Marxism: Radical Socialism And The Communist Manifesto - Research Paper Example

?MARXISM: RADICAL SOCIALISM AND THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO Angel Davies English History 10th Grade June 13,   Karl Marx is a modern social philosopher and economist born in 1818 from the ancestry of Germany. He is a historian and was a strong advocate of communism and wrote his philosophy which became the foundation of revolutionary movements led by Vladimer. I. Lenin and Mao Tse-tung (Lenin, 1967 & McLellan, 2007). He was a scholar in Bonn and Berlin and got his doctorate degree at Jena. He embraced the Hegelian theory of dialectical materialism as a member of Young Hegelian, a publication prominent of radical political views. He went to Paris in 1843 and befriended Friedrich Engels, also a philosopher and who supported his endeavors. He married Jenny von Westphalen in 1843. He devoted his life as writer and died in 1883 at London. Marx philosophical theories detailed about his in-depth studies about sociology, economics and politics. Immersed with poverty and wanton social problems, he wrote about the dialectics of class struggle as a critique to capitalism, the philosophy of bourgeoisie. The latter was perceived as a class who decides world economy to favor their interests that resulted to the alienation of the lower class from these socio-economic systems. He is of the purview that economic elitism, ran by wealthy class, will self-deconstruct and will be replaced with socialism, a new system that will empower the working class which he zealously dubbed as the dictatorship of the proletariat (Marx, 1970). Marx (1973), an idealist in his time, perceived of a classless, stateless and a communist society whilst vigorously advocating that impoverished class should overthrow capitalism through revolutionary movements to effect radical changes. He wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Manifesto (1848); Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1858); Wages, Price and Profit (1865) and the Das Capital (1867). Marx co-authored with Engels in the writing of The Communist Manifesto which called on the labor forces around the globe to bear arms – “Workers of the World, Unite!” (Marx, 1973). The book asserted that as power and wealth is concentrated with few capitalists, the marginalized and dissatisfied proletariat would share power and wage the bloody revolution for a classless society. His theory of the state and the materialist precept of history illustrated his radical idea of communism—a concept argued by many philosophers as a social utopia. The Communist Manifesto, a confession of faith, raised many questions which aided Engels and Marx in defining the principles of Communism. It encouraged unity of all communists and discouraged promote sectarian principles to mould the proletarian movement. It advocated for (1) the abolition of property in land and application of lease policies; (2) development of progressive taxation; (3) removal of right to inheritance; (4) taking away of all properties of emigrants; (5) centralization of credit through the state thru national bank and capital; (6) centralization of communication and transportation by the State; (7) extension of factories and instruments of production by the State and creation of common plan for agriculture; (8) equality of labor and establishment of industrial armies, including agriculture; (9) agriculture-industrial developments and gradual elimination of town and country; and (10) free children’s education in all public schools and abolition of child labor (Marx, 1973). These principles are perceived to be the foundation toward stateless and classless society. It will eliminate all political character by the rising of public power. It is perceived as a fertilizing the ground for the removal of class antagonism toward the supremacy of the proletariat class—the transition of socialism to communism. Marxism (1969) became the economic and socio-political view based on materialist interpretation of history, about dialectics of society, and critique of capitalism. It became an economic theory that explicates the movements of oppressed people from the ghettos of the urban poor and the marginalization of farmers in rural areas. As tool of political-economic theory, Marxism starts with the empirical or material condition to understand a social phenomena using the structures of economic organization—production, marketing and profits. It argued that the economic condition of a person or a community dictates the social relations, political systems, morality and behavior of people and their ideological precepts (Marx, 1969). While its is true that poverty and social marginalization can cause social upheavals as motivated with innate desire for change, but Marx failed to rise up from the economist interpretation of peoples history. Workers may unite, but life is larger than the dictates of wealth because while people are ensembles of social relations, there remain distinct qualities in all individuals that can’t be fully divested to superstructures and communal agenda. No doubt Marx has indeed contributed to economic revolution, but it is impossible to make a classless society in as much as people are made of distinct identity by race, language, social origin and religion. Every person has certain individuation and miracles of life can’t be religiously explained solely by economic terms. Each person’s skills, talents, and abilities are distinct gifts which may consequentially make a variation of social make-up. Every person’s innate right for liberty and freedom depends on his or her choice—to be a Marxist or not at all. Such variation of beliefs, ideology, faith and culture of people demands respect to diversity and abolitions of nation in this case is impossible. References Marx, K.H. & Engels, F.. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Reprinted in Marx: The Revolutions of 1848. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973. Marx, K. H. Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Reprint. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1858 & 1970. Marx, K.H. & Engels, F. Wages, Price and Profits.” Reprinted in Marx-Engels Selected Works. Vol. 2. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1865 & 1969. Marx, K.H . Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Edited by Friedrich Engels and reprinted in 1906, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. Reprinted in 1976, New York: Penguin Books. Available online (Charles Kerr, ed.): Vol. I: Lenin, Vladimir. Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism. Peking: Foreign Languages Press. 1967 and 1913. McLellan, David. Marxism After Marx. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. Read More