Tuesday, November 22, 2011

HISTORY 101: The Origins of American Communism and Global Socialism

November 06, 2011 01:34 AM EST

The current adminiatration has been accused of leaning as far left as it is possible to do, which means they like Marxism aka Communism aka International Socialism or Global Socialism. But how can anyone know if that is a bad thing, or even decide if there is any truth in the accusation, if they don't know what it is?

Karl Marx and His Time 1818-1883

Marx lived in Europe during the nineteenth century. That was a time when massive economic change was occurring due to the industrial revolution, when production of goods was being vastly increased using machines driven by water, steam or petroleum-generated power.

As populations grew and land became scarcer and more expensive, more and more people gave up trying to make a living on land and instead worked long hours in factories. In many cases, in order to make ends meet or raise the family living standard, women and children worked at factory jobs as well.

The 1848 Revolutions

Since working conditions were set by employers rather than the worker, dissatisfaction with working conditions naturally arose, especially as competition increased between factories and the price of manufactured goods decreased. Cheaper goods helped offset the tendency of employers to deal with price competition by cutting wages and skimping on safety in the workers' environment, but often not enough.

As a result, strikes began to occur more and more frequently. In France in 1848, strikes brought about a political revolution which toppled the government of the successful industrialist-king, Louis Philippe.

Almost immediately following the French example, revolutions broke out in other European nations. However the other nations' economies were still unindustrialized and in some, factory production was even illegal. Outside France, revolutionaries wanted governments still controlled by landowning aristocrats to allow and encourage industrialization. Several, in Austria, Hungary, and Italy, were remarkably successful in defying governments for a short time until the Austrian Emperor sent armed forces to suppress them.

The Communist Manifesto

All these developments were observed by the young Karl Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels when they collaborated on a small book which they titled The Communist Manifesto. In it Marx and Engels attempted to explain the present and future of Europe and the rest of the world in terms of their understanding of its past.

Since the previous fifty years had been most prominently marked by the Industrial Revolution and a series of political revolutions starting with the American in 1776 and followed by French revolutions in 1789, 1832 and 1848, Marx and Engels viewed historic change occurring primarily because of sudden revolutionary upheavals. The Communist Manifesto attempted to explain why they happened and what effects they had.

Marx's "Scientific" Analysis of History

Marx was also influenced in his outlook by another revolution which had occurred back in the seventeenth century, the effects of which were more than ever affecting society in his day: the "Scientific Revolution." Basically this involved applying the notion expressed by scientific philosopher Francis Bacon, that "Knowledge is power: if I know the cause, I can create or withhold the effect."

Marx looked back in history with what he believed was a "scientific' eye, to find the causes of past history so that the present could be understood and the future better managed. Scientific methodology involved starting with a hypothesis, a statement which described a cause and effect relationship, and then observing how often the cause was followed by the hypothesized effect.

Of course in real life, a person observing the vast array of past human activity has to narrow down his observations. Marx focussed on revolutions, those sudden big changes and upheavals.

After making what he considered an inevitably accurate "scientific" analysis by applying his reasoning powers to his observations from reading history, Marx decided that the main influence underlying human history was economic. People needed things to survive and be comfortable.

Private Property, Exploitation and Injustice

Marx believed that early societies had decided that the best way to provide survival and comfort was to allow property to be privately owned by individuals rather than collectively owned by everyone. Marx considered that a fatal error, because it had allowed some individuals to accumulate more productive property or "means of production" than others. They could then use that property advantage to produce and acquire even more, by striking deals with others who needed some of what they had.

Marx believed that in early societies, the main type of "productive" property was land. People could use land to feed livestock and raise crops for food, which sustained their own survival. Surpluses beyond what they needed to survive could be sold or traded for other things they wanted.

If he owned a surplus of land, a farmer or stockraiser could allow others to use some of his land to raise crops and livestock for their own survival, in exchange for some payment. In that way, the "haves," people who owned land, could enrich themselves, by in effect "exploiting" the needs of the landless"have-nots."

As this process evolved, the landowners became more and more wealthy, while the landowner used his landowning "power" so that the "serfs" who worked land they did not own were only allowed to keep enough to survive and serve the landowners. Their labor was "exploited" by the landowners as much as it possibly could be. This resulted in "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer."

The Industrial Revolution

Then along came industrial technology, and a whole new type of property became productive, factory machines. Those who had them used them to produce. They began hiring people who had no machines, to work on them to produce goods which belonged to the machine owners, thereby creating the "industrial proletariat" of machine operators. Just as when land was the main means of production, the proletarians, or factory workers, were increasingly exploited by the machine owners. "The rich got richer and the poor got poorer."

The Communist Revolution

Marx believed that when proletarians became aware of their exploitation as well as how others were being exploited, they would become angered by the economic injustice of that, and band together and revolt.

Those revolts would fail, because the government would suppress them, and employers would fire the defiant workers. Eventually the workers would realize that they must have a political revolt. They would take over the government and use that power to end the "private control of the means of production."

The new revolutionary government would take ownership of the means of production in the name of all the people. Everyone would be able to use the commonly-held means of production according to their own abilities, and the products of those efforts would be distributed to the people according to their needs. Hence the Marxist slogan "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Once this was done, Marx predicted that a sea change would occur in human nature. Greed for more wealth would virtually disappear, since no one could get any more than anyone else. Altruism or a desire to help others and contribute maximally and selflessly to the benefit of the whole would dominate human activity. Everyone's needs would be taken care of without worry. A Communist utopia would be achieved.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat

More would be needed to complete the fundamental Communist transformation.

Even after the revolution occurred and the public control of the means of production accomplished, that nation would be vigorously opposed by the "haves" of every other nation, who would become dedicated to reversing that revolution in order to preserve the "capitalistic" exploitation process from which they benefitted. Therefore, the "dictarotship of the proletariat" would require maximum centralized control in order to concentrate a great deal of productive resources to defending the nation against all the remaining capitalistic nations.

Only when the majority of those nations had had their own inevitable Communist revolution could the first and succeeding Communist nations relax. Only at that point could the "withering away of the state" or dramatic reduction of national government occur, and a harmonious "International Socialist" order established for the entire globe.

Next: How Marx's vision was modified by others since his time, and how it developed in the US.

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