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Pioneer of Communism- Karl Marx

Acts of the Apostles describes wealth distribution as a social good, (Acts 2:44-45), “All who
believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and
possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.

Karl Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and in a
1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people from around the world
as he was the architect of communism. The Prussian political economist, journalist, and
activist, and author of the seminal works was born on May 5, 1818 and died on March 14,
1883.

His most notable writings was the The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital which has
influenced generations of political leaders and socio-economic thinkers such as Vladimir
Lenin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkrumah, Xi Jinping, Thomas Sankara. Marx
also known as the Father of Communism, his ideas have quoted controversy as it gave rise to
rise to furious, revolutions, the ruling class was toppled in favour of the communist ideology,
and laid the cornerstone for political systems that still rule over more than 20 percent of the
world's population (People's Republic of China, Republic of Cuba, Lao People's Democratic
Republic, North Korea and Vietnam).

Karl Marx theories about society, economics, and politics, which are collectively known as
Marxism, argue that all society progresses through the contention of class struggle. He was
critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and upper classes
purely for their own benefit, and predicted that it would inevitably produce internal tensions
which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Marx
and Engels wrote in the The Communist Manifesto: "What the bourgeoisie therefore
produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat (those
who earn their living by manual labor) are equally inevitable.

Capitalism describes an economic system in which the means of production (such as


factories) are privately owned. The bourgeoisie are the 'haves', the middle and upper classes.
They have economic and political power. They own land and run businesses, in general they
are capitalists. The proletariat 'have not’s are the lower classes, those who do not have

By - Frank Sanyapanze
+263 712 258 910
franksanyapanze@gmail.com
economic or political power. The proletariat provide labour on the land or work in the
businesses owned by the bourgeoisie.

"In "Das Kapital Volume Two," Marx developed to a certain degree a more enlightened
analysis of the real economy than he had done in Volume One. He attempted to outline how
money circulated amongst the key market participants: Workers (in their role as consumers),
capitalists (Industrialist), money-owners and money-lenders (Banks), and traders
(wholesalers and retailers). Its main synopsis include but not limited to the power of money
to conceal everyday exploitation, the arbitrary nature of working conditions, and the modern-
day alienation brought on by unjust working conditions. It gave rise to many well-known
concepts. These include historical materialism, a system of historical analysis that asks how
the economy elucidates power dynamics at any given time, and commodity fetishism, the
drive that leads members of a capitalist society to think constantly of money and to strive for
it, often to the detriment of their wellbeing.

Marx writes that capitalists try to exploit exchange value: they sell commodities with the goal
to always increasing their own profit. They have no obligation to workers, and while
appearing just and fair, they do not have to acknowledge the exchange value – the full
magnitude of labour – that goes into making a product. Under capitalism, workers are only
paid for their use value, but capitalist business owners are paid for their use value and their
exchange value. Thus, capitalists severely exploit workers. Workers are not in a position to
fight for their rights because capitalists own the stores, machines, factories, and other means
of production, capitalists have all the power and get to dictate how people are to spend their
workdays.

Marx wanted to better understand how so many people could be in poverty in a world where
there was an abundance of wealth. His answer was simple: capitalism. According to
sociologist John Macionis, the wealthy and the working poor ''have opposing interests and are
separated by a vast gulf of wealth and power, making class conflict inevitable.''

Marxisim brought about revolutionaries who took power in Soviet Union (Russia) in 1917,
and later in other countries such as East Germany, Hungary, Congo-Brazzaville, Cambodia
and Mongolia. Even today, after Marxism-inspired state communism has been thoroughly
discredited by the dark experiences of history, innumerable leftist groups define themselves
as "Marxists" and cling to the bearded economist's ideas with quasi-religious intensity. Many

By - Frank Sanyapanze
+263 712 258 910
franksanyapanze@gmail.com
insist that Marx's theories were largely correct — and the disasters of real-world Communism
only occurred because his ideas were not implemented correctly.

One main reason why communism failed in Eastern Europe was due to the human nature.
Under economic communism, control over production is supposed to be given to the workers,
ostensibly with the guidance and oversight of a strong central State. Communist farmers who
produced corn, for instance, would donate the vast majority of their yearly crops to the
government; in exchange, the government would provide each farmer with a supply of corn
for personal use, along with a portion of all the other goods produced by other self-controlled
communes. Unfortunately, the timely distribution of goods was severely hampered by
corruption and mismanagement, a common problem in communist countries. Many citizens
felt the provisions they were given were fair and satisfactory, while many others felt
restricted and did not have enough means to survive.

Also, lack of innovation as it is one of the most important aspects that offers cohesion to
society. Without change, society will fall prey to archaic practices. As a closed society, the
Soviet Union focused more on production than actual innovation, an action that led to its
early demise. The communist society founded on equality states that regarding remuneration,
a factory worker earns as much as a neurosurgeon. Furthermore, people performing tougher
jobs life working in the ER or handling a nuclear reactor did not receive incentives for their
work, because that would anger the ordinary worker. Without incentives, people performing
tougher jobs will not be motivated enough to work better or to innovate.

Creativity was not a priority in the communist society they valued utilitarianism. This meant
that every action performed within the state had to have a palpable ending. Artistical
endeavors such as poetry, sculpture, and painting, were not considered a good means of
making a living.

Adaptation to outside conditions is a key reasons why the communist ideology faced critisim
in most countries. The Soviet Union faced the idea of dissolution from the moment it decided
to close its eyes to what happens beyond its borders. Unlike Soviet Union the model practiced
in China, managed to survive this long because it was able to react to outside stimuli such as
the global economy and social changes.

Why does he matter now!

By - Frank Sanyapanze
+263 712 258 910
franksanyapanze@gmail.com
Catastrophic economic times have revived the interest in Marx and Marxist thought. Sales of
Das Kapital, Marx's masterpiece of political economy, have soared ever since 2007-8 (Global
Financial Crisis), as have those of The Communist Manifesto. Their sales rose as British
workers bailed out the banks to keep the degraded system going and the snouts of the rich
firmly in their troughs while the rest of us struggle in debt, job insecurity or worse.

There was one social element according to Marx would determine where one fit in the social
class hierarchy: that of who controls the means of production, meaning who owned the
resources necessary to produce what people needed to survive.

In the industrial society, the aristocracy was replaced by the capitalists (also known as the
bourgeoisie). These were the people who owned businesses with the goal of earning a profit,
and the working class was replaced by the proletariat, the people who labored for wages

Marx believed that this system was inherently unfair. Under capitalism, Marx believed that
the workers would become poorer and poorer and experience alienation. Alienation is seen as
the workers becoming more distanced from, or isolated from, their work, resulting in a
feeling of powerlessness.

Marx gave a fair bit of attention in "Das Kapital" to the question of how businessmen initially
obtain enough money to buy factories. He termed this "the problem of primitive
accumulation," and showed that it was nearly impossible to acquire an initial fortune by
saving up excess money from selling one's labor. He argued that the original sources of
fortunes large enough to launch a person, or a family, into the capitalist class were almost
always some form of theft, such as the seizure and privatization of public lands, acquisition
of booty through war, colonialism, enslavement of workers, or financial fraud.

Some say Marx's words have struck a chord particularly with people frustrated with what are
seen as the excesses of the banking world.

Capitalists try to keep wages as low as possible in order to maximize this surplus value. But
one day this exploitation becomes so intolerable that workers rebel and capitalism is
overthrown. Is this a rough outline of "Das Kapital"?

In 2008, Reuters reports that a survey of Germans found 52% believed the free-market
economy was "unsuitable" and 43% said they wanted socialism back. Also a 2017 survey
published in The Western Journal noted that “more millennials would prefer to live in a
socialist country (44%) than in a capitalist one (42%). The percentage of millennials who
By - Frank Sanyapanze
+263 712 258 910
franksanyapanze@gmail.com
would prefer socialism to capitalism is a full 10 points higher than that of the general
population.”

With the change of perception about capitalism, Marx never explored in detail how his
theories were meant to work — and as it turns out, it didn't hence how are we supposed to
implement it if it were to be implemented in the modern world?

By - Frank Sanyapanze
+263 712 258 910
franksanyapanze@gmail.com

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