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Introduction to IRCommunism
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Communism
At most basic level: It may definedas an ideology that seeks to create
human equality by eliminating private
property and market forces.As a political theory and ideology
can be traced back to the German
philosopher Karl Marx(1818-1883)
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Karl Marx
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HOMO LABOURANS
Materialistic interpretation of History.
Human beings are not essentially rational creatures, or children ofgod, or political animals. By contrast, human beings are not
essentially anything; they are what they doand what they do is
work to derive a life for themselves from the world around them.
Everything about them, including their consciousness of
themselves and their understanding of nature and their belief in
God is a direct product of what they physically do in their dailylives. For Marx, the human beings is homo laborans [a working
human].
Thus, for Marx alienation is a physical and psychological
condition which arises out of the conditions of modern work.
Since the worker does not own what he produces, since he livesas an extension of the machine, since he hates what he does, then
the worker does not own his own life, he is in a basic sense simply
a human machine.
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surplus value of labor
Starts with a simple observation; humanbeings are able to creat objects of value byinvesting their own time and labor in theircreation.
o surplus value of labor Stays with the object and can be useful to
anyone apart from market
An opportunityfor those with politicalpower; to extract the surplus value at littlecostto enrich themselves by usingcoercionto acquire them
While impoverishingothers
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For Marx:
Worldunderstood properly in economicterms
That all human action flowed from therelationship between the haves andhaves-not
Structures are important, in makinghuman history
Based on base and superstructure Base;system of economic production,
level of technology and kind of classrelations
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false consciousness
Superstructure:represents all humaninstitutions-politics and state, nationalidentity and culture, religion and gender
Createdessentially to justify and
continue the existing order Consequentlypeople suffer from false
consciousness Meaning:belief that they(the people)
understood the true nature of the worldaround them but in reality they aredeluded by the superstructureimposed by capitalism
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The True Picture
if you ask a good liberal, like me, for a descriptionand justification of, say, Liberal Studies, I wouldgive you all sorts of labels like Critical Thinking,learning community, friendship, general skills,learning for its own sake, the pursuit of truth, andso on. For the Marx those are simply the "official"
veil thrown over the economic realities by the rulingclass. What is really going on at the material level isthat, for example, students are being forced to carryout obediently a series of meaningless tasks, tomeet deadlines, to comply with authority, to writeofficial standard prose, to come to classes on time,
to sit passively through boring lectures in freezingrooms--in short they are being required to turnthemselves into people eminently well suited for acareer as a mindless servant of the capitalistsystem and to call this a valuable education
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Marx and Revolution:
Human history developed in specificphases
Driven by particular nature ofexploitation; build around existing levelof technologyavailable
For Example: early agrarian societies,feudalismwas the dominant political
and economic order; availabletechnologywas used to tie theindividuals to the land so that their laborcould be exploited by the aristocracy
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Cont
The relationshipbetween the haves andhaves- notis stable, but the technologyitself isdynamic
Changes in technologywould increasetensionsbetween the rulers and ruled,as new
from of technology empowered new groups whoclashed with the base and superstructure
Again, in case feudalism, emergingtechnologyempowered an early capitalist,property owning middle class or bourgeoisie,
whose members sought political powerforthemselves and remakingof the economic andsocial orderin a way that better fits capitalistambitions
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dialectical materialism
This tensionwould lead torevolution; those in power would beoverthrown, a new ruling class would
come to power This change would be sudden and
violent,and would pave the way fornew economic base and
superstructure Termed as dialectical materialism
Revolutionscome about as a result
of this tensionbetween the
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Marxs Conclusion:
On this basis, the capitalist democracy,which has displaced feudalism, woulditself be overthrown by its internalflaws
As capitalism developed, competitionbetween firms would intensify Working classwould find itself on the
loosingend of this process and firms
introducemore and more technologyto reduce the number of workers Similarly, unprofitable businesses
would began to go bankruptin the face
of intense competition
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Cont
The bourgeoisiewould grow smallerand wealth concentratedin fewer
hands
Large monopolies would come todominate the economy
Wages of the working class would
declinein the face of competition andranks of unemployedwould swell
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gain consciousness
Alienated and driven to desperation bythese conditions, proletariat would gainconsciousness
Realizing the true source of their
povertyand rise up inrebellion Seizing control of state and economy Marx, saw this phenomena not as a
national but as an international one When the conditions are right,
revolutionwill spread all over thecapitalist world, in a short period oftime
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dictatorship of the
proletariat Temporary dictatorship of the proletariat During which , last vestiges of capitalist, the
old remnants of the superstructure, wouldbe swept away
After the elimination of the capitalistinstitutions, the institutions of the statewouldwither away
Their would be no need for laws and police,armies and flags
As people would be united in equalityratherthan blinded by the falseconsciousnessofnationalism
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Age of communism
People would live in stateless word Exploitation and class strugglewould
come to an end Marx: only then one can speak of
communism(which is why communist parties speak
of their countries as being socialist,since they were still controlled by the
state) For communists, socialism is a
transition phase;an outcome whereprivate property no longer exists
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"Religion is the opium of the
people." Religion, for example, is an invaluable tool in keeping the
toiling dissatisfied masses persuaded that their harsh
conditions are ordained by God; liberal democracy is an
invaluable means of persuading the people that they are
"free," that in the "progressive unrolling of the historical
development of freedom" they are precisely where they
ought to be and have no right to complain, that in the
concept of "progress" they are on the right track, and so on.
To the extent that capitalism can persuade people that free
speech is an essential duty, it will further persuade them to
purchase newspapers full of advertisements which will be
important stimulus to a more energetic participation incapitalism itself.