HST 122 -- Marx and Marxism

I. Marx (1818-83) and Engels (1820-95)

II. Communism and Socialism
    A. Socialism 
        1. the term came into use in the 1830s
        2. it was a response to all the social problems caused by industrialization
        3. it referred to social reform based on the communal ownership of property
        4. example of what Marx called Utopian Socialism: 
                - Charles Fourier's Theory of Social Organization 

		"We are amazed when we calculate the benefits which would result from a union 
	of 1600-1800 persons occupying a vast and elegant edifice in which they would find 
	apartments of various sizes, tables at different prices, varied occupations and everything 
	that can abridge, facilitate and give a charm to labor…  The Phalanx will produce an 
	amount of wealth tenfold greater than the present. The system allows for a multitude of 
	economies of operations and sales which will increase the return enormously…  The 
	officers are chosen from among the experienced and skillful members--men, women 
	and children, each elected from the members of the Phalanx…  By means of short 
	industrial sessions everyone will be enabled to take part in seven or eight different 
	attractions with industry not now done, and will eliminate discord of all kinds. A 
	refinement of taste will be cultivated. Minute division of labor will increase production 
	and lower costs. It requires a tract of land three miles square, well-watered, flanked by 
	a forest. The personal and real estate of the Phalanx will be represented by stock divided 
	into shares. Each Phalanx will engage in both agriculture and industry. Meals will be in 
	common but there will be at least three different tables with different prices and children 
	will have their own tables, separate from the adults."

    B. Communism
        1. the term came into use in the 1840s
        2. it referred to social reform that would come about after the working class
            forcibly took control of the means of production
        3. eventually it comes to refer to the particular ideas of Marx and Engels,
                e.g., in The Communist Manifesto

		"The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.  Freeman 
	and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, 
	oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an 
	uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a 
	revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes…
		The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not 
	done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of 
	oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the 
	bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms: 
	Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great 
	classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat…
		The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: 
	formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of 
	political power by the proletariat…
		The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their 
	ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the 
	ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but 
	their chains. They have a world to win.   WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!" 

III. Historical Materialism
    A. According to Marx, "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the 
        history of class struggles."  -- But why?
    B. we have to understand history in terms of people and what they produce, not ideas
        - before people can think, they must live; to live, they must produce food, goods, etc.
    C. How are classes created over time?
        1. hunter-gatherers
        2. agriculture develops; people live in sedentary villages; division of labor
        3. agriculture becomes more efficient; more division of labor; dev. of middle class
        4. dev. of a world market = continued rise of middle class
        5. industrialization; extensive division of labor; dev. of extremely wealthy
                industrial middle class and an impoverished working class
    D. the Bourgeoisie v. the Proletariat

IV. Revolution
    A. Marx's predictions for the revolutions of 1848 don't come true
    B. What else kept the proletariat from rising up and taking over in the later 19th century?
        - Second Industrial Revolution = better S.O.L.
    C. Impact of Marx still felt:
        1. unions more and more successful
        2. socialist political parties become very powerful, esp. in Germany
        3. spread of communism: Russia, China, etc.

V. Communism v. Capitalism
    A. Why has communism not worked?
    B. Is capitalism a better system?
    C. Is there a better system than both of these?