Father of Communism Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx “If I had 26 letters of the alphabet I could rule the world.? ”Those are the words of one of the greatest philosophers. Karl Heinrich Mark, “The Founder, or the Father of Modern communism and Marxism” was born May 1818-July 1883. Karl was born into a wealthy family. (1) He was one of the most infamous philosophers and tacticians in the socioeconomic structure of our times. He was however infamous to many people because of his political, economic and social views. Mr. Marx was also very influential to many significant people and countries worldwide. (2) Even today people use and elaborate on his quotes.

His views continue to be debated and applied in today’s society. Karl Marx is dubbed the “father of Communism”, and wrote his Communist Manifesto in 1848, with Friedrich Engel’s. (3) Economically, he opined that capitalism is very unfair and dehumanizing, in that the laborers or the masses were meant to work for a few rich people who profit by paying very low wages. (2) He however noted the defining features of capitalism as alienation, exploitation and reoccurring, cyclical depressions leading to mass unemployment;(1) on the other hand capitalism is also characterized by “revolutionizing, industrializing urbanization. 3) Marx considered the capitalist class to be one of the most revolutionary in history, because it constantly improved the means of production, more so than any other class in history, and was responsible for the overthrow of feudalism and its transition to capitalism. (4-5)  Capitalism can stimulate considerable growth because the capitalist can, and has an incentive to; reinvest profits in new technologies and capital equipment. Karl Marx believed that throughout history, since the feudal ages, proletariats (working class) have been abused by higher classes, especially bourgeoisie (middle class).

In Communism, proletariats are in power, and the sharing of the wealth and business would be run by the worker’s themselves. . Today labor unions adopt the principle of deciding their own wages and seeking good working condition and can go on strike if their demands are not met. There is collective bargaining by workers Socially Karl Marx’ theories on these changes happening around him are based around the idea of different stages that society goes through. He believes there are five stages in society and these are: tribal communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and finally ommunism. Most western societies have already gone through the first three stages and at the time of Marx were going through the fourth stages, as most still are. (2)Marx talks a lot about production, he theorizes that the part you play in the method of production affects the role you have in society as a whole. Each stage in society has a different production system in place. So in a capitalist society somebody who owns the means of production, the bourgeoisie, is the top of the social rank as they hold the power.

The rest of society, the proletariats rely in the bourgeoisie to provide them with job so they have the money to survive. There will always be groups who have the power the oppressor, while the rest are the oppressed; those without any power who have to rely on others to provide them with money so they are able to live. These two groups do not share the same interests. Marx saw this as class conflict, he believed that with time the conflict between the two would grow so great that the oppressed would rise up against the oppressor and society would move on to the next stage.

In his opinion the next stage would be communism, his idea of the perfect society. The world is pretty much how Marx described it 150 years ago, which is quite impressive in itself,” Tormey said. “This is to say that we now have a more or less integrated world capitalist system, with a global rich and global poor — as Marx predicted. There is huge exploitation across all societies — the proliferation of sweatshops and export processing zones are all very much in keeping with Marx’s account. The peasantry is being systematically wiped out in a global process of dispossession, and of course social democracy, which started as a form of ultra moderate ‘Marxism,’ Marxism-lite if you like, is in retreat in all areas where it once enjoyed hegemony,” he added. Politically The Soviets, Chinese, and other Communist states were at most based along. Marxist beliefs ch Communist leaders as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong even Hitler loyally claimed Marxist orthodoxy for their pronouncements which produced an egalitarian political society. 3) This led to evolution of varied forms of welfare capitalism, the improved condition of workers in industrial societies, and the recent demise of the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have tended to discredit Marx’s dire and deterministic economic predictions. (4) In the Third World, a legacy of colonialism and anti-imperialist struggle has given Marxism popular support. In Africa, Marxism has had notable impact in such nations as Ethiopia, Benin, Angola, Kenya, and Senegal. In less stable societies Marxism’s combination of materialist analysis with a militant sense of justice remains a powerful attraction.