Submitted by d4rk in Marxism101 (edited )

This article was made for a College project on ideologies, best place to write it here.

There are at least 6 concepts when it comes to Marxism is, in basic, they are presented below. I do not recommend burning through Das Kapital's 3 Volumes as I did in grade 4, Marxism is not worth the trouble. But here is an introduction at least that would give Marx justice.

Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical Materialism is a concept that argues that material conditions improve with time and technology. Marx observed that the dialectical synthesis of commodity and property begot Capital[1], he addressed in 3 (supposedly 4) volumes on how this would affect Classical Market Economics. Where Smith recorded how Capital began from risk management on the terms of policy, and Ricardo observed (through his infamous corn tables) the odd effects and violent fluctuations happening in commodities, Marx argued, through Hegelian Dialectics, that Capital was the latest object synthesis in a line of syntheses called Modes of Production.

How they get from one Mode of Production to the next is through Class Struggle between the Upper and Lower classes, with the middle classes beating the upper every time. The old middle becomes the new upper class.

Important terms:

  • Mode of Production - Where products go
  • Means " - what are used to make products
  • Factors " - what forces may affect production

Labor Theory of value

Within Capitalism:

LTV=RM<->L=P

Profit is created from Raw Materials if and only through Labor.

The tendency of Profit to Fall over Time

Doesn't More supply mean less demand/profits? Supply, created by labor, increases profits.

1/Capital(=commodity+property)=Profits

so the more Capital there is the fewer Profits there will be. This manifests over time leading to Economic Crises.

Class Struggle

As Profit falls, and Capital increases that means there will be more materials than the Worker can afford, this is measured through Marx's rate of exploitation:

=(LTV/actual wage)100

This creates a conflict of interest that leads to class struggle.

Cultural Hegemony

A Majority of people however are peacefully unaware of these contradictions however, unless of course in times of crisis. Cultural Hegemony is what keeps the Lower classes from revolting against the Upper classes. This is through Conservatism, Populism, and a semblance of participation in state power. They are also free to do their work without repression if they give in to the power system.

Communism

To Marx, Liberation comes through breaking the cycle and let the working classes win for a change. He's actually not clear as to what this liberation entails. Immediately after his death, the idea of Marxism was a slow burn, to eliminate, at least, material inequity through the political struggle, this was as it is still now considered Social Democracy.

Against the Lassale and the Gotha Programme, Marx argued that Revolution will occur within the Workers' Unions who, through a perpetual strike from Capitalist institutions, will seize state power and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat, This dictatorship will then, through authoritarian means, seize the means of production creating a society in which welfare comes as a consequence of economics (lower phase communism), when all peoples reap the benefits of this society, usually through a worldwide revolution, the Fourierist conception: the abolition of work, money, cash, state, church, and capital (Higher phase communism) will occur.

Lenin argued that because the dictatorship of the proletariat could not be possible through the classical marxist means (violent spontaneous revolution by Workers' Unions on General Strike), Vanguard parties must exist to educate, arouse, organize and mobilize the masses and must be done by professional party officials who will take over under a Workers' State. By Confederating with all the Communist Parties throughout the world, with material and financial support, it could bring about a world revolution.

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mofongo wrote

That person on link 1 has a severe case of Dunning Kruger.

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