Alienation of Work: Seeds for a Communist Revolution

Concepts & Contributions

• Society is divided into two major classes

• 1. Proletariat: The working class (creators of the means of production)

• 2. Bourgeoisie: The owners of capital (owners of the means of production)

Class Consciousness

• One’s relative position to means of production• A common identification among members of a

class• Marx stressed workers needed to be

conscious of their class• Workers of the World Unite!

False Consciousness

• The inability to see where your best interests lay

• Workers needed to rid themselves of false consciousness

• Who controls property forms basis for class formation and struggle

Alienation

• Separation of a person’s affections from an object.

• Example: You feel no connection with something you are producing

Alienation in Marx’s Theory

• Alienated From:• Objects Produced

• Process of Production

• Themselves

• Fellow Workers

• How?• Do not own what they

produce.• Work satisfies needs of

capitalists.• Monotonous work limits

growth and potential.• Isolation from/Direct

competition with fellow workers

Communism

• Stressed abolishment of private property

• Means of production shared by public

• Stressed human potential

Elimination

• Needed to eliminate alienation, division of labor, and private property

Revolution!

• A worldwide revolution would occur in which the workers would overthrow the capitalists and create a classless society.

CONCEPTS & CONTRIBUTIONSCOMMUNISM

Communist Manifesto Questions

• 1. According to Marx, is class struggle new in industrialized society?

• 2. How are workers organized according to Marx?

• 3. Why should workers not like this system of organization?

• 4. What must workers do to better their lives according to Marx?

• 5. What do the workers have to lose?