While Utopians Socialists envisioned reform from the top, Marx warned that change would

come from the bottom and would most likely be violent.

Marxism

Marxism was created by the joint efforts of two German intellectuals, Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsTogether they wrote the Communist Manifesto in

1848, in which they called for a revolution of the workers against the capitalist state and its replacement by socialism.

Marxism is both a theoretical analysis of history & society and a call for political action.

Economic Interpretation of History: Marx argued that economic conditions determine the course of historyThe class that possesses economic power whether

through ownership of land, merchant ships, banks, or factories controls the government and the social institutions

Class Struggle: Two fundamental classes in any society opposing each other – the owners of the means of production and those who work for them, the “haves” and “have-nots” In ancient Rome plebeians battled the patriciansIn feudal society serfs opposed lordsIn the industrial age it is the proletariat versus

the bourgeoisieThis struggle was international since workers in

each nation faced the same problems and battled the same capitalists oppressors

Marx concluded “the proletariat have nothing to lose but their chains,” and he coined the slogan “workingmen of the world unite.”

Surplus Value: Capitalists pay workers just enough wages to keep them alive and the difference between their wages and the price of the goods the workers produce is surplus value.The capitalist take the surplus value as profit and

consequently workers lack sufficient income to purchase all goods produced and this leads to economic depressions

Inevitability of Socialism: Capitalism would destroy itself as depressions become more and more severeIn time wealth would concentrate in fewer and fewer

hands, while workers’ conditions would steadily deteriorate

Eventually, workers would be driven to overthrow the capitalist and establish a state based on egalitarian principles, a socialist state.

Under socialism, the state would whither away and leave a “communal” society, a communist society that would apply the principal “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”