What Are the Links Between Class and Alienation According to Marx - Case Study Example

Topic: What are the links between and alienation according to Marx? Introduction: This paper seeks to analyze and discuss the question: “What are the links between class and alienation according to Marx?” This paper maintains that there is relationship between alienation and classes and that there is a way to resolve the inevitable result of class struggle as meant my Marx. Analysis and Discussion: 2.1 Alienation, defined Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) defined alienation as “the process whereby people become foreign to the world they are living in.” It added that the concept of alienation is deeply embedded in all the great religions and social and political theories of the civilised epoch, namely, the idea that some time in the past people lived in harmony, and then there was some kind of rupture which left people feeling like foreigners in the world, but some time in the future this alienation would be overcome and humanity would again live in harmony with itself and Nature. Marx, a social philosopher developed his understanding of alienation in criticizing the work of Hegel where he found the existence of the experience in modern bourgeois society (Encyclopaedia of Marxism, 2004) (Paraphrasing Made). 2.2 How alienation arises from private labour from Commodity production? Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004), said that Marx’s work, written in 1844, shows how alienation arises from private labour and from commodity production citing excerpt from Marx (1844) saying: “Let us review the various factors as seen in our supposition: My work would be a free manifestation of life, hence an enjoyment of life. Presupposing private property, my work is an alienation of life, for I work in order to live, in order to obtain for myself the means of life. My work is not my life.” Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) explained that Marx went on to show that the specific form of labour characteristic of bourgeois society, wage labour, corresponds to the most profound form of alienation. It argued that since wage workers sell their labour power to earn a living, and the capitalist owns the labour process, the product of the workers’ labour is in a very real sense alien to the worker. Moreover, it said that it is not her product but the product of the capitalist and that the worker makes a rod for her own back. (Paraphrasing Made). 2.3 The power of the market to take control of production and necessary the provision of labour Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) said that once a product enters the market, no-one has any control of it, and it sets off on a course which appears to be governed by supra-human laws. It quoted Marx (2005), Capital Volume One saying: “... with commodities. ... It is a definite social relation between men that assumes, in their eyes, the fantastic form of a relation between things. In order, therefore, to find an analogy, we must have recourse to the mist-enveloped regions of the religious world. In that world the productions of the human brain appear as independent beings endowed with life, and entering into relation both with one another and the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with the products of men’s hands. This I call the Fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour, as soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities. This Fetishism of commodities has its origin, as the foregoing analysis has already shown, in the peculiar social character of the labour that produces them.” According to Marx, the presence of private property causes alienation of life for man needs to work in order to obtain the means of living and in that sense one’s work is not his own life. He theorized the fetishism of commodities and alienation to be closely related. In explaining, Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) said, “Alienation, and the ‘Fetishism of Commodities’, are therefore related to the concept of reification, in which social relations are conceived as relations between things. Alienation can be overcome by restoring the truly human relationship to the labour process, by people working in order to meet peoples needs, working as an expression of their own human nature, not just to earn a living.” 2.4 What is class according to Marxism? Does alienation create classes? A class is “A group of people sharing common relations to labour and the means of production.” Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) Citing Marx (1847), Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004), said, “In the process of production, human beings work not only upon nature, but also upon one another. They produce only by working together in a specified manner and reciprocally exchanging their activities. In order to produce, they enter into definite connections and relations to one another, and only within these social connections and relations does their influence upon nature operate – i.e., does production take place.” Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) explained that these social relations between the producers, and the conditions under which they exchange their activities and share in the total act of production, will naturally vary according to the character of the means of production (Paraphrasing Made). Since a class is defined in Marxism as a group of people sharing common relations to labour and the means of production, it can be inferred that alienation brought by man’s need to put his labour as part of the production process, the provider of labour necessarily distances himself from the owner of the capital, which also joins him to what Marx referred as the proletariat. Hence, there is basis to say that alienation create classes. 2.5 Class struggle and the processes as observed by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels Must struggle necessarily follow as a result of the creation of classes? Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) answered saying: “Class Struggle: Classes emerge only at a certain stage in the development of the productive forces and the social division of labour, when there exists a social surplus of production, which makes it possible for one class to benefit by the expropriation of another. The conflict between classes there begins, founded in the division of the social surplus, and constitutes the fundamental antagonism in all class.” Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) cited Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels explanation of the processes they had witnessed as capitalism was just beginning to create itself as follows: They saw modern Industry to have converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist where masses of labourers, crowded into the factory and are organized like soldiers. They observed that as privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. They also saw that not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooked, and, above all, in the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. Thus, they argued that the more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is. (Encyclopaedia of Marxism, 2004) (Paraphrasing Made). In addition they also said,” The increasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (trade unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots.” They however saw that the workers are victorious, but only for a time, stating rather that the real fruit of their battles lie not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. Marx and Engels saw that this union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by Modern Industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another and that it was just this contact that was needed to centralize the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes (Encyclopaedia of Marxism, 2004) (Paraphrasing Made). 2.6 How class struggle is resolved? Class struggle must come to an end and Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) said this will find resolution in communism that is achievable only after a period of a dictatorship of the proletariat, according to Marx (Paraphrasing Made). Encyclopaedia of Marxism, (2004) said that class struggle underlies most political struggle. In arguing that class struggle certainly is not the only form of struggle in society, it included race and gender related oppression and struggle are some of the foremost examples of struggle that is not based on class. However, Encyclopaedia of Marxism, (2004) was quick to explain that while these struggles happen in a definite class environment, race and gender oppression is not always based on economic reasons, but also can exist as a result of archaic social understanding. Citing as example in the 18th-century United States, (Encyclopaedia of Marxism, 2004 mentioned about Negro slavery that was imperative for the survival of the cotton and tobacco industry in the south – thus, racial discrimination had a definite class basis: the maintenance of a class of slaves. In further explaining, Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) said that in the struggle for their emancipation, a Civil War was necessary to break Negroes out of slavery and into proletarian existence. To further justify, it said that continuing racial discrimination in the 21st century in the United States, no longer based on economic necessity, stems from deeply ingrained social racism of the past. 2.7 How did Marx apply his theory under different social formations? In “primitive communism” it is possible to have a highly developed social division of labour and even social inequality, but there could be no classes, because every worker used the product of his her own labour in its entirety. It is most probable that division of labour and distribution of the product is determined by kinship relations.” Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) (Paraphrasing Made). As to possible application of the theory in Slave Society, Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) said that the productivity of labour is such that a slave-owning class is able to hold in bondage another class of slaves who are themselves the property of the slave-owners and that the status of the main class of producers themselves as property. On the other hand, in Feudal Society, the peasantry own their own land, and are recognised as citizens with rights; they are not free to change their station in life which is determined by traditional systems based on kinship (Paraphrasing Made). Encyclopaedia of Marxism 92004) applied Marx’ theory in bourgeois society, where the producing class, the Proletariat, are “free labourers” in the sense that they are free from any compulsion on the part of any other person as to how, where and when they work. Encyclopaedia of Marxism, (2004) pointed however, that the means of production are the private property of the Bourgeoisie (or Capitalists), while the Proletariat (or Working-class) has nothing to sell but its own capacity to work (unlike the peasantry of feudal society who labour on their own land), and must sell their labour power to the capitalists in order to live. Finally, Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004) explained that in a future Communist Society private property in the means of production will be non-existent and will be used in common by the producing class, marking the dissolution of all classes. In addition, it argued that this is not, of course, to say that there would be no differences or conflicts or that there would be no division of labour – on the contrary. What makes it different from the rest is that under this social formation, the means and products of labour would not be private property, and consequently, the conflicts between different people and groups of people would not be antagonistic (Paraphrasing Made) Conclusion: The works of Marx showed how alienation arises from private labour thorough commodity production. Alienation therefore is created because of man’s connection to the commodity production or the need to produce commodity to sustain life. The process of production of which labour is a part also necessarily creates classes hence we could say that the links between alienation and class include the presence of private property and all actions which are necessary for its preservation including the capitalist who owns the factors of production or any factors that are needed for further wealth creation. Various relations of labour to production create also different social formations classes which must be resolved through communism. Under the latter, private property will be eliminated since everything will be owned by the state. Alienation will then be stopped because the people will not be working for private property or the accumulation of wealth of he capitalists but will just be serving the state. Communism promises: “To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability.” (Marx, n.d.) (Critique of the Gotha Program) Mark and Engels said: "In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” (Marx, 1845) References: Encyclopaedia of Marxism (2004), Glossary of Terms, {www document} URL http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/a/l.htm#alienation, Accessed October 26, 2006 Marx (1847), Wage Labour and Capital, Chpt. 5: The Nature and Growth of Capital, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm Marx (2005), Capital Volume One, {www document} http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S4, Accessed October 26, 2006 Marx (n.d.), Critique of the Gotha Program, {www document} URL http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch04.htm, Accessed October 26, 2006 Marx, (1845) The German Ideology, Private Property and Communism {www document} URL http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm), Accessed October 26, 2006 Marx, K. 1844, Comments on James Mill, Éléments D’économie Politique, {www document} URL http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/james-mill/index.htm#084, Access October 26,2006 Read More