INTRODUCTION TO MARXISM
2012
THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRESENTATION:
an introduction to “Marxism” – a way of understanding reality (and a commitment to changing it) developed by Karl Marx and other revolutionaries influenced by him.
“Marx is dead� has been a common assertion of pro-capitalists for over 100 years.
Today we see growing interest in Marx’s ideas.
Karl Marx developed dynamic analyses of history and capitalism – emphasizing realities of exploitation and class struggle – for the purpose of advancing the interests of the working class and in order to create an economic democracy that he called socialism.
Marx was animated by a passionate humanism. “To be radical is to grasp things by the root. But for man the root is man himself. . . . Hence the categorical imperative to overthrow all conditions in which man is a degraded, enslaved, contemptible being . . .� --Karl Marx, 1843
Among Marx’s closest comrades and co-thinkers throughout his life were Jenny von Westphalen (whom he married) and Frederick Engels.
All three were pulled into the swirling events of the revolutionary upsurge that swept Europe in 1848. The revolutionary defeats meant difficult years of exile, but also years of research, writing, and continued activism that yielded what Marx termed “scientific socialism�.
In the most difficult years (the late 1840s and early 1850s) Karl and Jenny lost three of their six children, but their surviving daughters (Jenny, Laura, Eleanor – below left with Marx and Engels) also became active in the socialist movement.
Eleanor, the youngest, became a popular socialist writer and lecturer, and was an accomplished translator.
Marx worked closely with Engels in developing and propagating his outlook. The two wrote one of the most influential pamphlets in human history – The Communist Manifesto. In this page from the excellent graphic book Introducing Marxism, by Rupert Woodfin and Oscar Zarate (UK: Icon Books/US: Totem Books, 2004), some of the key points are made. ďƒ
A diagram developed by revolutionary theorist Ernest Mandel (in his classic The Place of Marxism in History) indicates the multiple sources and components of Marx’s “scientific socialism”.
Marx’s outlook involved five elements. 1. A philosophy and methodology 2. A theory of history 3. An analysis of capitalism 4. A program for the working class 5. The vision of a socialist future
Marx was influenced by German philosophy. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HEGEL saw reality developing through dialectics – a dynamic conception blending evolution and dramatic transformations, involving the dynamic interplay of contradictions.
Ludwig FEUERBACH was a “materialist” -- rejecting what he perceived as Hegel’s philosophical “idealism.” Instead of seeing reality as reflecting pre-existing ideas, he saw material reality as primary, from which ideas arose.
Marx was influenced by British Political-Economists .
– especially perceptive pioneers in analyzing the nature of the new capitalist economy, who also perceived that labor was the key source of wealth (the labor theory of value). Adam SMITH
David RICARDO
Marx was influenced by French Political Thought. Maximilien ROBESPIERRE of the radical-democratic, “Jacobin” wing of the French Revolution sought to create a “republic of virtue” in which human rights would be guaranteed not only to the upper classes, but to all – and for a time poor and laboring masses rallied to him.
Gracchus BABEUF led “The Conspiracy of Equals” which argued that rule by the people required equality of power – and that inequalities of economic power would prevent a genuine democracy. He called for sharing the wealth by the whole community – communism.
Marx was influenced by utopian socialists
such as Claude-Henri St.-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen, envisioning an economy beneficial to all. Robert OWEN
New Harmony – utopian socialist community proposed by Owen.
Marx was influenced by the working class and the labor movement. Protest march of weavers and their families being displaced by the use of machinery.
Marx meeting with members of the working-class Communist League.
But Marx was especially influenced by two powerful revolutionary phenomena --
• Democratic Revolutions • The Industrial Revolution
MIGHTY WAVE OF POPULAR DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTIONS:
England’s Revolutions of the 1600s, America’s Revolution of 1775-83, the French Revolution of 1789-94, and other popular uprisings moved in the direction of freedom of expression, equal rights for all, and rule by the people.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
Replacing muscle power with machine power – yielding a spectacular increase in productivity, economic surplus, and social wealth – defines the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution was brought on by the rising new economic system – capitalism – and ensured the triumph of global capitalism. It also had less positive outcomes, as we shall see.
MARX’S THEORY OF HISTORY- I HISTORY’S EVOLUTION IS SHAPED BY • the development of society’s economy, • the development of technology and productivity, • the tensions, conflicts, and struggles between social-economic classes.
MARX’S THEORY OF HISTORY - II For many centuries, humanity lived (first as hunters and gatherers, later as early agricultural peoples) in a form of economy in which people shared in the labor and in the fruits of their labor – a primitive communism. Over time, with the development of economic surpluses, inequality developed, with a succession of societies in which powerful minorities enriched themselves by dominating laboring majorities – societies divided into socialeconomic classes.
MARX’S THEORY OF HISTORY - III Marx saw the evolution of European history as a succession of stages – each stage shaped by a different “mode of production” or type of economic system (with different forms of class society).
MARX’S THEORY OF HISTORY - IV • The ideas, values, politics most influential in each society tend to be dominated by the society’s specific economic system, and by the economic rulers. • Class societies have contradictions which generate various crises and class struggles, eventually leading to the transition to a new society – or to social collapse and the common ruin of the contending classes.
HISTORY IS NOT MADE BY IMPERSONAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FORCES – THESE THINGS ARE MADE UP OF THE ACTIVITIES AND THE LIVES OF PEOPLE.
PEOPLE MAKE HISTORY. BUT THEY DO NOT MAKE IT JUST AS THEY PLEASE. THEY ARE BOUND BY THE EXISTING ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN WHICH THEY FIND THEMSELVES.
MARX’S ANALYSIS OF CAPITALISM • Economy is privately owned (by a wealthy minority – the “big business” capitalists). • Economy is controlled by the owners. • Economy is utilized to maximize profits for the owners. • Economy involves generalized commodity production – a buying and selling economy. • More and more aspects of human life are turned into commodities to be bought and sold. • Economy is socially organized but privately owned – a contradiction generating innumerable problems for majority of people.
A commodity is something that is produced for the purpose of being sold.
Commodities produced
Commodities brought to the market-place to be sold
QUESTION: How can a person who does not own the means of production (tools, machinery, raw materials, etc.) get the money he or she needs – in our society – to buy such commodities as food clothing, shelter, etc.? ANSWER: By selling, for wages or salary, his or her ability to work – labor-power – to an employer who does own the means of production. LABOR-POWER (an essential part of us as human beings) becomes a COMMODITY. Those who must sell their labor-power in order to make a living (or are dependent on the income of that person, or are unemployed or retired but made their living that way) are part of the WORKING CLASS.
Labor-Power, the ability to work, is the only commodity that, when it is used (when it is transformed into actual labor), creates new value.
Marx saw labor as a keystone of the capitalist economy.
He also felt that the key to overcoming the capitalist economy would be the working class – those who make their living by selling their ability to work, the creative source of labor.
Capitalist profits are rooted in the ability to exploit labor – the capitalists’ need for laborers results in the growth of the working class.
THOSE WHO ARE THE
WORKING CLASS • the creative majority, • whose labor creates and sustains the economy on which society depends, • those without whom capitalism could not function, • those who are hurt in many ways by capitalism’s “normal” functioning,
HAVE THE POWER TO BRING TO BIRTH A NEW AND BETTER WORLD.
According to Marx . . .
LABOR CREATES WEALTH
labor creates wealth
labor creates wealth
labor creates wealth
Capitalists seek a subservient labor force – workers, paid wages, who will create wealth both to pay for those wages and to provide profits that will enrich the capitalist.
EXPLOITATION
Assume a 10-hour workday. A worker may create enough wealth (value) in 4 or 5 or 6 hours to cover the cost of his or her wages, but then must continue to labor for 6 or 5 or 4 hours to create additional wealth for the capitalist employer.
Necessary Labor
providing wages for sustaining worker
Surplus Labor
creating surplus-value (source of profits)
Category 4 Category 3 Category 2 Category 1 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Capitalists seek to increase the rate of exploitation – in order to maximize profits. The rate of exploitation can be increased by • cutting wages, • increasing the hours of the workday, • intensifying the amount of labor squeezed out of the laborer (through “speed-up”),
OR . . . by using new technologies whose use results in more products being produced with the same amount of labor. (This defines what is meant by “increasing productivity.”)
The capitalists’ drive to increase productivity is what led to the Industrial Revolution. Reducing labor costs through increased productivity makes it possible to lower prices – so consumers flock to buy the cheaper goods. In order to compete for a share of the market, or to increase their advantage, rival businesses seek new technologies in order to increase productivity. Industrialization sky-rocketed.
CAPITAL ACCUMULATION The capitalist invests capital (money) in commodities (raw materials, labor-power, tools) which then become a form of capital in the production process, which creates a new form of capital – the new commodities created by the application of labor to tools and raw materials. These new commodities are sold for
a greater amount of money (thanks to the labor which increases value) than originally invested. This is what is meant by the accumulation of capital. One must keep “accumulating” to stay in business.
Capitalism is the most incredibly expansive economic system ever – irresistibly engulfing the entire world.
This economic expansionism has been associated with IMPERIALISM -an exploitative drive into other territories seeking raw materials, markets, and investment opportunities, which became increasingly pronounced beginning in the latter part of the 19th century.
Marx had died before it became possible to analyze this, but others utilizing his theories – Rudolf Hilferding, Rosa Luxemburg, Nikolai Bukharin, and V. I. Lenin – initiated intensive studies of what they felt was an important new stage of capitalism.
Like capitalism itself, imperialism was incredibly dynamic and came in different varieties. Colonial variety
A relatively powerful capitalist country invades, establishes control over, and governs other countries or territories -for the purpose of securing markets, raw materials, and investment opportunities.
“Open Door” variety
A relatively powerful capitalist country formally observes the independence of other countries -- but keeps the door open (sometimes through “big stick” diplomacy”) for its businesses to secure markets, raw materials, and investment opportunities.
Colonial variant of Imperialism
“Open Door” Imperialism
Capitalists invest much of the surplus-value they get through exploitation into sustaining and expanding their operations.
CAPITALISM THE MOST DYNAMIC ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN HISTORY.
THE CAPITALISTS’ COMMITMENT IS NECESSARILY TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS: •using new technology, •increasing hours of work, •cutting pay, •squeezing more labor out of workers, -- or all of these. Tension may result.
Class tensions may result in class struggle -work stoppages, agitational leaflets, protest songs, and militant demonstrations – all of which could be found in this representation of a demonstration of female shoe workers of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1860.
MARX BELIEVED THAT A MOTOR FORCE OF HISTORY IS
CLASS STRUGGLE.
Tensions and conflicts (“now hidden, now open”) inevitably arise between the majority of laborers and the wealthy minority that controls the economy.
Marx saw the class struggle as something that is constant ‌ Now Hidden
Now Open
NOW HIDDEN
NOW OPEN
Periodically there is a class-struggle upsurge.
When members of the working class beg for help, capitalists may respond charitably, but when workers demand their rights, the response is often less kind. CHARITABLE ‌
LESS KIND ‌
Marx believed that the rise of the state came with the rise of class society – to maintain “order” in a society increasingly afflicted with class inequality, resentments, tensions, struggles.
There are many different forms of the state – all tending to be dominated by the rulers of the economy. Absolute monarchy rooted in a minority -- the landed nobility
Parliament elected by a minority of property-owners
Even a “democratic� republic, in a capitalist society, is corrupted and dominated by those who have economic power.
CAPITALIST CONTRADICTIONS
CANNOT BE OVERCOME BY STATE OR BUSINESS POLICIES
TWO CONTRADICTORY TENDENCIES: 1) A tendency to push down 2) Rival businesses the cost of the labor competing to produce (wages) while producing more and more goods, more and more and cheaper goods commodities – which (with rising productivity cannot be bought because through use of new the buying-power of technologies), with working-class consumers is production growing being pushed down. faster than the market for those goods.
Such tendencies as these lead to economic crises, known as depressions. The problem is NOT because TOO LITTLE is produced, but because TOO MUCH is produced (over-production) and because there is not enough buying power (under-consumption).
Marx called these “periodic capitalist crises”– others have referred to it all as the “boom and bust” cycle.
WONDERS & HORRORS CAPITALISM IS AMAZING
CAPITALISM IS TERRIFYING
It has created amazing opportunities for a better life. IT HAS ORGANIZED THE CREATION OF GREAT WEALTH …
WITH A PROMISE FOR WIDESPREAD ABUNDANCE.
It has destroyed obstacles to “progress” and consumes life in the interest of profit. IMPERIALISM
CONSUMERISM
Its creative qualities help to create benefits that are unevenly shared . . . world-wide
and within a country such as the United States
Inequality in our World -I The richest 225 people on Earth have a combined annual income of $1 trillion. The poorest 2.5 billion people on Earth have a combined annual income of $1 trillion. It has been estimated that a 4% tax on the richest 225 people would pay for basic and adequate health care, food, clear water, and safe sewers for every person on earth. THE CAPITALISTS WOULD NOT PERMIT THIS.
Even in the United States in the 1990s it was reported that . . . FAMILIES top 1% next 19%
owned owned
WEALTH 40% 40%
top 20%
owned
80%
80%
owned
20%
bottom
There is greater inequality is greater than that in 2012.
Inequality in our World - II • The richest 20% of the world’s population receives 82.7% of total global income. • The next 20% of the world’s population receives 11.7% of the total global income. • The bottom 60% of the world’s population receives 5.6% of the total global income.
It creates the possibility for overcoming poverty – yet poverty persists, and in some ways deepens. Poverty exists even in the “richest nation in the world.�
Three billion people (half the global population) live on less than $2 a day.
Its “normal� mode of operation is based on the exploitation of labor and inequality of wealth and power.
In bad times it causes hunger, desperation, and needless suffering for many innocent people.
In good times, it generates rampant commercialization – corrupting our society and overwhelming our culture and lives.
Marx did more than interpret reality – he sought to change it. In addition to developing a theory of history and an analysis of capitalism, he reached for ways to change history and replace capitalism with something better, putting forward
• a program for the working class, and • a vision of a socialist future.
A PROGRAM FOR THE WORKING CLASS
MARX’S PROGRAM FOR WORKERS Workers should join together in the workplaces to form tough, democratic unions for higher wages, a shorter workday, and better working conditions. .
Workers should struggle for reforms in the here-and-now to improve their situation. .
Workers should be politically independent from the capitalists, forming their own labor party. .
Workers should “win the battle for democracy” – establish political rule by the working class, and begin the socialist reconstruction of society.
A VISION OF SOCIALISM •The economy is socially owned. •The economy is democratically controlled. •The economy is used to meet the needs of all people in society. •The economy involves democratic, humanistic planning. •The free development of each person will be the condition for the free development of all. •Society will be based on an economy involving the free association of the producers.
A GLOBAL COMMOWEALTH OF LABOR Marx saw capitalism as an international economic system that could only be replaced by socialism on a global scale. He believed that the workers could triumph only by joining together across all borders and on all continents. His battle-cry was: “Workers of all countries unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to win!�
Revolutionaries, reformers, socialists, communists and others from many lands and with many temperaments engaged, in various ways (quite critically, uncritically, creatively, etc., etc.), with Marxism – often developing dramatically different interpretations and sometimes conflicting political orientations.
Some versions of “Marxism” are absolutely incompatible with each other. Rosa Luxemburg – passionate partisan of human freedom and socialist democracy.
Joseph Stalin – tyrannical leader of a murderous and bureaucratic dictatorship.
Marxism has been profoundly influential as an intellectual force over the past century and a half. Marx’s thought has had a deep impact within many disciplines:
• • • • • • • • •
Philosophy History Economics Sociology Anthropology Political Science Literary Criticism Cultural Studies Etc.
Marx’s importance is acknowledged by many non-Marxists. .
“Not only conflicting classes and groups and movements and their leaders in every country, but historians and sociologists, psychologists and political scientists, critics and creative artists, so far as they try to analyze the changing quality of life in their society, owe the form of their ideas in large part to the work of Karl Marx.” .
-- Isaiah Berlin
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the discrediting of Stalinist-influenced Communism, many have argued that Marxism is now irrelevant. From Woodfin & Zarate, Introducing Marxism. ďƒ
Others argue that certain aspects of Marxism continue to be relevant in our own time.
With the recent economic downturn, the intellectual stock of “free market� ideologists such as Alan Greenspan seems to have fallen below that of Karl Marx.
The perspectives of revolutionary Marxism continue to have a powerful influence on those struggling for freedom and social justice.
Throughout the world there are protests, such as this one against war that brought together high school and university students, war veterans, trade unionists, and others – all predominantly working-class, and among whose organizers are activists influenced by Marx’s ideas.
Marx’s ideas on how to understand and change the world are likely to be of interest for some time to come.
Marxist voices and echoes can be heard among the many and diverse forces drawn together in global justice protests.
As the 21st century moves through its second decade, there continues to be a relevance of and a use for Marx’s ideas.
Amid the fluctuation and spread of protests, Marx’s approach to understanding and changing the world can be helpful as activists consider “where do we go from here”.
Billy Bragg sings socialist and labor songs at Occupy London.
Humanity is still at the crossroads of “socialism or barbarism� that Rosa Luxemburg wrote about during the First World War and that Diego Rivera depicted in his great mural of the 1930s.
WHAT NEXT? . . . Or
The End (for now)