History
Abstract
Karl Marx observed the large gap between workers’ and serfs’ quality of life compared to the aristocrats running European countries from France to Russia. He theorized that viewing workers as commodities necessary to produce profits was causing deep angry feelings of alienation in the working class. The pamphlet written by Marx and Engel called The Communist Manifesto (1849). Marx’s work grew from Hegel’s theories about alienation in order to apply to society in the decade of the 1840s (Panich & Leys, 1998). Contemporary authors have determined that the feelings of alienation in 1848 were similar to what people are feeling today (Eagleton, 2011). An argument can be made that that the same problem is seen today due to the gap between the 1% rich elite and the rest of society. Therefore the theories that Marx produced and that were presented in The Communist Manifesto (Marx & Engels, 1949) are as relevant today as during his lifetime. Marx thought that better laws for workers would naturally grow from democratic governments, but so far that is not the case.
In 1848 when The Communist Manifesto was published, Europe was experiencing the beginning of a revolutionary movement against aristocratic regimes. The aristocracy was ruling European countries from France to Russia. The working class wanted change and the Russian serfs were ready for equal rights instead of serfdom, which was like slavery. Marx evaluated how capitalism had impacted the working classes from the time of the Industrial Revolution to his contemporary times (Marx & Engels, 1848).
Eagleton (2011) explained that the feelings of alienation experienced now were also happening when The Communist Manifesto was written. Alienation was blamed on turning people into commodities used to make a profit (Eagleton, 2011). Marx’s theory methodically showed how capitalism, slavery, and feudalism were all different types of industrial production models (Riazanov, 1996). All three models followed certain rules of production that could be explained and then compared with Marx’s theories.
The view of Marx was that the inequalities workers and their families made them angry and caused revolutions. The manifesto viewed history as a history of class struggles. Marx and Engel expected socialism to replace capitalism, because it seemed logical to them. The Working class in the industries were termed the proletariat who were struggling to have rights from the bourgeoisie the owners of the means of production and that the workers would be included into an equal society. Marx explained the failure of fairness towards workers; ". . . that all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labour in each country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working classes of different countries;” (Marx & Engels, 1848 cited in Riazanov, 1996, p. 1).
The reason The Communist Manifesto pamphlet was written was because London workers wanted Marx and Engels to write a pamphlet showing support for the workers. The workers knew that Marx was a political revolutionist intellectual; he was both a sociologist and an economist. Marx was German and took the theory of G.W.F. Hegel’s (a German philosopher) theory into the modern times by explaining how man had become alienated from himself when man began to become conscious of the material world (Osborne, 1898).
Marx’s theories were written down and published with the help of Engels (Riaznov, 1996. In that way the world became aware of the theories. Political parties in England, German, and France as well as the Russian Communist Party incorporated his ideas into their party planks (Riaznov, 1996). Economists have wondered for many years why the same thing did not happen in the USA. Lipset and Marks (2000) argue that Marx’s theories did not become part of American politics because no national labor party was ever formed.
According to Eagleton many people report that Marxism is dead because factories, mines and the “widespread misery and massed working classes” do not even exist anymore (Eagleton, 2011, p. 1). The Marxism is dead camp argue that the West is not divided into classes and the modern era is “post-industrial” (Eagleton, 2011, p. 1). On the other hand, factories and mines are still supplying consumer goods and raw materials even though they may not be located mainly in the ‘developed world’. Globalism is brought up as a point proving that Marxism has no relevance but I argue they are wrong.
The main argument I propose is the fact that in the U.S. alone only 1% of the citizens hold more of the capital assets than the rest of the citizens. In fact the middle class is continuing to sink into poverty. Marx proposed that problems workers faced were not confined to and economic or geographic issues but in fact must be seen as a social problem. The problem Marx observed how division of labor broke connections between workers locally, regionally and nationally. He recommended that the union of workers be mended by “the emancipation of labour” (Riaznov, 1996, p. 1).
Therefore a revolutionary attitude was in the air when The Communist Manifesto was published because people desired for revolutionary changes. The strong discontent felt by people was targeted towards the rich elites who were working them to a bone to make a profit. The same social environment can be observed today as can be seen on the evening news because protests are taking place in the USA and Europe. People want to be paid a fair living wage. In the USA workers have been calling for an increased minimum wage for many years. Some states have raised minimum wage by a a small amount (Morath, 2017).
Marx reasoned that capitalism would give way to socialism. Marx thought that as democracies were formed the next logical step was to implement socialism with laws made by legislative congresses in each country (Osborne, 1898). However the transformation of socialism envisioned by Marx did not appear in his period and we must wait to see what will happen in our contemporary times.
References
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Eagleton, T. (2011). Why Marx was right. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lipset, S.M. & Marks, G. W. (2000). Why Socialism Failed in the United States: It didn’t happen here. NYC, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.
Marx, K. & Engels, F. (2014; 1848). The Communist Manifesto: The original authoritative edition. Translated by S. Moore and F. Engels, 1888. Moscow, Russia: Progress Publishers. Retrieved from Marxists Internet Archive (2010) https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
Morarth, E. (2016). Minimum Wages Set to Increase in Many States in 2017. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/minimum-wages-set-to-increase-in-many-states-in-2017-1483093806
Osborne, P. (1998). “Remember the Future? The Communist Manifesto as Historical and Cultural Form” In Leo Panich & Colin Leys (eds.). The Communist Manifesto Now: Socialist Register Vol. 34. Finland: WSOY pp. 190-204. Retrieved from http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5706#.WGuGkRt96DI
Panich, L., & Leys, C. (eds.). The Communist Manifesto Now: Socialist Register Vol. 34. Finland: WSOY. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/riazanov/works/1927-ma/index.htm
Riazanov, L. (1996; 1937). “The Constitution of the First International,” Chapter VIII, In Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: An Introduction to their Lives and Work. Translated by Joshua Kunitz. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/riazanov/works/1927-ma/ch08.htm
