Marxism

Marxism

The political discourse and a revolutionary social movement inspired by the work of Marx, Karl. At its most elementary, Marxism is a science of history premised on the view that the economy, or more precisely the mode of production, determines and decides the conditions of existence for all people. There is a utopia dimension to it as well inasmuch as its basic conviction is that the needs of all people should be met by society. In the capitalist mode of production, however, this is impossible because there is a divide between the owners of the means of production and the workers who must sell their labour to survive---the relationship between the two, which Marx refers to as a class struggle, is fundamentally iniquitous in Marx’s view. Marx theorized that once workers became aware of this inequality and the fact that it could not be overcome without making changes to the very mode of production that they would rise up in protest and overturn capitalism and replace it with socialism. History proved him wrong on this last count. The history of Marxism as a revolutionary social movement begins with the founding of the First International in 1864 and to a certain degree ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In between, of course, there were three more Internationals as well as highly successful revolutions in Russia, China, Korea, and Cuba. As a form of political discourse, Marxism has had a varied history---it experienced a major rupture following the Russian Revolution in 1917. Marxist scholars in the western parts of Europe felt cut off from the events in Russia, but also felt defeated by the failure of revolution to occur in their own country. A new form of Marxism, generally known as Western Marxism, emerged at this point and to a certain degree developed independently of the more pragmatic version of Marxism that obtained in the USSR. See also critical theory. Further Reading: D. McLellan Marxism After Marx (2007).

http://www.marxists.org/ • An exhaustive range of resources and information about Marxism which can be searched by subject author or history.

http://www.marxism.org.uk/ • A Socialist Party website that provides an overview of Marxism.