Marx's Explanation for the Capitalist Transformation - Research Paper Example

The private property of the laborer is his means of production that he could use to form a petty industry important in the development of social production and independence. These kinds of modes were in practice in serfdom and slavery and have since transformed into classical forms especially where the laborer owns the means of production. The new form excludes the concentration of production on the forces of nature or the development of social productive measures. The transitional process has decomposed the whole society and further expropriated private proprietors.

Today, labor is turned into capital, and expropriation is accomplished through laws that centralize capitalism. This results in the expropriation of many capitalists by a few connected capitalists who transform the instruments of labor into a system economizing the means of production and that entangle all people in the world market bringing the capitalistic regime to the international realm. The owners of capital usurp and manipulate the advantages accrued from the transformation process creating exploitation, oppression, and degradation, which evokes revolt from the working class.

The working class consists of the majority of people organized and united by the capitalistic system. The monopoly of capital becomes a mode of production and the socialization of labor and centralization of the means of production become unmatchable creating conflict. The expropriator has become the expropriated. Marx traces back the expropriation to different instances in history claiming that it took different forms in different countries and went through different phases in different historical epochs (Marx 876). Marx identifies the discovery of gold in America, enslavement and expatriation, the beginning of conquest in India, and commercial hunting of blacksmiths in Africa as the role of history in primitive accumulation (Marx 914).