HCJ-Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a revolutionary German economist, and philosopher, and the founder of the communist movement. H made economics central to the understanding of human life and the motive power of history. For Aristotle man is the rational animal, for plato the political animal, for Kant the moral animal, for Hegel the historic animal. For Marx man is the productive animal.

Marx saw history as the story of class struggles, in which the oppressed fight against their oppressors. According to Marx, as history unfolded, the victory of one class would pave the way for the future freedom of the rest of society. "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle"

Marx viewed the unfolding process of history as follows:
First in ancient and mediaeval society the landed and wealthy had oppressed the slaves and the poorest plebeians and labourers.
Then, as new technologies were invented and market forces grew stronger, everything changed. The middle classes - gaining wealth and power from trade and manufacture - challenged the power and authority of the old rulers.
But at this stage a new struggle was formed between the bourgeoisie (the property owning class) and the proletariat (the industrial working class).

The story between classes is always similar, two classes will be locked in a life and death struggle and the state will be there EITHER as the actual means that one class dominates another or as a broker between two classes neither of which is on its own strong enough to gain full control of the state.

Marx argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat as the products created in the factory (the material outcome of the workers' labour) were sold for more than the value of the labour itself. Therefore, the work carried out by the proletariat created great wealth for the capitalist.

The wealth of the bourgeoisie depended on the work of the proletariat, which shows that capitalism requires an underclass. Marx believed that the continued exploitation of the underclass would create great resentment and eventually the proletariat would lead a revolution against the bourgeoisie. The final struggle would lead to the overthrow of capitalism and its supporters.

Following the defeat of capitalism, a new classless society would emerge based on the idea: 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs'. In such a society, land, industry, labour and wealth would be shared between all people. All people would have the right to an education, and class structures would disappear.