Marx- The Key Ideas

by Gill Hands

  Radical Marxists, however, would not agree with this. They believe postmodernist theory is just another form of hegemony and an attempt to divert people away from the real problems that exist in the late capitalist world. They believe postmodernists are too busy celebrating popular culture and ignoring the fact that there are still many families living in poverty, even in the Western world, and this will not stop until the capitalist system has been overthrown.

  Postmodernism can be seen as a form of cultural relativism, a philosophical belief that there are no universal or absolute truths. The only truths are relative to some frame of reference, in this case culture. This is seen as a problem by those who believe that you should fight against injustice, for how do you decide if something is unjust and how can you make moral or ethical judgements about anything? How far should people tolerate oppression and exploitation? Postmodernism does not have any answers to these questions. It does not even ask the questions.

  Is Marxism relevant in the twenty-first century?

  Many people see the collapse of communism as proof that Marx is not relevant to the world today. After the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall came down, Communist China became more open to Western influence and its economy more open to free enterprise. People see the failure of communism as the failure of Marx, yet the communism that Marx envisaged has never existed.

  What the history of the twentieth century shows us is the power of Marx’s ideas to capture the imaginations of the poor and oppressed throughout the world. There is no doubt that his beliefs, or other people’s, interpretations of them, changed the history of the world.

  The relevance of Marx to today’s society has been debated and discussed by many philosophers, economists, historians and other academics, as well as by fervent Marxists, students and drunken pub-philosophers. Almost everyone has an opinion on Marx, even if it is not a particularly informed one. There are three main arguments:

  Marxism is not relevant today at all because it was never relevant. His scientific method was flawed and his economic theory was completely mistaken.

  Marxism is not relevant today because it was a product of its time. The capitalist society that existed at the time he was writing does not exist any more. There is no such thing as the proletariat now, so there will be no revolution. We are living in a postmodern world, which bears no resemblance to the nineteenth century. There is no such thing as class; huge theories of everything are false.

  Marxism is still relevant. The failure of communism in some countries does not indicate that Marx was wrong. In fact he predicted there would be a swing away from his theories and that capitalism would try to fight back before it was finally defeated. The world may have changed but while the economy is a capitalist one, his theories are still relevant. Postmodern culture is part of the hegemony and an attempt to make people passive, interested in celebrity but not analysing anything.

  The first theory is obviously wrong because even if Marx was totally mistaken about everything, many people have acted upon what he said, so it must have some relevance. There are still many millions of people living in communist countries, despite the fall of communism. Derrida wrote, in Spectres of Marx, that we can never be free of the past or our interpretations of it, so that Marxism is now a part of our consciousness. Even though Derrida did not agree with the historical materialism of Marxism, he saw that there was still injustice and poverty caused by economic oppression. Marx was the person who brought this to our attention and the problem hasn’t gone away. The debate about the validity of Marx’s methods does not solve anything.

  The second and third theories can both be seen to be correct, to some extent, because of the sheer volume of work that Marx produced; it depends on which aspects of his work are being examined.

  HISTORY

  His ‘scientific method’ of studying history has been accused as not being scientific by modern standards. Karl Popper, a twentieth-century philosopher, believes that there is no real way of proving whether Marx’s assertions are true or false as you could in a proper scientific study. However, Marx did amass and classify a great deal of evidence about past societies, and modern social science developed out of his techniques. He wrote and researched in a very structured way that attempted to use the scientific methods of his time, which were concerned with the classification of things.

  ECONOMY

  Marx was not a trained economist. Some of his predictions about the economy have proved to be false; for example, wages being pushed down to subsistence level. On the contrary, most people are better off in real terms than they were a hundred years ago. Other assertions have been correct. He predicted that large corporations would come to dominate world markets. At the end of the twentieth century, more and more companies merged into large conglomerates including banks, publishers and computer software companies. In the twenty-first century the trend continues with large supermarket chains taking each other over, buying up properties and forcing small shops out of business. Marx also predicted that industry would become more and more reliant on technology and that there would be periodic recessions – both of these predictions are correct.

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  Insight

  The latest economic recession, that began in 2007, happened on a global scale and was partly attributed to a failure to regulate vast banking corporations.

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  CLASS AND SOCIETY

  Society has changed for the better; in the Western world many inequalities have disappeared. Universal suffrage has changed the structure of society since Marx’s time. In Britain we have free education up to university level and health services for all who need them, although many would see this as a two-tier system where the rich can afford to pay for better private treatment and education. However, it is still a great improvement on the Victorian era and the lives and health of most people in Britain are better as a result. The feudal House of Lords has been reformed, heredity is no longer the only criterion for belonging to this law-making body. Marxists would argue that the scandal over ‘cash for honours’ shows that merely reforming a law is not enough to change a political system.

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  Insight

  The ‘cash for honours’ scandal that happened in the UK in 2006/7 is also known as the ‘cash for peerages’ scandal. It was alleged certain businessmen had given huge loans to the ruling Labour Party in return for being nominated as life peers by the prime minister.

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  Although the proletariat as Marx described it does not exist in the same way today, people still refer to themselves as ‘wage slaves’ and work hard to pay off debts to credit card companies. Debt is becoming a major problem in Britain as many people get caught up in the consumerist society. As Marx predicted, there is also still a huge underclass of the homeless and the unemployed.

  PHILOSOPHY

  Marx is much more relevant to today’s world when we look at his philosophy. There are two main philosophical points to be considered:

  Human nature is not a fixed thing but alters with social and economic conditions. This means that society can be changed by altering the economic system. Nobody was aware of this before Marx brought it to our attention. However, the history of the twentieth century has shown that it is not as easy as Marx believed to create the society of equals that he thought could develop. The fact that communist states have been riddled with inequalities does not mean that Marx was entirely wrong, but perhaps he was more optimistic about the flexibility of human nature than most people.

  The most important part of Marx’s philosophy was the understanding he gave us about the nature of freedom. Under capitalism we appear to be free but because economic conditions control our work, religion, politics and ideas, we cannot control our lives or society. Depression is one of the top three causes of absence from work in the UK – could this be a sign of alienation? Of course, this is a supposition which is not easily proved, but according to surveys carried out by NOP in 2006 just 36 per cent of
British people now feel ‘very happy’; in 1957 the figure was 52 per cent. People are less happy than they were 50 years ago, despite an increase in material possessions. The fact that we even acknowledge the possibility of this alienation is because Marx introduced the idea. People are now much more aware of the social and economic influences which shape their lives and this is due, in part, to Marx who first brought it to our attention.

  The future

  The world has developed in ways that Marx could not have predicted in just 100 years. In the early 1980s, few people could foresee the phenomenal rise of the power of home computers, mobile phones, the internet; the extent to which technological advances would change aspects of our society in a short space of time. There are signs within the music industry and publishing that people are taking the means of production into their own hands; technology in the Western world means we can all record our own music and make our own books. This will affect the structure of society yet again in ways we cannot be sure of right now.

  There is also a growing movement against globalization of industry and exploitation of workers in countries in the developing world. Capitalism has been accused of ‘chasing poverty around the world’; as soon as workers in one country receive fair pay and rights then the products become too expensive, and so production is moved to another area of the world. At present in the UK, we are buying in many manufactured goods from China and Laos. This means that the proletariat exist outside our culture and society and become almost invisible. Many Marxists are a part of the campaign against globalization, which also includes religious and ecological groups. It is not clear how this will affect society in the long term.

  To try to look at the development of Marxism over the next 100 years would be an exercise in science fiction. We cannot predict how technology will change our society. Perhaps work will cease to exist as a result of technological advances, perhaps society will be destroyed by some disaster and we will return to primitive communism.

  The revolution Marx predicted never took place, but does that mean it will never happen? Marxists would argue that as long as 10 per cent of the population hold 99 per cent of the wealth then there is no equality. There are still numerous Marxist groups in the world who believe that as long as society remains dominated by capitalism, there must be a revolution. As long as the ideas of Marx are still alive in the minds of people throughout the world, this must be a possibility.

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  THINGS TO REMEMBER

  Numerous schools of Marxism flourished in the twentieth century.

  Marxism goes in and out of fashion in academic circles.

  Many people believe that Marx is out of date and not relevant to today’s postmodern world.

  Others believe he is relevant because of the inequalities in society, and revolution could still occur.

  Marx’s main contribution was to show us that human nature is not fixed and that even when people believe they are free, they are being controlled by outside influences of some kind.

  Society is changing rapidly in ways that Marx could never have predicted and technological advances mean that it is difficult to predict what may come next.

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  Glossary

  abstract social labour An economic feature of capitalism that treats labour as a commodity and separates it from everyday life.

  accumulation of capital Where profit is not used to buy more products but is invested in future production.

  alienation The feeling of being isolated or estranged from society.

  anarchists Believers in the theory that society does not need government.

  antithesis From ancient Greek, meaning negation. Antithesis is the second stage of Hegel’s dialectic view of development, when the initial stage, or thesis, is contradicted.

  Bolsheviks A branch of the revolutionary movement. Originally part of the All Russian Social Democratic Party.

  bourgeoisie The middle classes who developed capitalism and took power from the aristocrats.

  capital Money to which surplus value accrues.

  capitalism An economic system where there is private property and relatively free markets where goods are sold for profit.

  Chicago School An economic school based around Chicago University in the 1950s that advocated a laissez-faire attitude to economic systems.

  Cold War Hostile measures between countries that just fall short of actual war.

  colonialism The second stage of imperialism, where countries take over governing power.

  commodity An object for use that is produced for sale.

  communism A state where private property has been abolished, where people live in equality without classes or social divisions.

  concrete labour This is applied to a product to give it value.

  critical theory In Marxist terms it is a way of looking at the works and tradition of Marx and taking into account the varying criticisms that have been made of his methods and of Marxism itself.

  cultural Marxism A form of Marxism that takes into account the role of the media, art and culture in analysis of society.

  Cultural Revolution A revolution within Chinese communism that aimed to transform the superstructure.

  deconstruction A method of reading texts based on the theories of Derrida. The idea is to look for inconsistencies and reveal the true meaning in what is written.

  democracy A state governed by the wishes of the whole, adult population, where no smaller group has the right to rule. From the ancient Greek demos (people) and kratos (strength).

  developing world Poor, less industrialized and under-developed countries, often former colonies.

  dialectic The philosophic theory of contradiction and change.

  dialectical materialism Marxist way of studying the relationship between the real world and the world of ideas.

  dictatorship of the proletariat Unavoidable undemocratic state, made necessary after the Communist Revolution.

  domino theory US theory of communist takeover and justification for interference in South East Asian politics.

  economic base The way the economy is structured in society.

  economic determinism The theory that the economic structure leads the development of society, politics and history.

  economist A person who studies the science of the production and distribution of wealth.

  economy The system by which wealth is created in society.

  Engels, Friedrich Son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. He wrote about the plight of the working class and was a close friend of Marx.

  evolutionary communism The belief that a communist state can come into existence through the natural disintegration of the capitalist system, without the need for revolution.

  exchange-value The value that commodities have in relation to each other.

  existentialist A philosophical movement based on the concept of an absurd or meaningless universe where human free will is an important factor.

  exploitation Taking advantage of something or someone for one’s own ends.

  Fabian Society A socialist organization formed in 1884 that has links with the British Labour Party.

  false consciousness False beliefs or values created by a culture or society.

  fascism An authoritarian and militaristic political ideology.

  fetishism Desiring, worshipping or giving excessive concern to inanimate objects; in Marxist terms this would be commodities, money or capital.

  feudalism A system of land ownership that gave the nobility rights over the land, which they granted to their followers in return for services.

  Frankfurt School A school of social theory that was set up in Frankfurt and was critical of orthodox Marxist thought as promoted within the Soviet Union.

  French Revolution (1789–94) Revolution by the people against the French aristocracy. After a bloody uprising, the nobility were overthrown and replaced by a bourgeois democracy.

  generalized commodity production Type of production under capi
talism and free market economy where there is no regulation of who makes what.

  Hegel, Georg German philosopher. His writings on the progress of civilization influenced Marx.

  hegemony The subtle way in which the ruling class persuade the population to accept their view of the world as right and natural.

  idealist philosopher One who believes there is a divine force of some kind that is responsible for the development of the ideas and beliefs of mankind.

  ideology World view. The perception that people have of the world around them.

  imperialism Economic and political domination of one society by another.

  Industrial Revolution Term used by historians to describe the development of industry, and the factory system that began in Britain around 1750.

  labour Work done to add value to raw materials.

  labour power The strength and skill of the worker.

  laissez-faire Unplanned and uncontrolled capitalism without any kind of government intervention.

  Lenin Russian Communist leader. Inaugurated the dictatorship of the proletariat.

  Little Red Book Popular name for The Thoughts of Chairman Mao. Millions of copies of this book with its distinctive red cover were distributed around the world.

  manifesto A public statement of aims and policy.

  Mao Zedong (Tse-tung) (1893–1976) Founder member of the Chinese Communist Party, he became head of state, or chairman, in 1949.