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1 Communism (!!!)
Communism is a derivative branch of socialism — that society should be built bottom-up with resources shared — which is in itself a form of KBhHIST201Nationalism
1.1 The Communist Manifesto
- Written by two German exiles (Karl Marx + Friedrich Engels)
- Called for worldwide Worker's Revolution => overthrow capitalism + establish fully public property
- Marked the emergence of socialism that, CLAIM, would become a powerful force for change in Europe
1.2 Maxist Ideologies
CLAIM: a product of the Englignment and in fact has been around for a while.
- Reflect Enlightenment scientific, historical, and human condition believes
- Inspired by the French Rev + "Liberte, egalite, fratenete"
1.2.1 The Guy
- Born in 1818 in Prussia to Jewish parents
- father was a lawyer + studied enlightenment philosophers such as Kant and Voltaire
- Advocate for Prussian Constitutionalism
- Educated in Germany + recieved Dr. of Phil at Jena
- Edited the Rheininsche Zeitung, but was shut down due to its outspoken nature
- Exiled to Paris with wife + met Friedrich Engels, but both were later exiled from France and so they moved to Brussles
Marx's Short Trip Around the World
- Marx returned to Prussia temporarily + took a more moderate stance advocating for democracy
- When 1848's Summer brought the King of Prussia to cut back on the democracy, Marx became more radical
- Eventually, he was banished again — first to France, and subsequently London
Only involve in activism was the People's Spring; lived in poverty + subsisted on bread and potateos.
Death
Suffered from "chronic mental depression" for he saw little hope for the proletariat Advocated for a war to overthrow Russia, conservatism, etc. This, of course, did happen, but that's called WWI
1.2.2 The Manifesto
Created after the Marx and Engels joined the Communist League, promoting a more extreme sect of socialism.
Published the Manifesto in Jan 1848, a 23 page phamplet outlining the sect's vision.
The opening lines of the document claimed that a "specter" of Communism is "Haunting" Europe, and that the traditional Holy Alliance (pope, Russian tsar, and ministers of Austria and France) were aiming to rid of the specter
Historical Materialism, Class Conflict, and Proletarian Revolution is at the heart of Marxist theory. That "history should not be understood as … [that] of great individuals but of social classes and their struggles."
Class struggle w.r.t. capitalism is that between the bourgeoisie (owners of capital) and the proletariat (workers/producers of capital.) Claims + calls to action a overthrowing of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat to create an egalitarian and classless society
Marx and Engels thought the Paris' June Days as an imminent sign of revolution.
1.3 The First International
A antecedent of what became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The organization rapidly expanded and grew to about 800,000 adherents by 1849, but CLAIM: failed due to the infighting caused by yet another Paris Revolution + increased acceptance to reform instead of revolution.
1.3.1 F.I. Failures
Marx and Engels thinks that a "dictatorship of the proletariat" was the first step towards full-on communism, making them support the Paris Commune + its violence. But! the First International contradicted their opinion leading to internal debate.
English Reform Bill and the other systems of reform around the time gave renewed hope on the possibility of reform.
1.4 Marxist Theory, at a glance
Marx think that Industrial Rev-brought machines makes people's lives worse b/c is performs the division of labor and hence is used as an additional instrument of the capitalist. By leveraging machines + wages, capitalists are getting richer and richer though making the poor poorer. "Instead of selling a product, the laborer must sell part of his own being as property."
As machines create undifferentiated labor, the price of individual dropped and productivity increased.
In general, Marx believed that the means of subsistence should be regularly provided + covered by average income.
Most important work are in the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital => provided a "scientific" approach to history + economics that reflects 19th century lit trends w/ the development of realism.
Believes that there are branches of socialism that was too Utopian and less "scientific" as his.
1.4.1 Historical Materialism
That all things have a material basis, and so does historical development. Believed that history could be analyzed through the analysis of the means of production of a place.
Means of Production
- Land in a feudal society
- Factories in a capitalistic society
Believes that the owners of the means of production is also the dominators of society.
1.4.2 Societal Substructures
The owners of the means of production control systems in society called societal substructures. Among these substructures are economy, political system, relationships, culture, religion, and, this is cool, human freaking consciousness. In other words, all these things are controlled by those who are in control of the means of production.
According to the duo, all of these substructures are instruments that the dominant uses to keep the lower classes in their place.
1.4.3 Historical Pathways
Marx thinks that every society is traveling along predetermined pathways, that societies…
- Begin with a communal stage
- Move into slavery (with master-slave-dominance)
- Then into feudalism (with lord-subject-dominance)
- and into capitalism (with owner-worker dominance)
- and finally into communism (yay!)
Each of these pathways creates its dialectic — that each states sowed the seeds of the next and of its own destruction. Class consciousness develop in a community overtime — where each lower class realize that they have nothing to gain and resort to revolution.
Based on this believe, Marx thinks that capitalism is on its way out in places like England, France, and Germany.
1.4.4 Economic determinism
If you could get ahold of the economy, you control much of other things in society.
1.5 Communistic Utopia
when the workers own the means of pro- duction, the entire economic substructure will collapse and re-form, as will the superstructure of society. Social classes will disappear
Believes that capitalism has provided the background onto which everyone's basic needs could be satisfied if even distribution of goods were supplied.
Creates a meritocracy of sorts where earnings are distributed based on abilities, needs, and contribution. => each person contributes their specialization and get what they need generally in return.
Believes that, once implemented, human nature will change no longer yearn for capitalistic shows of wealth (say, a yacht) and instead will foster cooperation and solidarity.
Through this, poverty will also be gone. And so apparently crime, greed, and competition will too "wither away" according to Engels. This would later contribute to the lack of necessity for states, and eventually we'd be a whole happy planet of happy people.
1.6 In Soviet Russia and elsewhere
Pre-1905 Russia had little political freedom. Russian exiles in Switzerland took advantage of communistic ideals and formed the basis of Marxism in Russia — an attempted repositioning of Russia to fix its despotic problems.
WWI weakened the Russian state, and, in 1917, the Communist Bolshevik lead by Lenin seized power.
Lenin established a new set of protocols based on Marxist ideas named Marxism-Leninism — uniting the Communist factions until collapse in 1991.
WWII weakened Chinese, Eastern European, NK, South Asia, and Cubans states, and they all decided to give communism a go to various degrees of success.
1.7 CN 11182020
#disorganized #flo
- Gig working is cheaper, until machines happened:
- Looms => Power Loom — machines could no longer fit in a "cottage"
- Transitioned from local economy to being consolidated in cities
- After the establishment of minimum work age (10), progressive
schooling occurred => "what are we to do with non-working kids with
working parents?"
- Elementary school designed to create a national citizen
- IR: the market is dictated by the machine
- Marx: repositioning perspective around labor
No ethical consumption in capitalism