MARXISM

THE HISTORICAL BACKDROP AND INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION OF THE 19TH CENTURY

ANQUILAN, KAREN B. TOPIC NO.2

OBJECTIVES:
• Identify key concepts and approaches in the social
sciences.
• Interpret personal and social experiences using relevant
approaches in the social sciences.
• Analyze social inequalities in terms of class conflict.
• Identify the key theorists on, Marxism.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the approach.
WHAT IS
MARXISM?
• Marxism is a sociological, political, and economic
philosophy that is based on the ideas and theories of Karl
Marx (1818-1883). Before the advent of the Industrial
Revolution, the primary source of livelihood in many
European countries was farming or agriculture-related
work.
 However, much has changed with the rise of factories,
which caused farmers to abandon their fields to become factory
workers. The introduction of machines enabled rapid
advancements in the production process, which allowed faster
market trade and consumption of goods. This development
provided factory owners with profits that enabled them to invest
in factory expansion. This cycle of production and consumption
continued to create an economy, which became known as
industrial capitalism.
Industrial capitalism created two classes in society:

1. Bourgeoisie (the factory owners or capitalists)

The bourgeoisie controls the means of production
(factories, machines, and land),

2. Proletariat (the industrial workers or laborers)

Who does not have access to such means of production,
exchanges labor for wages.
Key Concepts in Marxism:
• Social Inequality
In a capitalist society, oppression and exploitation
are among the social inequalities that exist between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marx argued that the profit
from goods should be equally divided among the laborers
since they are the ones who work to produce such goods. In
some countries, laborers are given low wages and are often
asked to work in terrible working conditions.
 Social injustice is a condition wherein
individuals living in a society experience varying
access to sources of well-being such that one has
greater access than the other. A precondition to this
is the existing mode of production, which is often
controlled by those in power.
 Since the means of production is central to
Marx's sociological perspective, its control denotes
control over society. In other words, those with
economic power have control over the political system
and other institutions of society. Due to this
overwhelming control and power, the bourgeoisie even
takes control over how the proletariat thinks. This idea
is what Marx refers to as ideological control, wherein
the ideas of the ruling class are instilled in society
through the institutions it dominates.
 The ruling class manipulates minds so that the
masses will remain subservient. Ergo, a capitalist society
makes people think that certain goods, which are sold by
capitalists for profit, are necessary for human living and
happiness. The laborers, in turn, would buy these goods
using the wages they received from their employers and the
cycle continues. Marx calls this mindset false class
consciousness, and he believes that it allows the rich to
further exploit the masses.
• Class Conflict

Class conflict or class struggle arises from the

oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Such
oppression happens whenever a society has a stratified and
hierarchical class division, and it is more evident in a
capitalist society, where the manipulative force of capitalism
creates tension between the classes.

.
 With his works written for the proletariat, Marx
believed that laborers would soon realize such oppression
and ultimately break free from the imposed false
consciousness. Marx advocated for a revolutionary
consciousness to fight back against the capitalist oppressors.
The conclusion of the revolution will see the dismantling of
systemic forms of oppression that were initially controlled
and perpetuated by the agents who controlled the modes of
production. Such end will promote a more equitable access
to resources and values.
 A communist society is characterized by
a classless society having common ownership
of property and resources (means of
production). Private property and profit-based
economy are replaced by public ownership
and control of at least the means of production
by the community.
Important Theorists

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) were
German philosophers and political scientists who are regarded
as The Fathers of Marxist Theory. Marx and Engels were
friends who collaborated many times. Their most notable work
together was Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.
 Marx and Engels presented in Communist
Manifesto their core ideas in a way that the proletariat
could easily grasp. They laid out their thoughts in a
simple and systematic manner, which does not require
the reader to be a part of the academic elite in order to
understand. The Communist Manifesto provided a
sociological perspective in the understanding of history.
For Marx and Engels, history is determined by the
history of class struggles and conflicts between
 The oppressor (bourgeoisie) and the oppressed
(proletariat). The bourgeoisie, who controls and
monopolizes the means of production, remains in power
because of wealth accumulated from the profits of
production. The proletariat, who contributes much to the
profit of the bourgeoisie, remains as mere workers.
 Moreover, the Communist Manifesto points to an
organized proletariat class who would revolt against the
bourgeoisie by amassing political power. This is the aim of
communism as argued for by Marx and Engels-that workers
unite to overthrow the bourgeoisie supremacy and ultimately
allow the proletariat freedom from subjugation. Thus,
communism would prevent oppressors from exploiting the
working class in order to gain profit.
 In 1867, Marx published the first volume of Das
Kapital, which he wrote through the auspices of Engels. The
book, which is also known as Capital, explored in a grounded
perspective the assertions that were made in the Communist
Manifesto. Through an exploration of the experiences of the
factory workers in London, Marx was able to sociologically
situate social inequality and the much needed emancipation of
the oppressed working class.
 Marx's analysis of societal development could be
related to the concept of historical materialism, which
states that technological progress in the modes of
production results in changes to society. This perspective
focuses on material developments as a measurement to
social changes
• V. Gordon Childe

Vere Gordon Childe (1892-1957) was an Australian

archaeologist and philologist. Childe used Marxist economics as a
tool in distinguishing periods of prehistory and in tracing the
evolution of Western civilization.

Production is central to Marxist economics because it is the

means by which human living maintained and sustained. It is
through the process of production where the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat engage with one another and where exploitation and
oppression occur.
 Childe classified periods of prehistory through
their capacity to utilize the environment in food
production processes. He maintained that civilizations in
those periods developed and evolved as they gradually
took control of their food production processes. To
sustain their growing population, hunter-gatherer
civilizations turned into farming, and by doing so created
different social classes in the process.
 The emergence of social classes was primarily
caused by the surplus in food production. Surplus
allowed other classes in society to expend efforts in
other ventures such as metallurgy Just as machines
enabled the expansion of the Industrial Revolution, new
technologies like metallurgy allowed for sociocultural
and economic revolutions in the prehistoric ages.
• Theodor Adorno

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) was a German

philosopher and sociologist. His most notable work,
Dialectics of Enlightenment (1944), was made in
collaboration with Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) who was
also a German philosopher. In their work, Adorno and
Horkheimer criticized the capitalist ideology by taking off
from where Marx began.
 For Marx, capitalist ideology places value and
focuses on commodities so that consumers would find
necessity in buying material goods, Marx called this
effect of capitalist ideology as fetishism of commodities.
Fetishism of commodities places value on consumerist
goods by making the masses want and desire to consume
them.
 The creation of demand for materials and their
associated values promote a consumerist culture that is bent
toward the acquisition of these socially prescribed products.
Taking the argument of Marx, Adorno applied this to the
state of capitalism in his time. He argued that commodity
fetishism has reached beyond material goods and has
touched different social institutions and even academic
disciplines.
 Adorno explained that the process by which
commodity fetishism takes hold is through reification, or the
subjection of human beings to capitalist ideology. Human
minds are conditioned to accept ideology without second
thought and apply capitalist ideology in their daily lives.
Thus, ideology becomes the driving force in all human
actions, as it provides the desire and the objects of desire,
while taking for granted that the desire for these objects
were only made by the capitalist system.
• Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek (born 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher

and sociologist. Žižek expounds on ideology and how it
directly affects everyday reality. He argues that reality is
constructed by ideology itself.

For Žižek, ideology is reflected on ordinary language.

He explains that ideology blankets society with beliefs that
in most circumstances do not reflect reality. The Slovenian
philosopher further elaborates on how ideology is used by
capitalists to extract more profit from the masses; however,
Žižek points out that this extraction is now done in a more
subtle way.
 The belief is that consumers do not mind buying
expensive products if part of the profit will be donated to
a noble cause, For Žižek, such capitalist strategy is how
ideology works. He also made a critique of Marxism as an
ideology
 Stating that instead of totally shunning it, we
must explore the expediency of having regulated
capitalism as Marxism is plagued with internal
inconsistencies that are exacerbated by the material
cultural landscape existing in contemporary societies.
Criticisms and Limitations:

1. A general criticism to Marxist theory is that the ideals of

communism-which aims to establish a society with citizens
being treated equally and enjoying a communal ownership
and control of property and resources-do not require a
revolution to take place. Counterarguments against Marxism
criticize the need for a class conflict and a revolution of the
proletariat, which are violent in their very nature.
2. Marx's idea of historical materialism-a notion
which supports that technological progress in the
modes of production results in changes to society-is
seen as very limiting. Critics argue that societal
development takes place not only through material
changes but also through ideas, cultures, and other
aspects of society.
3. Historical determinism is a label that is often used to
criticize the outright thrust of Marxist ideology to
historical materialism as it tracks all societal changes
and development from an economic basis.
4. The actual implementation of communism is criticized
by many historians and political scientists. Even if the
ruling power would come from the ranks of the proletariat.
This was what happened in communist Russia during the
rule of Joseph Stalin (in office 1922-1952) wherein gulags
or forced labor camps were used to enslave millions of
people.
THANK YOU!