3. iii
INTRODUCTION
Marxism is a radical philosophy, a revolutionary theory of social change authored by Karl Marx,
the most important of all socialist thinkers. It is a fusion of German philosophy, mainly the
dialectics of Hegel, French socialism, and British political economy. This combination makes
Marxism unique among other philosophies in history. The fusion itself did not happen quickly
out in a thin air. It was a tedious process out of Marx’s critical observation of society and history
using the scientific method. It is revolutionary because it is dialectic, and was born out of his
involvement of the class struggles happening at that time in Europe. Karl Marx was born in May
5th, 1818, into a middle class Jewish family in Trier, Germany. His father, a respectable lawyer,
later converted to Christianity for security reasons. At 17, Marx enrolled in the University of
Bonn to study law. There he met his future wife Jenny Von Westphalia, whose father had
interested him in romantic literature and in the utopian socialism of Saint-Simon. The next year,
his father sent him to the University of Berlin. He abandoned his pursuit on romantic poetry and
began focusing on the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel, the most influential thinker in Berlin at that
time. Marx became involved with the intellectuals who called themselves the Young Hegelians.
The Hegelians were not a unified group but composed of two competing tendencies, the Left and
Right Hegelians. Marx joined the radical Left, who accepted Hegel’s revolutionary dialectical
method but rejected his conservative views. Not only but also
Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx. It examines the
effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker
revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. Marxism posits that the struggle
between social classes specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or
workers defines economic relations in a capitalist economy and will inevitably lead to
revolutionary communism. Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory originated by
Karl Marx, which focuses on the struggle between capitalists and the working class. Marx wrote
that the power relationships between capitalists and workers were inherently exploitative and
would inevitably create class conflict. He believed that this conflict would ultimately lead to a
revolution in which the working class would overthrow the capitalist class and seize control of
the economy. Understanding Marxism Marxism is both a social and political theory, which
4. iv
encompasses Marxist class conflict theory and Marxian economics. Marxism was first publicly
formulated in the 1848 pamphlet, the "Communist Manifesto," by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels, which lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution. Marxian economics focuses
on the criticisms of capitalism, which Karl Marx wrote about in his 1859 book, "Das Kapital."
Class conflict and the demise of capitalism. Marx’s class theory portrays capitalism as one step
in the historical progression of economic systems that follow one another in a natural sequence.
They are driven, he posited, by vast impersonal forces of history that play out through the
behavior and conflict among social classes. According to Marx, every society is divided among a
number of social classes, whose members have more in common with one another than with
members of other social classes.
Marxism as the ideological core of a developmental strategy emerged in Tanzania in the late
1960s as a result of a particular constellation of forces the intension of the newly liberated
country to pursue an alternative development model. This led to the promulgation of the Arusha
Declaration and the TANU Guidelines of 1972. Its concentrated expression found the surge for a
Tanzanian way of Socialism in the ideological battles at the University of Dar-es-Salaam.
They following are critically analyses the applicability of Marxist theory in social
development in Tanzania
Emergency of surplus in production; the theory is explained in different stages, in Tanzanian
societies in the late of 1960's many organizations did not have surplus in productions as it is
observed in primitive communalism due to the deficiency of enough storage facilities hence
made them sometimes suffering from hunger in the late 1980's also the theory is discussed about
feudalism stage when classes emerged and people start to reserve products in rooms special for
storage for future use especially for business, here in Tanzania we see there are building and
storage facilities allocated for keeping agricultural products like maize, coffee, cotton and other
crops and this comes because of classes and financial competitions among people for example
companies managed by MO and Bakhresa.
Organization; in the late 1980's and previous many people were living with neither classes nor
kingdoms but were gathering into clans or families like masai and chaga tribe, that time was like
5. v
primitive communalism as stated by Karl Marx but later on due to the existence of classes
organizations came into control of few people as what we call Government which oversees and
stabilize the organization mostly of them are in upper class, also were emergency of
organizations such as workers organizations like TAWLA,TAMWA, UWT and NGO'S.
Labor productivity; low productions with no surplus and equal distribution of products in some
societies in Tanzania like hadzabe also they are communal labor force in productions, other
societies have been changing the living style hence make classes among themselves example
some of Sukuma societies others are now educated and take things differently as others. So in
Tanzania in different stages are applied in our daily life but not yet to practice communal.
Emergence of classes; the word class means is the system of ordering society whereby people
are divided into sets based on social or economic status. To any distinction in terms of social
status or class work is particularly inspiring in this regard because focusses on housing and land
when discussing the middle class in Tanzania categorizing different housing styles of the middle
class argues that they are significant because these different styles constitute new means of social
differentiation between the middle classes and those above or below especially in our country
those difference are present until now due to level of housing for example rural and urban
housing are very different. Also in politics citizens attempts to make the right kind of city the
class citizen's political practices were analyzed as part of their strategies to reproduce their social
status, these citizens are not struggling against basic needs they want to be part of local urban
governance regimes affecting the rules of the environment in which they live. Again between
exploiters and the exploited this occurred due to exploiters to pay low wages to their labor and
mostly of labor use that wage in food only mostly found in industries for example fish industry
found in Mwanza exploiters their pretend that behavior for workers.
Productive forces, according to Marx during the communal mode of production, means of
production (tools and equipment used in production) were crude and underdeveloped, thus
societies were unable to work and produce enough for surplus instead they had low products
with no surplus.The situation can be revealed to our current societies in Tanzania, whereby some
societies are still practicing communal mode of production, since they use crude tools in
production like crude hoes, unsharpened knives and others. Example of such societies include,
6. vi
Hadzabe, Taturu and Barbaig.These societies work and produce few products compared to other
societies which have advanced from their level. The presence of societies which still use crude
tools as their major means of production in different activities, implies that, the Marxist theory
has application and is relevant to some current societies in Tanzania.
Exploitation of resources. According to Jennings African socialism took the deepest hold in
Tanzania where it hold sway into 1980's. Even today on island of Zanzibar, off the cost of
Tanzania, apartment block which were once billed as "modern living space" and intended to
provide there occupants with advantage of socialism still stand.
According to Marxist in primitive communalism people used local tools for production.
This is relevant to our current society as most of people who are practicing agriculture use
hand hoe for cultivation which is a local tool. This results to low products produced from
agriculture and small local industries. In some extend the stage of primitive communalism
stated by Marxist is relevant to our current society as we have moved to other stages such as
Feudalism and Capitalism.
Ownership of major means of production. Major means of production refers to the
things needed for production to take place. In Marxist theory ownership of major means of
production was explained in two stages which are capitalism and socialism. In capitalism the
major means of production were privately owned by the capitalist class while the proletariat
or working class induced to sell their labor power for a wage or salary gain. In Tanzania, the
private ownership of means of production is also applicable in many places, for example;
the Bakhresa group company is the company owned by one person but has employed
different people in different field to handle different sector whereby the ownership of major
means of production is under person who has employed other people by paying them
salary to get labor power. Also, in socialism the major means of production were socially
owned as there is no individual ownership of major means of production and the societies
lived by sharing whatever they gain. In Tanzania, socialism is still taking place to some
societies such as the hazda or the hadza e people who are located at the North-central part in
Tanzania whose main activity is hunting and gathering. Hadzabe is one of the interesting
societies in Tanzania as their way of living is different to all other tribes in Tanzania.
7. vii
CONCLUSTION:
Ujamaa failed principally due to its utopian nature as well as its reliance on the bourgeoisie to
implement it. It mistakenly believed that state ownership of the means of production was
sufficient to build socialism; it instead of developing the productive forces in the country it
concentrated its efforts on co-operative living in the villages (villagisation). Consequently,
knowingly or unknowingly, it was building and consolidating peripheral capitalism in Tanzania.
But the failure of Ujamaa has succinctly vindicated the belief that socialism is a working people
issue and one which can only be achieved by and through class struggle. But, in order that
Marxism can reach out to members of the working people, it is necessary to overcome the
language barrier. Marxism in general and Marxist analyses in particular, is still conducted
through the English language which is inaccessible to the laboring majority. To impart the
doctrine to the working people a conscious and deliberate effort is required to translate all
important works of Marxism and Marxist analyses into Kiswahili, a language which the people
can understand. Moreover, different forms of class struggles economic, ideological, political and
eventually militant struggles will be necessary.
8. viii
REFRENCES
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Selected Correspondence. p 498
Singer, Peter (1980). Marx: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 50.
ISBN 978-0-19-285405-6.
Popper, Karl (2002). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.
Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 0-415-28594-1.
J. I. (Hans) Bakker. "Economic Determinism". Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Retrieved
December 28, 2011.
Sean Sayers. "Marxism and the Dialectical Method - A critique of G.A. Cohen" (PDF). Radical
Philosophy 36 (Spring, 1984), pp. 4-13. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
Karl Marx. "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy". Progress Publishers,
Moscow, 1977. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Introduction 1859
Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First Century, 2003, by Gregory and Stuart. P.62, Marx's
Theory of Change.ISBN 0-618-26181-8
Museveni, Yoweri (1970): “My three years in Tanzania: Glimpses of the struggle between
revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries”, Cheche, issue no.2, July 1970.
