1. CH 22 Part 3
MARXISM

2. I have radical ideas, thus the radical beard!
no other ideas came out of the post-Congress of Vienna era which would have more influence than those of Karl Marx.

3. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was the son of a lawyer from Prussia.
Why are you staring at my beard?
Karl Marx ( ) was the son of a lawyer from Prussia.

4. Jewish family converted to Christianity
Biography
Born 1818 in Trier , Prussia
Jewish family converted to Christianity
Studied philosophy and economics in Berlin
Married Jenny von Westphalen
Earned his living (badly) as a journalist
Died 1883 in London having only written 3 of the planned 8 volumes of Das Kapital.

5. They lived off her wealth.
Jenny von Westphalen
Marx adored Jenny.
They were engaged for seven years before her family would allow a marriage.
They lived off her wealth.
He died soon after her, not wishing to be alone without her.

6. He had three kinds of writing:
Politics
Marx was a communist.
He wrote The Communist Manifesto with his friend, Friedrich Engels in 1848.
He had three kinds of writing:
Journalism
Political polemic
Analysis of society and culture.

7. Influenced by the philosopher Hegel
Karl Marx ( )
Influenced by the philosopher Hegel
Much of his work in London in collaboration with Friedrich Engels
concept of dialectical materialism
The Communist Manifesto 3

8. Historicism The “Hegelian Dialectic”
History advances through conflict.
One phase of history creates its opposite [ex: absolutism to democracy].
Thesis
Antithesis
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel [ ]
Synthesis

9. Marx studied Hegel’s view of thesis, antithesis and synthesis
Marx studied Hegel’s view of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. (Dialectic Theory)

10. WHAT IS DIALECTIC METHOD?
The dialectical method is discourse between two or more people holding different points of viewabout a subject, who wish to establish the truth of the matter guided by reasoned arguments.[1] – wikipedia
(Goes back to Socrates and Plato and ancient Greece)

11. Hegelian Dialectic
a thesis (Status quo), giving rise to its reaction, an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis, and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.
:Example Cottage system (thesis) vs. Arkwright’s Factory System (anti-thesis)= Change in production techniques
Although this model is often named after Hegel, he himself never used that specific formulation. Hegel ascribed that terminology to Immanuel Kant. Carrying on Kant's work, Fichte greatly elaborated on the synthesis model, and popularized it.

12. Marx’s Theory of Dialectical Materialism
Social and economic change through conflict
Emerging classes associated with economic innovations come into conflict with the old
Replacement of an old economic order with a superior one
Capitalism is a qualitative leap over feudalism
Socialism is a qualitative leap over capitalism 4

13. Marx’s Dialectical Materialism
 History is a process of development through conflict; not a conflict of ideas, but real conflict between economic classes.
History is the product of causal relations and class conflict, not dialectical conflict between ideas.
CLASS STRUGGLE

14. Social Evolution
Struggle, rather than peaceful growth, was the engine of progress; strife was the father of all things, and social conflict was the core of the historical process.

15. The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels

16. Marx met Friedrich Engels (1820- 1893) who was the heir to a vast fortune.

17. Marx and Engels met in Paris in 1844
Marx and Engels met in Paris in In 1847, they joined the Communist League—which was, at that time, a tiny group of revolutionaries.

18. Marx echoed that history was the result of impersonal forces—

19. Marx’s insight:
It’s all about money

20. Some have it……
They are called capitalists (or the bourgeoisie)

21. Others don’t …..
They are called the workers (or the proletariat)

22. Capitalists and workers are thrown together into relations of production

23. They don’t get on too well

24. the maximum PROFIT – and the lowest costs
Capitalists want
the maximum PROFIT – and the lowest costs

25. the highest wage for the least work
Workers want
the highest wage for the least work

26. These two groups are locked in mortal combat

27. The Capitalists compete with each other.
The successful capitalist’s get richer and richer

28. …and the failed capitalists fall down
into the working class

29. The workers meanwhile are more and more exploited by the remaining capitalists – they get poorer and poorer

30. A new communist society will be created
Marx said that eventually the workers will rise up in revolution against the capitalist class
A new communist society will be created

31. He wrote that conditions , mainly economic, produce the change--

32. To Marx (Dialectic History)
Stage 1- Fuedal Lords lost control of serfs and peasants after Plague etc.
Stage 2- City Life and Guilds was manipulated by Capitalists
Stage 3 - Capitalism overthrown by Proletariat (workers)
Stage 4- Communism (Classless Society) would lead to Utopia

33. Capitalism
Inefficient feudalism replaced by far more efficient capitalism
As capitalism emerges, there is an accumulation of capital (wealth) by the bourgeoisie (the capitalists) and the creation of a free (i.e., not serf) labor force, the proletariat
Extreme dichotomy between capital and labor
Sets up two classes which must eventually conflict 5

34. The Model
Marx models an internal contradiction which sets up the conflict between classes
Proposes a “labor theory of value”
Long run value determined by three things
amount of labor used to produce the good
indirect embodiment of labor through capital and intermediate inputs
the capitalist’s surplus 6

35. Surplus Value Where does this surplus value come from?
Workers are paid a subsistence wage
Employers compel workers to produce a value above that needed to generate subsistence wage
The workers get the subsistence wage, the capitalist gets the surplus
the “Reserve Army of the Unemployed” keeps wages at subsistence level
exploitation of labor 8

36. Cut-Throat Capitalism and the Internal Contradiction
Each firm in cut-throat competition for each other’s business
Driven to gain temporary competitive advantage over others
The way to do this is to introduce labor saving innovations
that is, replace labor with capital
But innovation diffuses quickly through economy, dissipating innovator’s advantage 13

37. As the organic composition of capital rises, the rate of profit falls
Thus, throughout the economy, capitalists are driven to accumulate capital in order to replace labor with capital
But as labor is replaced with capital, the organic composition of capital rises
As the organic composition of capital rises, the rate of profit falls
Capitalists try to keep up rate of profit by exploiting labor more and more
More and more firms fall behind and fail
bankrupt capitalists lose their capital and join the swelling ranks of the proletariat 14

38. Overproduction Tendency toward overproduction
workers too poor to buy much
capitalists too busy saving (accumulating capital)
economic depressions become more and more severe 15

39. Revolution The stage is set for revolution
proletariat swelling and becoming increasingly exploited
bourgeoisie shrinking and becoming increasingly cut-throat
the proletariat rises up in revolt, replacing the bourgeoisie as the dominant class and creating the new socialist order 16

40. The Communist Manifesto was a summons to revolution…

41. The famous saying, “Workers of the world, unite” is one of the most famous in history.

42. So remember, this saying has its roots in the unhappy conditions of France and other countries prior and after the revolutions.

43. Karl Marx spent time in London—where he spent hours in the British Library Reading Room. There he began the research that led to his great works of political and economic analysis, including the monumental Das Kapital.

44. Marx was buried in Highgate cemetery.
Still looking at my beard even after my death!

45. When Marx died, he was not well known except in revolutionary circles.
Marx’s role in history
When Marx died, he was not well known except in revolutionary circles.
After his death, his writing prompted a number of politicians to lead revolutions in his name.
Many of these societies were totalitarian.
His philosophy underlies the thinking of many political parties – old Labour for example.

46. Marxism’s message began to diminish between 1848 and 1870 — labor became organized, most men got the vote, and there were other increases to wages and benefits.

47. REVISIONIST SOCIALISM
MANY SOCIALISTS DECIDED THEY DID NOT NEED VIOLENCE.
THEY COULD GET REFORMS LEGALLY THROUGH WITH VOTING (LIBERALISM)
MANY WESTERN NATIONS MADE SOCIALIST REFORMS TO AVOID VIOLENCE AND UNREST LIKE 1848

48. And in fact, Marxism should have died out…but instead, he was read and re- read by a young man in the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin.
Our life stinks comrade
This guys beard is like Karl’s
We must break them

49. The Russian Revolution of would be a much later outcome of the writings of Karl Marx—70 years after the revolutions of

50. 6. Czechoslovakia 1948 External
The Socialist Countries in Year Socialist Period Begins Change Via Internal or External Forces
1. Soviet Union Internal
2. Mongolia External
3. Albania Internal
4. Yugoslavia Internal
5. Bulgaria External
6. Czechoslovakia External
7. Hungary External
Poland External
Romania External
10. North Korea External
11. China Internal
12. East Germany External
13. Vietnam Internal 1

51. The Socialist Countries (cont.)
14. Cuba Internal
15. Congo Internal
16. Somalia Internal
17. South Yemen Internal
18. Benin Internal
19. Ethiopia Internal
20. Angola External
21. Kampuchea External
22. Laos External
23. Mozambique Internal
24. Afghanistan External
25. Nicaragua Internal
26. Zimbabwe Internal