Predict Changes:

• Based on the your findings about the new social order created in England as a result of the Industrial Revolution and changing economic conditions predict what might happen in the two categories below. Be sure to consider the separate needs of the three social classes.

- Economic needs of the people? - Political needs of people?

What comes to mind when you think of Marx or Communism?

The Industrial Revolution Faces Critics

• What were some of the problems associated with the IR? Capitalism?

• Marx and Engels are particularly appalled at the development of industrialization and capitalism and the social, economic, and political changes it produced.

• It is in their engagement with and thinking about this new capitalist and industrial world that drives the development of Marxist ideology.

Karl Marx• 1818-1883• German• Attended the University of

Berlin and earned a doctorate in Philosophy.

• While in university he joined a radical leftist group called the Young Hegelians.

• After graduation he earned a reputation as a radical and was exiled to London.

• Spent most of his career living in poverty while writing his famous works.

Friederich Engels • 1820 – 1895• German• Self-educated in

philosophy• Worked in England for his

father’s textile firm where he personally observed the working conditions of industrial English workers

• Financially supported Marx throughout his career

Core Ideas of Marxism We Must Consider

1. Class and Class Conflict2. Economic Determinism & Theory of

Knowledge3. Bourgeoisie and Proletariat4. Alienation5. Class Consciousness, False

Consciousness, and the Communist Revolution

Class Conflict• What are classes?– Economic groups defined in terms of their

relationship to the means of production• In any given society, there have always

been two groups: • Oppressing Class

• Those that own the means of production• Oppressed Class

• Those that do not own the means of production• But use the means of production for the benefit of the oppressing class

Class Conflict Drives History• In any given society when

those two opposing classes come into conflict it propels history forward into a new stage of history and new classes emerge.

• Ultimately these new classes will also come into conflict until history reaches its end point: the classless society Marx and Engels call communism.

Communist Revolution

Communism is Inevitable• Marx believes this evolution of

history is inevitable.• Communism is inevitable– Because capitalism contains within it the

seeds of its own destruction.

Economic Determinism(Economy determines everything:)

• Marx thus believes in Economic Determinism: economics determines the course of all human history.

• Clashes between classes over changes in the means of production drive history forward.

• Everything else in society comes from economics:– Ex, ideas of society, are determined by its

economic structure: “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch (time in history) the ruling ideas…”

Two Social Classes in the Industrial Age: Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat

• Marx argued that the emergence of capitalism had ushered in a new stage of history in which there were two new opposing social classes. – Bourgeoisie (Oppressing Class):

• Own the means of production • Factory owners, bankers

– Proletariat (Oppressed Class): • Sell their labor and do not own the means of

production• Factory workers

Exploitation(Take advantage of)

• In a capitalist system, bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by using their labor to make goods that are sold for more than the proletariat is paid.

• This taking of “surplus value” is the source of exploitation in capitalist society.

The Revolution Will Be Violent and Inevitable!

• Marx argues that it is inevitable that these two classes will come into conflict.

• This conflict will be one in which the proletariat overthrow the bourgeoisie in a violent revolution.

Class Consciousness• However, the revolution can only

occur once the proletariat develop class consciousness.

• Class consciousness: – Collective

realization that they are being exploited and that this must stop.

False Consciousness• In the absence of class consciousness,

workers suffer from false consciousness in which they cannot recognize their own oppression.

• Religion actually facilitates false consciousness.

• “Religion is the opiate of the people.” What does this mean?

Class Conflict in the Modern Age (Or the Coming of the Communist

Revolution)

1. Individual members of the

proletariat become angry and may clash

with individual members of the

bourgeoisie or may destroy the means

of production

2. Proletariat develop class

consciousness and come together as a class to realize their

shared interest in overthrowing

capitalism

3. Proletariat overthrow the

bourgeoisie in a violent and

inevitable revolution leading the creation

of a communist society.

Attainment of Communism• After the workers rise up and revolt

violently (and overthrow the capitalists), they establish a temporary Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

• At first, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat would need absolute powers to make sure Reactionaries didn’t bring back capitalism.

Attainment of Communism• But before long, the workers would learn

to share everything equally – “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” - and live in government-less society. Karl Marx called this Communism, or the Ultimate Classless Society.