World History

Notes 2-22-09

Socialism and Communism Alternative Visions for European Modernity


Precursors to Marx

Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
Parasites: court, aristocracy, lawyers, churchmen
Doers: scientists, engineers, and industrialist
Parasites should give way, once and for all, to the doers, who would carefully plan and guide the economy

Charles Fourier (1772-1837)A Vision of harmony
Ideal communityevery days schedule planned in minute detailmore like a prison than a paradise
Deeply regimentedeach community referred to as a Phalanx
Each day, two hours each for a session with gardeners group, session with reapers group, session with forestry
series, session with manufacturing group, session with irrigation series, session at the exchange, etc.
Idea that humanity requires variety to flourishpeople should participate in a range of interactions
Regimentation stemming from a belief in scientific efficiencystemming from the Enlightenment

Trying to avoid the model of capitalismfactory owners getting rich, workers are virtually reduced to slavery
Factories where people did the same thing for 14 hours a daybarely able to eke out a living
Repulsion of manufacturing districts like Manchesterhellish pollution, no clean water, streets as sewers, etc.

Self-sufficient communities of 1600 people living communal on 5,000 acres devoted to agriculture and industry
Several utopian communities founded along the lines he described (mainly in the U.S.)
Called for end to marriage (which he saw as a kind of prostitution); unions only by free love and sexual freedom

Louis Blanc (1811 1882)
Full power of the state should be devoted to arranging the economy so that everyone will be employed

Joseph Proudhon (1809 -1865)
Property defined as profit stolen from the working class; the worker was the true source of all wealth

General Views:
Horrified by working conditions in factories in Great Britain
Sees prevailing economic system as unjustassociated imperialism with the industrial revolution
Saw a deep problem with unfettered capitalism, questioned the authority and legitimacy of the wealthy classes
Distrusted private enterpriseeconomic competition only destructive and serves to feed the cycle of abuse
Need to put bounds on the wealthy, but who is more powerful than the wealthy? Only the State!
Viewed state ownership as a means for economic equalitybelief in utopian economic planning

Marx (1818-83)
Son of a German-Jewish lawyer who converted to Christianity, but himself an atheist
Collaborating for several decades with Friedrich Engels (1820-95), son of a textile factory owner
Engels had been sent to Manchester to run his fathers factory, but instead went to Berlin to studymet Marx

Marx brushed aside the ideas of the French socialiststoo utopian to be practical
Thought his own ideas offered a more scientific solution: looked at wages, statisticsactually saw the wealthier
becoming wealthier and the poor becoming poorer
Saw this could not last, proposed that the working class would rise up and capitalism would implode
Not a utopian concept, but a carefully researched exposition about what actually happens to wealth

Tapped into Adam Smiths Labor theory of valuelabor of the workers, not just land or products, has value
Saw power of the worker as a weapon to attack capitalism; the workers do the work and are therefore most
valuable, yet the factory owners and entrepreneurs who got the wealth, when profits should go to the workers

Tapped into Hegels concept of the dialectic progression of Idea
Embraced the notion of the dialectic, but argued that the fundamental reality was material reality instead of
Hegels vague notion of The Idea

Dialectical Materialism
o All things are in movement in evolution; all change comes through the clash of antagonistic elements
o Historydevelopment through time of a single unfolding of eventsnecessary, logical, deterministic
o Basic element in society is material realityeconomic relationships determine what kinds of religions,
philosophies, governments, laws, and moral values people accept
o Thus, the history of human society the history of class struggle

Two Stages of Revolution (the first must precede the second)
o First stage the Bourgeois revolutionviolent overthrow of feudalism (French revolution the example)
o After the first revolution, the bourgeois class develops, naturally brings into being the working class
o Laborers no longer serfs under a lord, but a modern industrial working class under entrepreneurs
o Working class abused by factory owners, with all remaining profits taken by shopkeepers and landlords
o Abuse continues until eventually the proletariat working class will develop a consciousness
o Second stage the Socialist revolutionproletariat takes over, abolishes property, forms classless society

19
th
century developments
Rise of socialist parties and movements around Europe
Socialism not very radical or revolutionary by the end of the 19
th
century
Looked more toward gradual change and improvement of the working class, usually more moderate
Workers gaining the right to vote, able to change state policies; less motivation to overthrow the government
Growth of labor unions reinforces trend toward moderationbetter hours and wages through compromise

Capitalism as Imperialism (used here as colonialism)
Capitalism requires access to cheap raw materials
Requires going overseas to acquire raw resourcesincentive to take over other countries for land
Where is there demand? Not just Europe, but selling to the undeveloped world
Their raw products come to you, then you sell the products back to themutter exploitation

The First Socialist RevolutionRussia
Leninexiled to Siberia for association with Marxists, brother killed by secret police
Stayed in Europe, met with other Russian communists, eventually returned to Russia
Russias context different than what Marx had imaginedagrarian, not industrializednot really a working class

Lenin had to mold Marxist theory to fit the Russian context: used the peasantry instead of the working class
Promised that it was possible to have a proletariat revolution without having a bourgeois revolution
Vanguard of the Proletariat, consisting of motivated intellectuals, the Party, and the masses
Voluntarismrevolution must be willed into beingdifferent from Marxs concept of the inevitable revolution
Lenin using all the language of Marxrevolution, bourgeois, proletariat, class warfarebut different ideas
Critical of nationalism, which was a particularistic bourgeois ideology, whereas Communism was an international
ideology that could appeal to all workers of the world

Final Thoughts:
Socialism became popular for a reasonfor many, socialist ideals seemed much preferable to abusive capitalism
Marx was right that wealth tends to congregate
It is possible to agree with his descriptions but disagree with his prescriptions