Marxism: Difference between revisions

'''Marxism''', modernly commonly called '''Orthodox Marxism''' or '''Classical Marxism''', also called '''Scientific Socialism'''<ref>https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm</ref> or '''Marxist Socialism''', is an economically far-left, culturally variable but generally progressive ideology that is based on the analysis and ideology of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and looks to achieve a [[File:Commie.png]] communist (stateless, classless, moneyless) society. According to Marx and Engels, in a [[File:Commie.png]] communist society, nationality<ref name=":0">https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm</ref>, families<ref>https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm</ref>, property, commodities, division of labor<ref name=":0" />, cities and countryside, religion, ideology, and markets would be abolished or become obsolete and fade away. Communism operates on the principle "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". Marxists believe that due to inherent contradictions in the [[File:Cap.png]] capitalist mode of productions, material conditions will become so bad that there will be a proletarian revolution which will create a [[File: Soc-h.png]] socialist state that transitions to a communist society.

On top of that, he believes that how [[File:Cap.png]] capitalists extract surplus value from the labor of their workers creates an irreconcilable conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (working class), that can only be ended either through the overthrow of bourgeoisie or the ruination of both classes. Following the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, Marxism believes that a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" must be established to eradicate capitalism and begin the transition to communism. What is meant by a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" varies depending on who you ask, but to put it simply it means a society where the working class has absolute power over all other classes, and not a literal dictatorship.

Another thing worth noting is that Marxism does not differentiate between [[File: Soc-h.png]] "socialism" or [[File:Commie.png]] "communism" very much, calling them "lower- stage [[File:Commie.png]] Communism" and "higher- stage [[File:Commie.png]] Communism" respectively, and the different names for those stages is an idea that his son [[File:Orthlen.png]] [[Leninism]] came up with. What is consistent, however, is that both [[File:Commie.png]] communism and [[File: Soc-h.png]] socialism are stateless and classless, with only the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, preceding both, requiring a "commune state" akin to the [[File:Cball-France.png]] Paris Commune at most. The only times he differentiates between the two is when referring to [[File: Soc-h.png]] socialist tendencies he disagrees with, such as [[File:Mutalist.png]][[Mutualism|"Proudhonian socialism"]] or [[File:Reactsoc.png]][[Reactionary socialism|"reactionary socialism"]].[[File:Engels drawing of the Young Hegelians .jpg|thumb|A sketch by Fredrich Engels of the young Hegelians.]]

Proto [[File:Ormarxf.png]] Marxists can be found in the 'Young Hegelian' school. The Young Hegelians, also known as the Left Hegelians or the Hegelian Left was a group of [[File:Cball-Germany.png]] German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel] in 1831, reacted to and wrote about his ambiguous legacy. Often expanding on the idea of a 'dialectic'. This is where dialectical materialism find's its roots, particularly in the works of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Feuerbach Ludwig Feuerbach].

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing [[File: Soc-h.png]] socialist, [[File:Commie.png]] communist and [[File:Awaj.png]] anarchist groups and trade unions that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen's meeting held in St. Martin's Hall, [[File:Cball-England.png]] London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in [[File:Cball-Switzerland.png]] Geneva.

In Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread Revolutions of 1848. The next major phase of revolutionary activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the IWA in 1864. At its peak, the IWA reported having 8 million members while police reported 5 million. In 1872, it split in two over conflicts between statist and anarchist factions and dissolved in 1876. The Second International was founded in 1889.

Due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to [[File:Ormarxf.png]] Marx's influence came from the [[File:Mutalist.png]] mutualists, who opposed [[File:Commie.png]] communism and [[File: Sec.png]] statism. However, shortly after [[File:Acol.png]] Mikhail Bakunin and his followers (called collectivists while in the International) joined in 1868, the First International became polarized into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Perhaps the clearest differences between the groups emerged over their proposed strategies for achieving their visions of socialism. The anarchists grouped around Bakunin favored (in [[File:Socan2.png]] Peter Kropotkin's words) "direct economical struggle against [[File:Cap.png]] capitalism, without interfering in the political parliamentary agitation". Marxist thinking at that time focused on parliamentary activity. For example, when the new German Empire of 1871 introduced male suffrage, many German socialists became active in the Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany.

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