Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a philosopher, liberal economist, German revolutionary and one of the founders of scientific socialism . Marx’s work influenced Sociology, Economics, History and even Pedagogy.
Biography
Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in the city of Treviris, Germany, in the middle of an accommodated family.
He first joined the University of Bonn and later transferred to Berlin to study law. He would abandon the course to dedicate himself to the study of Philosophy at the same institution.
There, he would suffer the influence of the Young Hegelians who especially criticized religion and the State.
In 1842, working at the newspaper ” Gazeta Renana ” he met Friedrich Engels, with whom he would write and edit countless books. Later, the gazette is closed and Marx goes to Paris.
He also marries the daughter of a baron, Jenny Von Westaphalien, with whom he would have seven children and of whom only three would reach adulthood.
He also had a son with the socialist and employee militant, Helena Demuth. The child’s paternity would be assumed by Engels.
The following years would not be easy, as Marx led publications that strongly criticized the German government. He was expelled from France and Belgium at the request of the German government.
Thanks to a fundraiser made by his admirers and friends, Marx leaves for London where he continues his investigations.
Karl Marx is sick with an inflammation in his throat that prevents him from speaking and eating normally. As a result of bronchitis and respiratory problems, he died in London on 14 March 1883.
Works and Theories
With the collaboration of the intellectual, also German, Friedrich Engels , Marx published the Communist Manifesto .
This occurred on the eve of the 1848 Revolution in France, the so-called Spring of the Peoples ,
In it, Marx criticizes capitalism , exposes the history of the workers’ movement and ends with the call for the union of workers worldwide.
In 1867, he published his most important work, Capital , where he summarized his criticisms of the capitalist economy.
This collection would cause in the following decades a revolution in the way of thinking about economics, sociology and other social and human sciences.
Criticism of Capitalism
For Marx, economic conditions and the class struggle are agents that transform society.
The ruling class never wants the situation to change, because it is in a very comfortable situation. Disadvantaged people, on the other hand, have to fight for their rights and this struggle is what would move history, according to Marx.
Marx thought that the triumph of the proletariat would bring about a classless society. This would be achieved by the union of the working class organized around a revolutionary party.
He also defends the “ added value ” when he explains that the boss’s profit is obtained from the exploitation of the worker’s labor.
Scientific Socialism
In developing a theory about social inequalities and proposing a way to overcome them, Marx created what was called: ” scientific socialism “.
Against the capitalist order and bourgeois society, Marx considered the political action of the workers, the socialist revolution, to bring about a new society inevitable.
Initially, state control by the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialization of the means of production would be installed, eliminating private property.
In the next stage, the goal would be communism, which would represent the end of all social and economic inequalities, including the dissolution of the state itself.
In 1864, in order to combine efforts, the “International Workers’ Association” was founded in London, which later became known as the First International .
The entity expanded throughout Europe, grew a lot and ended up divided, after a long process of internal dissidents. In 1876, it was officially dissolved.
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Marxism
The workers’ reactions to the effects of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to critics who proposed social reformulations. They suggested creating a more just world and were called socialist theorists .
Among the various thinkers, the most famous socialist theorist was the German Karl Marx, with a stint in France and England. Marx witnessed the social changes resulting from industrialization.
Influence of Marxism
Karl Marx’s theories influenced the Russian Revolution of 1917 , in addition to theorists and politicians, among them:
- Lenin
- Stalin
- Trotsky
- Rosa Luxembourg
- Che Guevara
- Mao Zedong
Each of them understood the Marxist theory and tried to adapt it to their specific reality. Thus, we have “Marxism-Lenism”, “dark socialism”, etc.
There were several governments that proclaimed themselves socialists such as the USSR, Cuba, North Korea, among many others.
Marx Quotes
- “Philosophers have limited themselves to interpreting the world in different ways; what matters is to change it.”
- “Economic production and the social organization that results from it, necessarily for each time in history, form the basis of the political and intellectual history of that time”.
- “The history of society to this day is the history of the class struggle”.
- “Men make their own history, but they do not make it under circumstances of their choosing, but under those they face directly, bequeathed and passed on by the past.”
- “Without a shadow of a doubt, the capitalist’s will is to fill his pockets as much as he can. And what we have to do is not digress about his will, but to investigate his power, the limits of that power and the character of those limits. “.
Historical Context: Summary
Major economic, political and social transformations took place in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
All these changes were accompanied by theories and doctrines that sought to condemn or reform the bourgeois capitalist order.
Then socialist theories were structured , linked to a new branch of science, political economy.
England was the place where this change most occurred. The country acquired a new social configuration with industrialization and the rural exodus that provided the labor of factories in the cities.
There was no labor legislation, the working hours in the factories, installed in unhealthy places, were mostly over 14 hours. Misery was increasing in cities.
In addition to subhuman working conditions, workers faced enormous difficulties in times of war. In this period, hunger was spreading across the European continent, as a result of the high price of foodstuffs.
Even more serious was the effect caused by the increasing use of machines in the production process. As a result, human labor was subject to receiving less and less remuneration.
Discontent only increased, as the reasons for the conflicts grew, foreshadowing a social revolution.
The first labor organizations appeared, the trade unions , which sought to organize the struggles of the working classes, being seen as criminal organizations by the industrialists.