German political thinker in 19 th century. Journalist Did most
of his work in Britain. Influenced by German philosopher Hegel.
Published Communist Manifesto in 1848 with co-author Frederick
Engels. Wrote multi-volume Capital (Das Kapital), starting in
1867.
Slide 3
Marx studied British economic records for 20 years to develop
his theory that everything is based on the economic system,
including: politics, law, social structures, family relations, even
religious belief.
Slide 4
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggle. - Karl Marx
Slide 5
Communism - a government where people shared work fairly and
were paid equally. The word Communism comes from the Latin word
Communis which means common or belonging to all.
Slide 6
The Goal of Communism is to get rid of social classes and make
everything fair for everyone.
Slide 7
All societies are divided into two groups Owners Workers Marx
said that there were two social groups that existed: The Bourgeois
The Proletariat Our society is capitalist. Owners are bourgeoisie
Workers are proletarians
Slide 8
Bourgeois: modern capitalists who own the means of production
and therefore get to keep all the profits. Today, this would
include major stockholders in corporations. Proletarians: modern
wage laborers who sell their labor to live and dont get any of the
profits that they help to create. This includes everyone who is not
a stockholder or owner of capital, even professionals who work for
a salary.
Slide 9
Owners exploit workers and live off the money which the workers
earn Workers put up with this inequality because: They are
oppressed wage slaves and cannot fight the system They are
indoctrinated by ideology and religion into believing what they are
told by the powerful.
Slide 10
Marx believed that in most societies, the rich get rich, while
the poor get poorer. The worker becomes all the poorer the more
wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and
range. Marx
Slide 11
Economic systems go through historic cycles. Over time, an
economic system becomes rigid and cannot adjust to new
technologies, so a new system emerges, with new class relations and
oppression. Someday, a perfect classless society will emerge and
there will be no further cycles.
Slide 12
1. Slave system gave way to feudal economy 2. Feudal economy
broke down with growth of manufacturing, towns, navigation &
transportation, emergence of middle class 3. Industrial capitalism
emerged, with only two classes: proletariat and bourgeoisie.
Slide 13
Destroys important human values, replacing even religious
belief with naked exploitation. Undermines an individuals sense of
personal value in ones work. Undermines human relationships; all
relationships are based on cash. Destroys human freedom. The only
freedom it protects is free trade.
Slide 14
Unprecedented exploration and technological advancements. War
less likely. Urbanization opens peoples minds to new ideas.
Economic production centralized, leading to favorable conditions
for communism to emerge.
Slide 15
The bourgeoisie has created enormous cities, has greatly
increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has
thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy
of rural life. The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one
hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal
productive forces than have all preceding generations together
railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for
cultivation, canalization of rivers.
Slide 16
Capitalism creates huge factories. Workers become concentrated
and begin to organize for legal reforms (higher wages/better
working conditions). Their effort fails. Fierce competition between
capitalists leads to new technologies, which leads to lower
costs.
Slide 17
In the competition, some capitalists go bankrupt & have to
become workers, and many workers lose their jobs as new technology
replaces them. ( Consider reports that U.S. workers productivity is
going up. Fewer workers are making more goods, which means
technology is replacing them.)
Slide 18
Greater numbers of people permanently unemployed. Misery
widespread. Fewer people can afford the products of capitalists, so
fewer companies survive. Class struggle reaches a climax.
Conditions now ripe for revolution. The proletariat, having nothing
to lose but their chains, rise up.
Slide 19
Revolution will eliminate private property. No longer will man
have the means of exploiting another man. Bourgeoisie will fight,
so revolution will be violent. A dictatorship of the proletariat
will follow to weed out remaining capitalist elements.
Slide 20
In the end, a classless society with no more oppression or
internal contradictions. People will be free to choose how they
labor, and can be creatively productive. They will be able to live
to their fullest potential. Consider the description in Marxs
Communist Manifesto in 1845:
Slide 21
In communist society, nobody has one exclusive sphere of
activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes,
to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the
evening, criticize after dinner, without ever becoming hunter,
fisherman, herdsman or critic.
