by Gill Hands
MARX
A complete introduction
Gill Hands
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hodder and Stoughton. An Hachette UK company.
First published in US in 2015 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Contents
Introduction
How to use this book
1 Marx’s early life
Europe at the time of Marx
The early life of Marx
University life
Life as a journalist
The Communist Manifesto
Exile
2 Marx’s later life
The move to London
Family life in London
Marx and Engels
Work in London
Das Kapital
The International
The later years
3 Marx and philosophy
A brief history of philosophy
Which philosophers influenced Marx?
Ancient Greek philosophers
European philosophy
Utopian Socialists
Revolutionaries and anarchists
The importance of Hegel and Feuerbach
How did Marx differ from those who went before?
Political economy
What part did Engels play?
4 Economic theory
Dialectical materialism, historical materialism and economy
The capitalist economy
Commodities
Theory of surplus value
Profit and the division of labour
Capitalism in crisis
Falling wages and profits
Social labour
Accumulation and crisis
Centralization of the economy
Was Marx right about the economy?
5 Economy and society
Imperialism and colonialism
Fetishism
Alienation
Exploitation
6 Class, class struggle and revolution
Introduction
The development of capitalist society
Dialectical materialism and class structure
Class in the capitalist society
Ideology
Class struggle
Workers’ power and education
The Communist League and class struggle
The International Workingmen’s Association
Is revolution inevitable?
7 Further Marxist thought
After the revolution
Communist society
Religion
Women’s rights and the family
Art and culture
Freedom and the individual
8 Marxism after Marx – ideas that changed the world
The spread of Marxist thought
The development of socialism
Russian communism
Chinese communism
The Cold War
The decline of communism
Has Marxism failed?
9 Marxism after Marx – the development of Marxist thought
Types of Marxism
Where does Marx fit in?
Is Marxism relevant in the twenty-first century?
The future
Timeline 1750–1917
A summary of Marx’s life
The writings of Karl Marx
Marx on …
Communism
Class
Bourgeoisie
Proletariat
Utopian Socialists
Industrialization
Imperialism
Women
Family
Revolution
Answers to fact checks
Introduction
Karl Marx is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of the last thousand years. Born in Germany in 1818, he was a great philosopher, historian, economist and social theorist. What I find fascinating is that he was not a specialist in any of these areas of expertise but his writing led to revolution and to a total change in the political structure of the world.
Marx lived during a time of great social and industrial change in Europe and this book explains the historical context of his writings, how they led to revolution after his death and the rise and fall of communist states. I am interested in the way society, morals and manners change through the ages. Marx was interested in many of the same factors and his analysis of ideology (the assumptions each society makes about the nature of the world) seems obvious to us today. At the time it was a radical idea to say that people can only think in the way that their language and the concepts handed down to them allow.
Marx became almost a god to those living under communism; I find this ironic as Marx believed that ‘religion … is the opium of the people’. He became a well-known figurehead for the communist world and subject to so much propaganda that details about his life and work are often misunderstood. He is known as the ‘father of communism’, although he did not invent it. The word ‘communist’ came into the English language in 1840, coined by Goodwyn Barmby, the founder of the London Communist Propaganda Society. He derived it from the French word ‘commune’, a description of the social structure that emerged after the French Revolution. However, such is the iconic power of Marx that he will always be identified with the word in p
eople’s minds. It is also the case that many of his sayings have become well known but are often misquoted or misunderstood. People often talk of the ‘bourgeoisie’ or the ‘proletariat’ without knowing exactly what the terms mean. This book is an introduction to his thought and so all terms and jargon are explained in the text.
Despite being an iconic figure Marx was only human, with human weaknesses and prejudices, so he comes across as a rather contradictory character. He had a towering intellect and a volatile, forceful personality, often clashing with other thinkers of his day, but he was a loving family man and father to his children. They lived in poverty for a great deal of their lives because he continued to write about and support a cause he believed in. He wrote vividly about the horrors of the factory system, yet he depended heavily on an industrialist, Friedrich Engels, for financial support in order to write what is considered to be his great masterwork, Das Kapital. This analysis of class structure and the industrial capitalist system took many years of his life and took a toll on his health.
Marx did not live in a vacuum. He was influenced greatly by the German philosophers Georg Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach; by British political economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and by French socialists, including Charles Fourier, Henri de Saint-Simon, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Louis Blanc. Their influence on him is explained in detail in the chapter on philosophy, which shows the development of his own thought processes into a Marxist philosophy.
Marx challenged the received wisdom of his day and prompted questions about the nature of society and class structure. He looked for patterns of development in the history of mankind and used these to understand and comment on the capitalist system. He documented the rise of the industrial revolution and the power of capitalist society. He saw that modern industry had a great potential for improving lives but instead it crushed and impoverished people because it was a tool of a capitalist system that he was deeply critical of. He believed that the capitalist system exploited and alienated those who lived under it, so that money came to rule the lives of both rich and poor. He was one of the first writers to examine the beginnings of the consumer-led society that we now live in and predicted it would spread around the world.
His view of the world was one of class struggle, where one dominant class had come to oppress another. He believed that this could not last and would lead to an inevitable worldwide revolution. This would be followed by the setting up of societies of equals under communism. In the twentieth century this seemed to be a real possibility as more and more countries came under communist rule, but true communism as Marx envisaged it did not follow and many communist states had collapsed by the end of the century.
The fall of communist regimes in many countries has led to doubts about Marx’s relevance in the twenty-first century. He predicted worldwide revolution, which hasn’t happened, and these facts have led to a great discussion over the validity of his theories. Were they only applicable to the time in which he was writing, or are they still applicable? Might a revolution still be a possibility? Did the global financial crisis that came to a head in 2008 show that he was right about the inherent instability of the capitalist system? There are no easy answers to these questions but many of the key facts and ideas are presented in this book to enable the reader to make up his or her own mind.
There is a growing anti-capitalist and ecological movement in response to that last financial crisis associated with fears about the environment. This has led to a reassessment and re-evaluation of much of Marx’s body of work, and debate about Marx and communism has become ‘fashionable’ again.
There are numerous books about Marx that assume the reader already has an understanding of economics and philosophy. Many books are written by academics for other academics, who already know what Marx wrote and wish to discuss the finer points of his ideas in detail. This book aims to give a background to his life and times, an understanding of the key areas of Marx’s thought, and to show how his ideas have affected the world we live in today. It makes more sense if read in order from cover to cover as it follows the development of his thought, although chapters can be read in isolation.
Quotations from Marx are given as examples throughout the text, but in order to have an informed opinion it is vital to read as much original source material as possible. Much of this original work is out of copyright and available to read online, while more recent translations or more obscure pieces of work are also available to buy or borrow. I have given references to online resources where possible because I feel these are more readily available to the majority of readers.
Marx was a prolific writer and there is no way that a book introducing his theories can cover all the points that he made, or attempt to analyse all the arguments for and against what he believed. At the end of each chapter there is a reading list for those who want a deeper understanding of what Marx said and further insight into the philosophical, political and academic arguments that his work has inspired over the last century.
How to use this book
The Key ideas are highlighted throughout the book. If you only have half an hour to go before your exam, scanning through these would be a very good way of spending your time.
The book includes concise Quotes from key sources.These will be useful for helping you understand different viewpoints on the subject, and they are fully referenced so that you can include them in essays if you are unable to get your hands on the source.
The Dig deeper boxes give you ways to explore topics in greater depth than we are able to go to in this introductory level book.
The Fact check questions at the end of each chapter are designed to help you ensure you have taken in the most important concepts from the chapter. If you find you are consistently getting several answers wrong, it may be worth trying to read more slowly, or taking notes as you go.
The Case studies offer background material to a particular idea or example. There is at least one in most chapters, and hopefully they will provide good material for essays and class discussions.
The Spotlight feature offers further interesting or amusing material that will add to your understanding.
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Marx’s early life
In this chapter you will learn:
• about Marx’s personal life and character
• the background to the society in which he lived
• key facts about his early life and career
• about his work on the Communist Manifesto
• why he became an exile.
Europe at the time of Marx
Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818, during a time of rapid social change throughout Europe. There were two main forces for this change. The first was the Industrial Revolution that had started in Britain. This led to the growth of the factory system throughout Europe and to an increase in the size and number of cities. The invention of the steam engine and the spread of the factory system meant that people were beginning to live in a completely different way to their ancestors. In the past, people had lived and worked in closely knit communities and worked in traditional agriculture or as craftsmen. They now began flocking from rural areas into the huge new cities that were beginning to spring up all over Europe.
Agricultural reforms and machinery had increased the efficiency of farms and led to unemployment in rural areas. In addition, landowners took over common rights and grazing areas that had once belonged to everyone under the feudal system. This also increased rural poverty.
The new towns and cities were soon flooded with destitute farmers, craftsmen and their families who were desperate for work under any circumstance. They mainly worked long hours for subsistence wages in factories and mines that were completely unregulated. Even young children laboured for hours with unguarded and dangerous machinery. These unfortunate people lived in appalling conditions: squashed into slum housing with inadequate sanitation, poor food and no clean drinking water. Disease was rife and mortality rates were high.
Sec
ondly, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Napoleonic wars (1799–1815) had led to the downfall of the monarchy and the abolition of feudalism throughout much of Europe. The feudal system was a society where the power of the ruling class, or aristocracy, rested on its control of farmable lands or fiefs. The way these societies worked varied from country to country, but in general the lands were divided out among vassals (free men), who managed them in return for military service on behalf of the aristocracy. The land was then farmed by serfs or peasants, who were not free. Marx believed that this led to a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farmed the lands and his views on this are discussed later in the book.
Marx’s birthplace, Trier in the Rhineland, was then a part of Prussia, in central Europe. Prussia was a large semi-feudal empire that covered what is known today as Germany and parts of what are now Poland and Sweden. Prussia had been invaded on several occasions by the French and Trier had been part of Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine. When Napoleon was eventually defeated and exiled, in 1815, Prussia returned to being a set of kingdoms and principalities ruled by hereditary monarchies. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, state boundaries were redefined and an agreement was drawn up between Prussia, Russia and Austria; this was known as the ‘Holy Alliance’. It was an attempt by the ruling classes to preserve the social order; the aristocracy and landowners were determined to hang on to power now they had regained it.
Prussia was really a very loose patchwork of scattered countries, so it had always had a large army to keep order and had a government-controlled economy. Revolutions were sweeping through most of Europe and fear of these changes led to the Prussian state becoming overly bureaucratic, backward-looking and resistant to trade and industry. The police were particularly powerful as landowners were fearful of the democratic ideals that had led to the French Revolution. There was a deep suspicion of any new ideas, especially those that were seen to be liberal. Many free thinkers, including artists, writers and poets, moved to Paris or Switzerland to escape from this oppressive regime. Most liberal thinkers in Prussia wanted to see a united German state with a democratic constitution. In contrast, the conservatives of the time wanted to keep Germany as separate countries within the Prussian Empire.