Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Basic Economics Part Four
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Karl Marx (1818-
Marx was born in the city of Trier in the Rhine province of Prussia, now in Germany.
He was the oldest surviving boy of nine children. Both parents were Jewish and were
descended from a long line of rabbis, but, a year or so before Karl was born, his
father, Heinrich -
Karl was baptized when he was six years old. As a youth, Karl was influenced less by religion than by the critical, sometimes radical social policies of the Enlightenment.
His Jewish background exposed him to prejudice and discrimination that may have led him to question the role of religion in society and contributed to his desire for social change.
Publishing the Communist Manifesto
In The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote
that in less than a century the capitalist system had created “more massive and more
colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.”
They also wrote that it was “like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.”
Blueprint of Socialist Doctrine
The Manifesto was the first systematic statement of modern socialist doctrine. It says it is the economic system that decides what form of social organization will dominate; and that the history of society is a history of struggles between the exploiting and exploited, that is, between ruling and oppressed social classes.
Marx concluded in the Manifesto that the capitalist class would be overthrown and
that it would be eliminated by a worldwide working-
The Manifesto influenced all subsequent communist literature and revolutionary thought generally; it has been translated into many languages and published in hundreds of millions of copies.
Marx went to live in England in 1849 after being expelled from Germany and France for revolutionary activities. There, he devoted himself to studying and writing, and to efforts to build an international communist movement.
Das Kapital Published
During this period he wrote a number of works that are regarded as classics of communist theory. These include his greatest work, Das Kapital, a systematic and historical analysis of the economy of the capitalist system of society. In the book he developed the theory that the capitalist class exploits the working class by seizing the “surplus value” produced by the working class.
Marx’s influence during his life was not great. After his death it increased with the growth of the labour movement. Marx’s ideas and theories came to be known as Marxism, or scientific socialism, which constitutes one of the principal currents of contemporary political thought.
When the Russian Revolution of 1919 (above) brought communists to power, it looked as though Marx’s theories were going to get a practical workout.
However, the leaders of the revolution and those who followed quickly corrupted Marxism beyond recognition. The experiment in social and economic equality became another system for oppressing the masses and maintaining a privileged group in power.
Fellow Communist Thinker
Marx’s colleague Friedrich Engels (left), also was a German revolutionary political
economist.
Like Marx, Engels was a member of the upper middle class. His family were textile manufacturers in the Ruhr and, much wealthier than the Marx family.
Engels spent most of his life in England, in Manchester, where he combined revolutionary thought with the supervision of the local branch of the family firm.
In a Manchester, England textile firm between 1842 and 1844, Engels came into contact with Chartism, the movement for extension of suffrage (the vote) to workers.
Pitfalls of private property
Engels wrote and studied political economy, and came to the conclusion that politics and history could be explained only in terms of the economic development of society.
He believed that the social evils of the time were the inevitable result of the institution of private property and could be eliminated only through a class struggle ending in a communist society.
His historical study, Condition of the Working Class in England (1844), established his reputation as a revolutionary political economist.
In Paris, in 1844, Engels visited Marx, who had published works sympathetic to communism. The two men found that they had arrived independently at identical views and worked together until the death of Marx in 1883.
Their aims were to explain communist principles, later known as Marxism, and to organize an international communist movement.
The Communist Manifesto, is regarded as a classic explanation of modern communist views. It was written by Marx, partly on the basis of a draft prepared by Engels.
Engels made what is considered his greatest single contribution to Marxism after the death of Marx by editing, from rough drafts and notes, the second and third volumes of Marx’s Das Kapital.
Sources
Hazlitt, Henry. Economics in One Lesson,Three Rivers Press, 1988.
Henderson, David R, et al, Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
McConnell, Campbell R, Brue, Stanley L. Economics, McGraw Hill
Samuelson, Paul. Economics, McGraw Hill, 1948.
Sloman, John. Essential of Economics, Prentice Hall, 1998
© Canada and the World, November 2010
All rights reserved
DEFINITION
Capital, in economics, generally refers to all productive assets (factories, machinery), or the stock of goods and moneys from which further goods and money are produced.
KARL MARX QUOTES
“Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.”
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
“There is not one single social or economic principle or concept in the philosophy of the Russian Bolshevik (communist) which has not been realized, carried into action, and enshrined in immutable laws a million years ago by the white ant.”
Sir Winston Churchill
“Communism is like Prohibition, it’s a good idea but it won’t work.”
Will Rogers
“Communism might be likened to a race in which all competitors come in first with no prizes.”
Lord Inchcape
COMMUNIST STATES
Currently only four countries:
China
Cuba
Laos
Vietnam
self-
All these are dictatorships.
Two multi-
Cyprus
Nepal
have communist parties in power.