Karl Marx was a 19th century German philosopher and economist who is considered the founder of modern communism. Some of his major works included The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. He predicted that the poor working classes would inevitably overthrow the wealthy bourgeoisie and establish a permanent global communist system. The cartoon depicts wealthy capitalists sitting above a crowd of poor workers and could be considered Marxist as it illustrates Marx's view that society is divided along class lines between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

1. Introduction to Marxism

2. Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
• German Jewish economist and
philosopher.
• Considered the founder of modern
communism.
• 2 major publications. The Communist
Manifesto / Des Kapital.
• Historian Francis Wheen considered
the "history of the twentieth century"
to be "Marx's legacy”
• Marx predicted that the world would
be engulf by an inevitable revolution
of the poor overthrowing the rich and
this would led to a permanent state of
global communism.

3. Quotes from Marx.
• - 'The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.'
• - 'The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various
ways. The point, however, is to change it.'
• - 'Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as
they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen
by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered,
given and transmitted from the past.'
• ‘Religion is the opium of the masses’
• “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling
ideas…”

4. This Cartoon
could be
considered
Marxist. What
does it mean?

5. How could this cartoon be considered
Marxist?