Who were Marx & Engels? What historical conditions produced their revolutionary ideas?

1. Craig
Collins,
Ph.D.

2. • The
ideas
of
Karl
Marx
himself
should
not
be
confused
with
“Marxism.”
• Marx
would
surely
disagree
strongly
with
many
of
the
people,
organizaBons
&
governments
who
claim
to
base
their
acBons
&
policies
on
his
ideas.
• Some
of
this
course
will
be
devoted
to
examining
what
Marx
&
Marxism
have
in
common
&
where
they
part
company.

3. During
his
life,
Karl
Marx
developed
his
poliBcal
philosophy
in
close
collaboraBon
with
his
lifelong
friend,
Friedrich
Engels.

6. Rival
militarist
Monarchs
were
compelled
to
expand
their
empires
&
to
either
crush
their
domesBc
opponents
or
share
power
with
them.
– Crushing
their
opponents
weakened
the
economy.
– Sharing
power
expanded
the
corrupt
parasiBc
state,
taxing
the
people
beneath
them
even
more.

10. • Hereditary
monarchies
became
the
common
enemy
of
most
classes
throughout
Europe.
• They
lived
in
decadent
luxury
by
taxing
everyone
&
monopolizing
poli=cal
power.
• They
threw
the
poor
into
debtors’
prisons
&
conscripted
them
to
fight
their
wars.

13. • The
capitalists
were
happy
with
revoluBons
that
toppled
monarchs
but
leJ
the
property
owning
classes
in
power.
• The
working
class
&
the
poorest
farmers
oJen
wanted
more
fundamental
change.
• They
wanted
improvements
in
their
everyday
lives:
– BeMer
working
condiBons,
higher
wages,
the
right
to
unionize
&
strike,
debt
relief
&
land
reform.
– A
poliBcal
&
economic
system
designed
to
meet
human
needs,
not
maximize
profit.

14. • Marx
&
Engels
were
poliBcal
philosophers.
• They
thought
it
was
possible
to
create
a
science
of
history
&
social
change.
• They
reasoned
that
if
the
laws
of
social
change
could
be
understood,
they
could
be
used
to
shape
history
for
the
benefit
of
all.

15. • Marx
studied
&
analyzed
capitalism
in
great
detail.
• He
concluded
that
it
was
a
powerful,
dynamic
economic
system
with
incurable,
fatal
flaws.
• These
flaws
would
only
deepen
as
capitalism
grew,
eventually
causing
it
to
fail.

17. • Marx
&
Engels
devoted
their
lives
to
hastening
the
day
when
capitalism
would
be
buried
by
a
democraBc,
working
class
revoluBon.
• They
helped
build
a
socialist
movement
that
carried
on
aJer
their
deaths.

20. • World
War
I,
the
Depression,
the
rise
of
Fascism,
World
War
II,
&
the
Cold
War
all
had
major
impacts
on
European
Marxists.
• Using
Marx’s
method,
they
asked
why
history
had
not
unfolded
as
Marx
thought
it
would.
– Why
had
the
working
class
failed
to
embrace
Marxism
&
topple
capitalism
in
Europe
&
America?
– Could
Marxism
become
a
criBcal
tool
for
exposing
capitalist
ideology
&
dogmaBc
Soviet
“Marxism”?
Weil
Benjamin
Horkheimer
Adorno
Marcuse

21. Early industrial period;
capitalism becomes
dominant; working
class emerges as
radical force.
After period of stability,
capitalism generates
crisis, wars & revolution
“Marxism-Leninism” becomes
the official ideology of the
USSR, China, & 3rd world
revolutions. Western Marxism
becomes isolated & abstract.
Reformist Social
Democracy
Revolutionary
Social
Democracy
Kautsky, Bernstein
Anarchist Marxism
Bakunin, DeLeon
Maoism
Geuvarism
Western
“critical”
Marxism
Ché & Debray’s
Foco Theory
Trotskyism
???
Soviet
Revisionism
Stalinism