Marx's Views on Capitalism and the Proletariat

Serfdom and Capitalism

• In the feudal system, serfs owned the tools they used but owed labor to the landlord, paid high interest, and couldn't move.
• In capitalism, the division of labor is between the proletariat (those without the means of production) and the bourgeoisie.

Marxist Theory

• Marx saw capitalism as the last stage in humanity's "prehistory" that would be overthrown by a revolution of the proletariat.
• The proletariat would not suddenly acquire revolutionary aspirations due to their position in the relations of production.
• Organization through a party, trade union, or international became important in socialist thought.
• Marx distinguished two historical phases in the struggle to create a society of associated producers:
  • The first phase would be initiated by the "revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat," which represented workers' democracy but still carried the "defects" of capitalist class society.
  • The second phase, the phase of communism, would shift from "each according to his possibilities" to "each according to his needs" and abolish the system of wage labor.

Paris Commune

• The Paris Commune was a 71-day uprising from March 18, 1871, to the Bloody Week of May 21-28, 1871, during which the revolt was put down.
• The Commune rejected the installation of the newly elected government and wanted direct democracy in its place.
• The Commune and its violent suppression had a significant international impact, particularly within the labor movement and emerging revolutionary movements.

Early Socialist Movements

• The Conspiracy of Equals (la Conjuration des Égaux) tried to revive revolutionary aspirations in 1796 by staging a coup with the aim of confiscating all wealth and introducing general equality.
• Babeuf demanded the complete abolition of private property and thus wanted to introduce economic equality.
• The agrarian socialism that Babeuf and Maréchal advocated had a great deal of influence in the first half of the 19th century.

Robert Owen and Utopian Socialism

• Robert Owen, a self-educated businessman, developed the idea that social reform could go hand in hand with efficiency, productivity, and profits.
• Owen organized education for children, set up day care for children under five, provided workers with decent housing, better food, and clothing.
• Marx labeled this kind of thinking as utopian socialism, which was grounded in moral, religious, or humanitarian beliefs and did not rise above the intuitively desirable.

Racism and Women's Movement

• Women, white and black, were very active in the anti-slavery movement and played a crucial role in the organization of the Underground Railroad.
• Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave, criticized the 'white' domination of the women's movement in her speech Ain't I a woman? (1851).
• Racism in the US did not disappear after the abolition of slavery by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

Marx and Scientific Socialism

• Marx was inspired by three main influences: economic theories, early socialism, and the philosophy of Hegel.
• Marx argued that the basis of value (the price) was labor.
• Marx labeled his own theory as scientific socialism because the categories he used were grounded in the material context of actually existing societies.