MARXISM

MARXISM

MARXISM: political and economic philosophy proposed by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays central role in society’s development from borgeoise oppression under capitalism to a socialist & classless society.

MARXISM: the the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.

MARXISM is the antithesis of Capitalism.

CAPITALISM – SOCIALISM – MARXISM - COMMUNISM

Under Capitalism, the proletariat (the working class) own only their capacity to work & the ability only to sell their own labor (jasa, tenaga, etc). 

The workers are then alienated because they have no control over the labor / product which they produce. 

The capitalist possesses the majority of the profit (*surplus value) gained from the price of the product they sell. 

The recession in capitalism occured because in one hand, th working class is unable to buy the full product of their labors and on the other hand, the ruling capitalists do not consume all of the surplus value. 

*The surplus value (difference between what the worker is paid & the price for which the product is sold).

Therefore, according to Marx, a proletariat (socialist revolution) must occur because he thinks that there is dictatorship of the ruling class towards the proletariat.

Later, Communism evolves from Socialism out of this progression.

Communism is the opposite of Capitalism. According to Marx, the working class is exploited by the ruling class.

Marx saw an unjust nature of the economic system spawned by the Industrial Revolution (which he called Capitalism=imperialism).

The goal of his thinking about Communism is the victory for the proletariat & the establishment of a classless & socialist society in which private ownership is abolished & the means of production belong to the community, therefore, the society’s wealth & products can be distributed equally to everyone.

However, in practice Communism has only existed under authoritarian government & has been the source of millions of human rights violations & deaths.

Base: forces of economy & production

Superstructure: institution & their accompanying forms of consciousness.

MARXISM v.s. RELIGION

Marx said that religion was the response to the pain of being alive, the response of earthly suffering.

“Religion is the sigh of the oppresses creature, the feeling of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless circumstances.”