Marx- A Complete Introduction

by Gill Hands

  Case study: Max Weber, Class and Social Theory

  Marx is seen as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of social theory (broadly defined as the study of the way people interact with each other in society) and his definition of class in relation to the means of production is still seen as important. However, there are other ways of looking at class and society. Max Weber (1864–1920), who along with Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) is also seen as one of the founders of social theory, viewed class in a slightly different way.

  Like Marx, Weber was a German and studied German society, but unlike Marx he did not believe that class could be defined solely in relation to the ownership of capital, for example he saw that many of the aristocracy wielded political power but did not have much money, whereas many wealthy industrialists lacked political power and status in society even though they had vast reserves of capital. Weber was not interested, as Marx was, in discovering the rules and historical imperatives of the class system, he was more interested in the role of the individual and the influence of culture on class. He viewed society as an interplay between the hierarchies of class, status and power; this became known as Weberian Stratification or the Three Class System.

  Weber’s idea of class is similar to that of Marx in that it relates to economic position in society, but it differs in that Marx defined anyone who has to sell their labour power in order to survive as a member of the proletariat. Weber saw that there are many people in high management positions who control the outcomes of companies even if they do not actually own the company themselves; are these high-earning individuals really in the same class as impoverished labourers?

  Weber’s model is the basis of the main modern concept of social class that divides Western society into an upper class of the wealthy and powerful, a middle class of small business owners, professional and managerial workers and a lower class of those dependent on poorly paid often menial jobs for their income.

  Workers’ power and education

  Although the dialectical view of history states that capitalism will eventually bring about its own downfall, Marx did not think that it would happen automatically without anyone having to do anything. Although he was a great philosopher, he did not just talk idly of class struggle, he was also actively involved in the workers’ movement, especially in his early life. Exiled in Paris he met with workers and was impressed by their character and strength; this led to his involvement with the League of the Just and the Communist League.

  There were very few properly organized workers’ groups in London when Marx moved there. Many of them had to be very secretive for fear of reprisals; anyone seen to be causing problems within the workplace was likely to be dismissed at the very least. But there were some movements towards change in society that had large elements of worker involvement.

  THE CHARTISTS

  Taking its name from the Peoples’ Charter of 1838, this was a movement for political change in Britain. Although the Reform Act of 1832 had given many more people the vote in Britain, it was still true that most of them were middle-class property owners. Those who did not own property were not allowed to vote. From a modern-day perspective, this seems patently absurd and gives the lie to the idea that there is a long history of democracy in Britain. The Chartists were in favour of universal male suffrage: every man over 21 should be allowed a vote. Women were not even considered as voters, again this is something that seems absurd today, especially as many of the Chartists were women, including Engels’ partner Mary Burns. The Chartists were a very diverse group, made up from many organizations and from many areas of society, but many were workers. At one rally it was estimated that 300,000 people attended and their weekly paper, the Northern Star, regularly sold 30,000 copies a week. Marx was very impressed by one of their leaders, Ernest Jones, and regularly wrote for his ‘People’s Paper’.

  Although Chartism eventually petered out, the fact that there had been riots and demonstrations showed the feeling of the workers in the country and their desire to change the system. They could see that there was strength in numbers and value in being able to work together for a cause.

  TRADE UNIONS

  Trade unions developed out of trade guilds in the Middle Ages, but during the Industrial Revolution they began to grow in strength and to represent a wider range of the workforce. They did not become legal in Britain until 1871, and so they were not a very powerful force before then as many workers were afraid to join. They were also rather elitist as they tended to represent craftsmen and not the unskilled. In continental Europe many trade union members were revolutionaries, but in Britain they were more moderate and worked alongside the Chartists in trying to get the vote.

  Many modern-day Marxists are very disparaging about trade unions, believing they are part of the system, only negotiating for higher wages and not an instrument for change. Marx was not against unions, for he believed that a ‘combination’ of workers was the way forward; he hoped that if they became educated they would concentrate on changing the system, by demanding an abolition of the wages system, and not just improving it.

  The Communist League and class struggle

  The Communist Manifesto was written by Marx and Engels in 1848 as a platform for the Communist League, a workingman’s association. The Communist League had developed out of the League of the Just; originally it consisted of only German members. At first it contained numerous anarchists whose idea was to destroy the factory system by violent means and return to an agricultural and small craft society. Marx and Engels took on the task of re-organizing the Communist League; there were numerous disagreements with the anarchists, who eventually formed their own societies. Marx believed it was important for the ideas of the League to be spread around the world and eventually the Communist Manifesto was translated into many languages.

  The Communist Manifesto was an appeal to the workers and it is one of Marx’s most direct pieces of writing. The beginning describes the rise of the capitalist system and the class differences between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Marx then describes the future of the class struggle and its importance to the liberation of the worker.

  He described how dissatisfaction with working conditions and poor wages meant that workers clubbed together to form trade unions, to keep up the rates of wages and to plan revolts against capitalist domination. He noted that sometimes the revolts would turn into violent riots that, though successful locally, did not benefit the proletariat as a class. The benefit of these revolts was not in the result of the action taken but in the way in which the workers had grouped together to form unions. Marx thought unions would keep expanding and this would be helped by modern forms of communication like the railways.

  In Marx’s time contacts among groups could be made locally and eventually the numerous local struggles could be centralized to become a national struggle between the classes. Eventually, an international struggle would take place. Marx was ahead of his time in understanding the importance of modern technology and communications to the revolutionary cause. Today the internet, mobile phones and all kinds of social media are vital tools for the organization of any anti-establishment groups.

  The proletariat needed to become better organized and stop any in-fighting between different factions. This would make them stronger and able to take advantage of divisions among the bourgeoisie. Eventually a revolution would occur, for only a revolution could overthrow a system that was spreading its tentacles all over the world.

  The International Workingmen’s Association

  Until the formation of the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864 there had been no real co-ordination between workers in the various capitalist economies that existed throughout the world. The First International, as it became known, was the first attempt to bring international workers together to fight a common cause. Any workers’ groups that had previously existed tended to be secretive because of the risk of reprisals from the bourgeois capitalist class, so they attracted mostly radical cons
pirators. It was also true, as Marx pointed out, that the majority of the workforce accepted their exploitation as being natural. For this reason the majority of workers did not even belong to workers’ associations in their own countries, let alone international ones.

  Another barrier to international co-operation at this time was that there was little solidarity between citizens of the countries that made up Europe. For most of the Industrial Revolution, various countries within Europe had been at war with each other, or suffering civil war and revolution. Existing workers’ associations focused on local issues. For example, in Germany they had become active under the leadership of Lassalle but confined their protests to their own country. In France the revolution had made the government grudgingly tolerant of the workers; fear of another revolution, driven by worker dissatisfaction, led to trade associations being allowed. These were under strict government supervision and regulated by the police in case they got out of hand. It was a meeting of these French trade associations and British trade unionists that forged the first link in the chain that led to the formation of the International.

  The Great Exhibition of Modern Industry in 1863 was a showcase for British capitalist endeavour and drew in visitors from around the world. Among these were French labour leaders who came in an official delegation sent by the French emperor, Napoleon III. They met up with English labour leaders from the London Trades’ Council to discuss tactics that could be used during strikes, the use of blackleg labour from abroad, wages, hours and pay. Following this meeting, they decided to form an association that would do more than just discuss the issues but would enable them to actively work together co-operatively on political and economic issues.

  The first meeting took place in London in September 1864 and was chaired by Edward Beesly, a professor of Ancient History who was also a radical. Marx became involved because he was a well-known German émigré and activist. He was asked if he knew anyone to be a spokesman for the German workers and he recommended Georg Eccarius, a tailor who he had assisted with the publication of articles on conditions in London tailoring shops. Marx attended the first meeting to support Eccarius but by the end of the evening he had been co-opted onto the committee.

  It is often said by Marx’s critics that he was not concerned with the reality of workers’ lives and preferred to sit in his ivory tower writing, but his involvement with the International shows this is not the case. It is true he had a difficult and forceful personality and often fell out with his fellow members in the society, but he did work extremely hard to organize and support workers during his time at the International. This was in addition to his research and writing for Das Kapital and it brought him to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, even though it did not bring in any more money for his family.

  Spotlight

  Marx and Engels both became members of the International because it was a cause they believed in, but at the same time they realized that they were not workers themselves and hesitated to take office on the committee. However, when Marx saw the proposed constitution of the International, he decided to become more involved for he believed he could do a much better job!

  He drew up the rules and principles and wrote the inaugural address which, after the Communist Manifesto, is one of the greatest appeals that he made to the workers. The inaugural address began with a survey of economic and social conditions since 1848, contrasting the lives of property owners with those of the workers. Marx likened capitalists to vampires who sucked the blood of children and sacrificed them in order to keep the economy going and described how working families starved in the midst of plenty. He wrote that although 1848 had been a year when revolution might have occurred throughout Europe, it had been thwarted, but that this meant the workers had since seen how they could work together as instruments of force. Since then, they had joined together to limit the length of the working day, but this was not enough. Co-operation would not be enough to stop the growth of the monopoly of capitalism and free the masses.

  Marx finished with an appeal for the workers to realize that their vast numbers alone were not enough to make any difference: ‘numbers weigh in the balance only if united by combination and led by knowledge’. The address ended with the powerful words that had concluded the Communist Manifesto, ‘Working men of all countries, unite!’

  The aims of the International were set out in the rules:

  • to establish close relations between workers in various countries and trades

  • to collect relevant statistics

  • to inform workers in one country of conditions, needs and plans of workers in another

  • to discuss questions of common interest

  • to co-ordinate simultaneous action in all countries in cases of international crisis

  • to publish frequent reports.

  ‘… the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves, that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule …’

  Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The International Workingmen's Association General Rules, October 1864

  http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1864/rules.htm

  The First International recruited many members and set up branches in Italy and Spain but it was eventually disbanded. One of the main problems was that workers from different countries wanted different things and came from different backgrounds. They did not even have a common aim, for although some of the members wanted revolution, some wanted to gain rights by peaceful means and they could not agree on how the campaign for workers’ rights should be conducted. On the whole, the French were mainly Utopian Socialists and disliked trade unions, and the majority of the British contingent were trade unionists who were not interested in revolution. Even workers from the same country could not agree on aims and objectives; for example, many of the French were followers of Proudhon but many were revolutionaries. The eventual crisis that led to the downfall of the International was a result of personal animosity between Marx and Bakunin, but was really inevitable given that it was the first organization of its kind and that patriotism is such a strong issue for many people. Possibly, it is an example of the internal contradictions that Marx was so fond of writing about.

  Is revolution inevitable?

  Marx developed his views on revolution throughout his lifetime but on the whole he was in favour of revolution, although he did not believe it would necessarily have to be violent. At the conference of the International he addressed these words to the government, ‘we will proceed against you by peaceful means where it is possible and with arms when it is necessary’.

  The conclusion he drew from his dialectical study of society was that revolution was not only desirable but also inevitable because of the internal conflicts inherent in capitalism. According to Marx, these polar opposites could not exist together in a stable society; dialectical theory would mean that the proletariat must overthrow the bourgeoisie.

  ‘The history of all hitherto existing societies has been the history of class struggle’, he said in the Communist Manifesto. He believed that a better society could then be built, a society based on the principles of communism. A communist society would not be able to be built straight after a revolution, but would develop over time, after initial stages of socialism.

  Marx was not the first to believe that society should be improved; many of his ideas were developed from those of the Utopian Socialists such as Robert Owen and Fourier. They had criticized the capitalist system and shown how inhumane and oppressive it was. They believed in a socialist society where there was common ownership of the means of production. Where Marx differed from them was in the choice of method that would bring about this society. The Utopians believed reason was the best way to bring about a change in the views of society. They set up model communities and factories where hours were regula
ted; workers were treated fairly and given access to education, good homes and nourishing food. They believed these examples of philanthropy would be enough to bring about change in society.

  Marx agreed with the humanitarian changes which were made, but thought that good housing, medical care, education and wage reforms did not get to the root of the problem, which was the exploitation of one class by another. If the economic base of society is the real source of the conflicts within it, no amount of workers’ benefits will resolve the problem. The contradictions within the capitalist system will continue to accumulate. Change will only come about when workers take over factories, mines and banks by force.

  ‘The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force.’

  Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 1843 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/ critique-hpr/intro.htm

  Another reason Marx believed in inevitability of revolution was his view of the state. He was the first to realize that ‘the state’ is not an impartial body that works for the benefit of everybody in society. Most materialist philosophers, including Hegel, viewed the state as a part of the natural order that was necessary to the working of society. Marx believed the state exists to protect the ruling class and suppress those who produce wealth for them. For example, in feudal societies laws were made in favour of the land-owning classes. Trespassing and poaching were often punished severely, even by death. In a capitalist society laws are passed which curb the power of trade unions and the media is controlled by the rich, who can use it to attack anyone who upsets the status quo. These factors make it even more likely that revolution must take place against the vested interests in capitalism. The state will try to block any peaceful or non-confrontational changes that undermine its powers of suppression.