HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

MARXISM 1
Introduction

Marxism is a school of thought that focuses on the ways by which access to

scarce resources creates inequalities among different groups of people. It is often
attributed to Karl Marx, although Marxism includes the ideas of other thinkers who
have interpreted, and expounded on, Marx's theories and applied them in various
cultural contexts. Marxism involves a materialist analysis of history and society,
whereby the main determinant for the kind of social relations that will prevail in given
societies is the economy. The economy is seen to produce unequal groups of people,
who are in constant conflict over resources. Those who own capital and resources
create structures, ideologies, and institutions to maintain their positions at the
expense of those dispossessed, or those who work for the owners of capital. Marxism
is essentially a critique of the hegemony of the dominant classes, and of the oppression
of the working classes.

Who Is Karl Marx?

Karl Marx (5 May 1818-14 March 1883) is often referred to as a

philosopher, an economist, and a sociologist. One of the most
influential social thinkers in the world, he was born into a relatively
wealthy family in Trier, Germany. His father was a keen adherent
of Enlightenment ideas, while his mother came from a family of
industrialists. Marx took a deep interest in philosophy and had
wanted to study it, but his father insisted on him taking up law.
As a law student at the University of Bonn, he participated in
radical organizations and became involved in disputes, that
forced his father to transfer him to the University of Berlin.

At Berlin, he was influenced by the ideas of the late philosopher G.W.F. Hegel
who asserted that things come into place through a process consisting of a three-value
model, the abstract-negative concrete (more popularly known as thesis-antithesis-
synthesis). Hegel claimed that history follows this dialectical process, whereby each
stage is a result of the inherent contradictions in the previous stage. For instance, all
things come into being (abstract), but inherently, coming into being also means
returning to nothing (negative), as in death. But once being and nothing are reconciled,
one then enters into becoming (concrete). In order to achieve the next stage therefore,
the negative has to be overcome or mediated.

Hegelian dialectics shaped the brand of dialectical materialism apparent in

Marx's thought, although Hegel was an idealist, believing that ideas are forces for
development. Marx, on the other hand, believed that change is brought about by actual
material activity and practice. Despite these differences, Marx joined the organization
of Young Hegelians, a group of left-leaning thinkers that, while critical of some of
Hegel's theories, adopted his dialectical approach to critique social institutions.

Professors at the University of Berlin found Marx's doctoral thesis to be too

revolutionary for the time, prompting Marx to submit it instead to the University of

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Jena, where he was awarded his Ph.D. He began writing for radical newspapers, first 2
in Germany and then in Paris, where he met Friedrich Engels, a scholar who had just
published the book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. Engels
would later become his collaborator and financier. His friendship with Engels, his time
in Paris, and a trip to Manchester in England, heightened his interest in political
economy, a framework that would underpin some of his most significant books, and
one that he would study for the rest of his life.

In 1845, the government ordered a stop to the publication of his newspaper, and
he was expelled from France. He moved to Belgium and associated with other exiled
socialists, joining the secret revolutionary organization, League of the Just, which
eventually surfaced openly as the Communist League. The Communist League was
designed to be the arm that will help mobilize the proletariat to overthrow capitalism,
and bring about socialism. His collaborative work with Engels, The Communist
Manifesto, outlined these plans, declaring that the history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggles.

As supporters of the Communist League, he and Engels believed that a scientific

analysis of economic conditions should be the basis for seeking social change, and that
a revolution necessitates going through the different stages of social development. In
order for the working class agenda to succeed, the working classes must first join forces
with progressive bourgeois elements in order to institute reforms. Once such reforms
are in place, the working class can then fight for their goals.

After a series of expulsions due to his political leanings, Marx eventually settled
in London, where he is also buried. In London, he became part of the General Council
of the International Workingmen's Association (First International). He also published
his major work, Capital, a three-volume study on the labor theory of value, and a
critique of political economy. In the first volume, Marx talks about how surplus value
and exploitation will be the crisis that will lead to the downfall of industrial capitalism.
Engels published the last volumes posthumously.

The Influence of the Industrial Revolution on Marx's Theories

The period of the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the 1700s serves
as the backdrop for Marx's ideas about the relations between capitalists and laborers.
Prior to the 1700s, Great Britain had experienced a boom in the trade of wool and
cotton. Sheep started replacing people in the farms. Innovations such as the water
wheel, which enabled the efficient processing of flour, textile, and other products, also
led to the need for fewer farmhands.

Further, the Enclosure Acts, a series of measures that sought to enclose what
had previously been common lands, were implemented more intensively. Lands that
were given to communal grazing and farming were converted into private properties,
and came into the hands of the feudal landowners. This led to the migration of people
from the countryside and into towns and cities, as landless peasants could no longer
cultivate the land. Landowners also began charging higher rents to those who worked
for them, forcing many to turn to the towns and cities for better opportunities.

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

“Factory workers in London in the 1800s”

With the advent of the steam engine, wool and cotton could now be mass
produced and transported to other cities quickly, a phenomenon that hastened the
Industrial Revolution. Privately owned factories became the main sources of
employment in the cities. In such factories, laborers did repetitive and often dangerous
work for long hours and with pay. As the goal of these industries was to maximize
profit, children were also employed as cheap labor. Thus, despite soaring growth in
Britain due to the Industrial Revolution, there was also considerable poverty, with the
owners of capital getting richer, and the laborers getting mired in further poverty.

This situation was what Marx sought to critique in his theories. His main goal
was to examine the ills of capitalism, and the crises inherent in a capitalist system. As
such, his theories focus on: (1) historical materialism and the ways by which economic
systems determine social relations; (2) labor and value in a capitalist system; (3) the
alienation of labor; and (4) social change through class consciousness among the
proletariat. While Marx did not provide concrete solutions to address the situation, he
was aware that "philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point
is to change it." Marx's analysis of society has inspired millions to fight and die for their
rights. Despite writing in the 1800s, his work continues to be invaluable and relevant
to the struggles experienced by many in the world today.

Theories of Marx

Dialectical Materialism

Marx's materialism lies in his theory that material production, or actual physical
activity in the environment, determines the social and political relations of individuals.
History follows certain stages of development as dictated by economic environments,
which shape a society's past, present, and future. Economic environments create the
conditions for the dominance of one group and the subjugation of another. Implicit
crises in economic systems lead to the development of another system, and to a
different set of social and political relations among groups of people.
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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

According to Marx, society is organized around the means of production-land, 4

labor, and capital-as well as the kinds of social relationships that people acquire when
they access and use the means of production. Both relations and means of production
comprise the mode of production, or the economic system. The mode of production is
the base for what Marx calls the superstructure, political ideologies, religious beliefs,
family organization, and other forms of social consciousness. It is therefore the
economic system that brings about ideologies. The kinds of value judgments that
people have, for instance, that those who do not work are lazy, or that commodities
make one happy, relate back to the economic system.

Put simply, when capital and labor are accessed by one group, this group
becomes the owner of the means of production. Owners of capital (the bourgeoisie) then
pay laborers (the proletariat) to work for them, and thus enter into a relationship with
the workers. Under such a capitalist mode of production, the bourgeoisie not only have
control of the production of goods, but also of the production of ideologies that serve
to maintain their dominant position. For instance, the value judgments mentioned
earlier justify capital accumulation among the rich.
Marx said that tensions between the means and relations of production would
generate a crisis that can bring about a new mode of production. Capitalism was born
out of the intrinsic contradictions of feudalism. In a feudal system, the many classes
who own property-the monarchs and the lords-need to engage in trade with other
states to increase their wealth. Such trading produces a merchant class within feudal
society. Conflicts between the merchant class and the aristocracy, who fear a reduction
in power, ensue. Further complications arise for the merchants and capitalists, as serfs
are tied to the land and cannot work in industries. Marx looked at these tensions as
rife for a social revolution, for example, the French Revolution in 1789. The revolution
gave way to a new economic system called capitalism.

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

The Philippines is an example of a capitalist society. Think, for instance, of a

mall. Mall owners are capitalists concerned with making profit that will beget more
profit. Sales clerks are workers who clock in long hours of tedious labor done while
standing. They are given very short breaks and are not allowed to sit down. As the goal
is profit, capitalists often hire workers on the basis of short-term contracts to avoid
having to provide benefits such as healthcare and housing, which capitalists would
have to pay for. Many of these sales clerks are thus subjected not only to job insecurity,
but to low wages, Mall owners, on the other hand, use the surplus that they get to
build more malls and gain more capital.

According to Marx, the capitalist system encourages the unjust treatment of

factory workers. It is also a system that does not allow the poor to move out, because
of bourgeois control over the production of ideologies. There is an acceptance of how
things are among the workers, because their ideas have been fed to them by the
bourgeoisie. Consider for example, variety shows in the Philippines that offer
thousands of pesos to their poor viewers. The poor viewers think that the variety shows
are helping them get out of poverty when in fact, it is the variety show that is earning
a lot more from the continued patronage of poor viewers. The thousands of pesos that
these shows hand out are insignificant, compared to the millions that they earn from
ratings and corporate advertising on their time slots. The poor viewers, at the same
time, remain poor. Such ideologies allow the rich to maintain their position as owners
of capital, while furthering the oppression of the working classes.

Despite the dehumanizing aspects of capitalism, Marx acknowledged that it was

an improvement over the previous historical stages of slavery and feudalism, because
it led to industrialization and urbanization. It paved the way for technological and
scientific advancements. Capitalism enabled growth and progress, because the

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

continued investment of profit in new technologies and equipment meant that the 6
means of production are constantly improving.

However, capitalism is also unstable, because as capitalists continue to invest

in equipment, fewer investments in labor will be made. With better and more efficient
technology, capitalists will produce more than what can be consumed. There will then
be an oversupply, rather than a shortage, of commodities. At the same time, the rate
of profit will decline as the economy grows, because profit is dependent on cheap labor.
These repercussions will lead to a cycle of growth, decline, and renewed growth. For
instance, the condominium market in the Philippines appears to be booming. More
and more condominiums are being built, resulting in a supply that is greater than the
demand. Despite many unsold condominium buildings, developers continue to build
more in the quest to expand capital. A consequence is the drop in condominium prices.
This can cause the housing market to collapse. But such collapse can lead to growth,
once
people start purchasing units given their low costs.

According to Marx, the instability of capitalism furthers the oppression of the

working classes. As only one of the many factors of production, labor is expendable
and can be discarded, once costs increase or cost- saving technologies are acquired.
This insecurity among the working classes contributes to the tensions within the
capitalist system, that will eventually lead to its downfall and to the dawning of a post-
capitalistic, communist society.

Labor Theory of Value

Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of

production. Under capitalist ideologies, the goal of capital is to accumulate more
capital. In order to do so, there is a need to keep the cost of production low. Wages are
kept to a minimum, with capitalists paying their workers very little, while the prices of
commodities are made to be greater than the cost of production.

In a capitalist system, the value of goods is determined by the market. This is in

contrast to slavery, where the slave owner can seize any of the goods produced by
slaves, or to feudalism, where the feudal lord takes a portion of the goods produced by
the serf, leaving the serf with the rest. In both stages, the slaves and the serfs are tied
to the means of production they can produce goods for themselves, although these
commodities can be forcibly taken from them. Laborers, on the other hand, are
disconnected from the means of production. The commodities they make are produced
for exchange in the market. Workers can only consume these commodities once they
buy them back with their wages. As such, in order for the laborers to use the
commodities they produce for the capitalists, they need to sell their labor and give up
claims to the product.

Marx said that a commodity has a use and an exchange value. The exchange
value of the product pertains to what it can be exchanged or traded for. In a capitalist
sense, this would refer to the product's ideal price. The use value, on the other hand,
concerns the usability of, and necessity for, the product. The labor that people sell in
order to purchase a commodity, becomes in itself a commodity. Labor as a commodity
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is exchanged for wages. At the same time, the use value of labor lies in its ability to 7
produce value through the creation of commodities. Al of the values involved, however,
are determined by the capitalists because they control the system. They can devalue
labor in order to exchange it for less than its use value. Capitalists pay workers far less
than what they can obtain when the commodity produced by the workers is exchanged
in the market.

“Labor Theory of Value”

Such devaluation leads to exploitation. The actual value of the goods produced
by the worker is taken from him, and privately appropriated by the capitalists as
surplus value. As the goal of capital is to gain more capital, capitalists thus keep wages
as low as possible to get a bigger profit margin. For Marx, profit constituted stealing

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

from the workers; the workers are robbed of their labor power and talent when they 8
are paid a very small amount, while the goods they produce are sold for a significantly
larger one.
Marx's ideas of capitalist exploitation can also be seen in the small informal
businesses in the Philippines. Take for instance, the neighborhood mechanic. He offers
his services cheaply to acquire customers. Some of his customers are very rich people,
who choose him over a formal service center so that they can save. The mechanic will
barely earn from what he charges. He cannot raise his fees lest he risk losing
customers. After all, what value would you assign to his service, and how much would
you want to pay him? The rich customers, on the other hand, would have saved a lot.
There is thus capital accumulation on the part of the wealthy, and an inability to get
out of poverty on the part of the poor.

Alienation of Labor

In selling labor to capitalists, labor becomes alienated. Marx believed in the

humanizing aspects of work. He said that work can be a source of joy, but in order to
be fulfilled at work, workers have to see themselves in the objects they have created.
Meaningful labor means that humans can mold nature in a desired way, and that they
can take these objects as their own. For example, producing a piece of art or music
purely for one's pleasure. To realize one's capacity to transform nature is to actualize
one's humanity.

Modern work, however, particularly factory labor, has become alienated because
what it produces is disconnected from those who produce it. It amounts to the worker
giving up ownership of his labor, so that he no longer has the capacity to transform
nature as desired. Marx saw this as a spiritual loss. Workers become alienated from
their own nature. They cannot see their contribution to the whole, or their contribution
to the needs of humanity. As the conditions of work are set by the capitalists, workers
have no voice in deciding what to do.

While Marx saw capitalists as oppressive, he did say that capitalism as a system
drives these kinds of activities. The system pushes groups of people to do certain
things, because the system determines the relations that will take place in society. For
instance, laborers unknowingly reproduce the conditions for alienation, because their
products become other people's private property. They can only access it by selling
their labor, thereby furthering their alienation.

The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, are driven to prioritize economic interests at
the expense of genuine social relationships, a phenomenon he called commodity
fetishism. The products of labor become fetishes, to which both laborers and capitalists
subject themselves to. They treasure things that only engender alienation, both from
work and from one another. There is a need to be free from commodity fetishism in
order to be humanized. Marx, therefore, contends that the ills of capitalism are not
that they generate social classes in which one dominates the other such can be found
in other historical stages-but that capitalist ideas push people to be competitive and
divorced from one's humanity.

To know more on Alienation of Labor visit these links:

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30HeJvE9KCg 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ4VzhIuKCQ

Class Consciousness and Revolution

Marx said that the historical stage to come after capitalism will be communism.
While communism will result from the contradictions within a capitalist system, there
will also be a revolutionary period of transition from one into the other. In this period,
the proletariat will rise to abolish the ruling classes, hold political power, and forcibly
socialize the means of production through a dictatorship of the proletariat.

Society works because the dominant classes have power, and are thus able to
impose their will on the subjugated classes. In controlling the production of ideologies,
the rich are able to maintain their social positions. Unless the poor acquire class
consciousness and become aware of their own oppression, social change will not take
place.

Even though the capitalists control the production of ideologies, Marx maintains
that at some point, the working classes will be aware of their capacity to fight for
equality. This can be made possible through education, when liberal ideas diffuse
among the working classes, or through collaboration with progressive capitalists within
the feudal system. With the birth of class consciousness among the proletariat, the
working classes would begin to understand the system and create ways of changing it.

Marx believed that social change can also be achieved through a revolution,
when the workers rise up to overthrow the capitalist system. Following his dialectical
approach, a new system would then emerge, one in which the gains of capital-the
wealth of the big corporations—will be redistributed equally to people, leading to
communal ownership of factories and businesses, and to fair treatment for everyone.
He called this system communism.

Far from the popular idea of

communism, Marx believed that
once the proletariat are able to
abolish the ruling classes, they
would prevent an exploitative
system from taking place, and work
toward a system that would benefit
people equally, in order to get the
best out of people. Such a system
would return ownership of one's
labor to oneself. People would be
able to enjoy leisure and the freedom
to be who they want to be, as there is communal ownership of the means of production.
People would not be beholden to economic interests.

The ideology of communism has been interpreted in various ways after Marx had
died. Many of these ideas are far removed from Marx's original intent. As applied in a
number of countries, these interpretations of communism have only succeeded in

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HANDOUTS ON DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

creating economic disasters, as well as a different form of oppression, a different kind 10

of hierarchy, and a different set of ruling classes.

Marxism in Context

Marx is now considered one of the pillars of sociological thought. While Marx's
main thrust was to critique capitalism and examine its ills, he also indicated a way
forward and a vision of where society is headed. Marx's work then became the
backbone for many socialist and communist parties across the world, as they work
toward equality.

Socialist thinkers continued Marx's discussion on the inequalities brought about

by a capitalist system. For instance, among the theories of David Harvey, an influential
Marxist geographer, is the idea of the necessity of capital accumulation in a capitalistic
society, as leading to the transformation of geographic space. With accumulation
comes the transformation of non-capitalist activities into capitalistic ones, the creation
of new social wants and needs, and the geographic expansion of capital into new
territory. He furthered that the global expansion of capital creates a global core and
periphery (for instance, rich countries and poor countries) as well as the spatial
concentration of capital. The spatial concentration of capital leads to the spatial
concentration of opportunities and of poverty. In the Philippines, for example, capitalist
activities tend to be concentrated in cities such as Manila. This results in rural areas
being left behind, as well as the proliferation of informal settlements.

A number of post-Marx thinkers have critiqued and modified Marx's theories,

while still focusing on inequalities generated by the structure. For instance, the Italian,
Antonio Gramsci, one of the key figures in the development of Western Marxism,
emphasized the importance of political ideologies in maintaining relations of the
economic structure. He supported Marx's idea that the bourgeoisie was dominant
because of consent among working classes, but he said that such consent was forced.
He advocated for the education of the workers, and the creation of intellectuals among
the working classes.

Marx's legacy has perhaps been most apparent in the construction of communist
societies in the 1900s. Most of these communist societies have lifted his ideas with
regard to revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, but came up with their own
ways of making the revolution happen. Further, many of these communist leaders did
not utilize the working classes of the factories, but implemented communism by
reforming private agricultural land ownership, and by using the peasantry.

Please use these links if you need some video discussion of the above topics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0GFSUu5UzA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylrua5XJuV0

REFERENCES:

Books: Soco-Roda, Marial Andrea et al., (2017) Social Sciences in a Globalizing World:
Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Filipino Students: Quezon, City: Sibs Publishing House,
Inc.
Prepared by: Mr. John Joseph M. Bautista, LPT
TEACHER II
Sto. Tomas Senior High School