Marxism

Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. Marx drew on G.W.F. Hegel's philosophy, the political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and theorists of 19th century French socialism, and was perhaps inspired by the earlier Paris Commune, an organized civil protest in France and brief socialist ruling of Paris, to develop a critique of society which he claimed was both scientific and revolutionary. This critique achieved its most systematic (albeit unfinished) expression in his masterpiece, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, more commonly known as Das Kapital. Today, outside the officially "communist" nations, membership of Marxist political parties is relatively small, but Marxism continues to enjoy significant intellectual respect in many circles.

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Since Marx's death in 1883, various groups around the world have appealed to Marxism as the theoretical basis for their politics and policies, which have often proved to be dramatically different and conflicting. One of the first major political splits occurred between the advocates of 'revisionism', who argued that the transition to socialism could occur within existing bourgeois parliamentarian frameworks, and communists, who argued that the transition to a socialist society required a revolution and the dissolution of the capitalist state. The 'revisionist' tendency (later known as Social Democracy) came to be dominant in most of the parties affiliated to the Second International and these parties supported their own governments in World War One. This issue caused the communists to break away and form their own parties which became members of the Third International. The contemporary meanings of these terms was initially very different: Lenin, for example, was considered a social democrat until the mutation of the latter movement.

Related Topics:
1883 - Bourgeois - Communist - Social Democracy - Third International - Lenin

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Although there are still many Marxist revolutionary social movements and political parties around the world, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, relatively few countries have governments which describe themselves as Marxist. Although social democratic parties are in power in a number of Western nations, they long ago distanced themselves from their historical connections to Marx and his ideas. As of 2005, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and the People's Republic of China had governments in power which describe themselves as socialist in the Marxist sense. However, the private sector comprised more than 50% of the Chinese economy by this time and the Vietnamese government had also partially liberalized its economy. The Laotian and Cuban states maintained strong control over the means of production. While Marx theorized that such a socialist phase would eventually give way to a classless society in which the state essentially ceases to exist and workers collectively own the means of production (communism,) such a development has yet to occur in any historical self-claimed Communist state, often due to an initial authoritarian regime's unwillingness to relinquish the power it gained in revolution. These historically communist states have generally followed a socialist, command economy model without making a transition to this hypothetical final stage.

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North Korea is another contemporary Communist state, though the official ideology of the Korean Workers' Party (originally led by Kim Il-sung and currently chaired by his son, Kim Jong-il,) Juche, does not follow doctrinaire Marxism-Leninism as had been espoused by the leadership of the Soviet Union. Libya is often thought of as a socialist state; it maintained ties with the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc and Communist states during the Cold War. Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, the leader of Libya, describes the state's official ideology as Islamic socialism, and has labelled it a third way between capitalism and Marxism.

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Some libertarian members of the laissez-faire and individualist schools of thought believe the actions and principles of modern capitalist states or big governments can be understood as "Marxist". This point of view ignores the overall vision and general intent of Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto, for qualitative change to the economic system, and focuses on a few steps that Marx and Engels believed would occur, as workers emancipated themselves from the capitalist system, such as "Free education for all children in public schools". A few such reforms have been implemented — not by Marxists but in the forms of Keynesianism, the welfare state, new liberalism, social democracy and other minor changes to the capitalist system, in most capitalist states.

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To Marxists these reforms represent responses to political pressures from working-class political parties and unions, themselves responding to perceived abuses of the capitalist system. Further, in this view, many of these reforms reflect efforts to "save" or "improve" capitalism (without abolishing it) by coordinating economic actors and dealing with market failures. Further, although Marxism does see a role for a socialist "vanguard" government in representing the proletariat through a revolutionary period of indeterminate length, it sees an eventual lightening of that burden, a "withering away of the state."

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Marxism: The Hegelian roots of Marxism ►

~ Table of Content ~

►	Introduction
►	The Hegelian roots of Marxism
►	The political-economy roots of Marxism
►	Class analysis
►	Marxist revolutions and governments
►	See also
►	External links

~ Community ~

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Latest news on marxism

Hammer and Tickle: book explores subversive Soviet jokes

Noel Malcolm reviews Hammer & Tickle, a new book about the incredible variety, ferocity and effectiveness of Soviet jokes that arose in the USSR and its satellite states: For some commentators in the 1980s, the existence of this type of humour in the communist world took on a profound significance. It demonstrated the indomitable nature of the human spirit under oppression; the fact that communism produced such a huge quantity of jokes showed how hugely oppressive it was; and the stubborn persistence of this humour played a major role in undermining Soviet rule. In the end, they said, communism was laughed out of existence. advertisement Ben Lewis, a television documentary producer with a good knowledge of Russian and German and an inquisitive but sceptical mind, has set out to test these claims. He has travelled through the former Soviet bloc, collecting jokes, inspecting police records and interviewing cartoonists, dissidents, politicians and diehard communists. The result is a fascinating book which, while written in a resolutely non-academic style (we learn perhaps a little too much about his bedroom conversations with his East German girlfriend), engages with the existing theories and argues that most of them are wrong. In the process, it also manages to tell a lot of jokes. Did communism generate an unprecedented amount of humour? Lewis studies the available evidence about humour under Nazism, and concludes that communism certainly did better... 'What is the difference between communism and capitalism?' 'Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man; communism is the exact opposite.' 'Capitalism stands on the brink of the abyss. It will soon be overtaken by communism.' 'Is it true that Marxism-Leninism is scientific?' 'No, surely not. If it were, they would have tested it on animals first.' Link, Link to Hammer and Tickle on Amazon (via 3 Quarks Daily)...

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You'll love this http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/off/716001641.htmlmovement Studying Marxism Bulgakov eventually became convinced of the impotence of this theory Under the influence of works of Russian religious thinkers (

Savage repeatedly called Obama an "Afro-Leninist"

On the June 6 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, The Savage Nation, host Michael Savage repeatedly referred to Sen. Barack Obama as an "Afro-Leninist." Savage stated: "If the other side had one decent candidate, one real conservative, he would win 70-30. But because we have a retread, a Bush III, it's going to be very doubtful as to whether or not we can avoid outright Marxism and Afro-Leninism running this country." Later in the broadcast, referring to a picture of Obama that Savage had placed on his website, he stated, "It is actually a halo Photoshopped around Obama's head. The arrogant one, the one with big ears, the man who has accomplished nothing, the Afro-Leninist -- Obama, that is." A short while later, referring to Sen. John McCain's purported refusal to, among other things, "go on any ... conservative talk show," Savage stated: "Instead, he continues to appease and appeal to those who will never vote for him. This is ... the classic behavior of the country-club, checked-pants Republican that is fundamentally finished. And maybe it's time for them to be finished. But then again, what do we have as an option? An Afro-Leninist who's achieved nothing?" Savage has previously called Obama an "Afro-Leninist." On his April 14 broadcast, Savage asserted that Obama is "a Marxist in his heart," adding, "He's an Afro-Leninist, and I know he's dangerous." Savage has also asserted that Obama is "an unknown stealth candidate who went to a madrassas in Indonesia"; has said of Obama, "I think he was hand-picked by some very powerful forces both within and outside the United States of America to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War of the middle of the 19th century"; and has stated: "[W]e, the American people, being at war with radical Islam have a -- have a need to know just exactly what kind of Muslim he was exposed to, what kind of Muslim he is, what kind of Muslim teachings he's -- he's friendly to. We have a right to know if he's a so-called friendly Muslim or one who aspires to more radical teachings." Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show. From the June 6 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation: SAVAGE: Obama is the most narcissistic candidate in the history of the presidency. Who is he? He's done nothing. What, has he cured polio and cancer while I was sleeping last night? The guy's done nothing. In 2016, he says, I'll be wrapping up my second term as president. It's astounding to me. If the other side had one decent candidate, one real conservative, he would win 70-30. But because we have a retread, a Bush III, it's going to be very doubtful as to whether or not we can avoid outright Marxism and Afro-Leninism running this country. You understand that, or don't you? [...] SAVAGE: Let's start with a picture I found of the great one, that is the great pretender, Obama. And I puzzled over this for three days, but we put it up on MichaelSavage.com. Reuters, which, as you well know, is the most whack-job of all of the media, has actually been publishing a picture of Obama with a halo around his head. And we put it up on MichaelSavage.com under the headline "Crazy media shows Obama with halo." I thought I was seeing things, but this has been up for days. It is actually a halo Photoshopped around Obama's head. The arrogant one, the one with big ears, the man who has accomplished nothing, the Afro-Leninist -- Obama, that is. And so we put it up for you. We've never seen propaganda like this. I have never seen propaganda like this for a candidate in my life. The media is a hundred percent the reason behind this invented candidate's ascent, and that's all I can tell you. We're in real trouble because on the other side of the aisle, we have a retread who has fundamentally given the middle finger to the conservative voter, who is -- that's the only audience that can get him elected, is the conservative audience. And he said he doesn't even care about them. He has said that, this moron. He said he doesn't care about the conservative audience. He won't go on -- forget about my show. He won't go on any talk -- conservative talk show. Instead, he continues to appease and appeal to those who will never vote for him. This is cons-- this is -- excuse me -- the classic behavior of the country-club, checked-pants Republican that is fundamentally finished. And maybe it's time for them to be finished. But then again, what do we have as an option? An Afro-Leninist who's achieved nothing? So there it is. We're trapped. We the people really are stuck. I don't know what the choices are, and I don't want to talk about it. I don't really want to talk about it.

Indiana Jones -- a pinko?

Joshua Glenn of the Boston Globe says: "[I]s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull really an anticommunist movie? Does Ford's character oppose the theory of a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production? Or is he instead merely an anti-Communist, i.e., opposed to a single-party regime devoted to the implementation of communist policies in, for example, the USSR? Or is Indy actually a pinko? Sounds crazy, but a couple of clues in the movie point at this possibility..." Writing at the Globe's Movie Nation blog, recently, film critic Wesley Morris noted that when Jones is placed on leave, the head of his department asks him what he plans to do: "First, Indy says, he's going to London, then there's a job offer from the University of Leipzig he might well take. Leipzig is in what was then East Germany. Indy wants to defect!" As if that weren't suspicious enough, Alex Golub, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai'i Manoa, points out at Savage Mind, an anthropological blog, that in one early scene, Jones tells a student to read V. Gordon Childe. (Childe was an eminent British prehistorian whose Marxism got him into hot water in his native Australia; during the early cold war, he maintained contact with archaeologists in the Soviet Union.) "Would a die-hard anticommunist really recommend a Marxist archaeologist to a student?" demands Golub. Link...

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