless and stateless society
• -based on common ownership of the means of production and property
in general
• - socioeconomic structure and political ideology
