The Radical Philosopher: Karl Marx Part 3: Class Struggle
We take off from where we left things in our previous post in this series of biography on Karl Marx. You can click here to know what the last post was all about.
Socialism in a backward country comes with its own problems. Despite the fact that it sort to give everyone decent conditions of life, It also meant demanding a lot from the population for the resources needed to establish a strong industrial and military state. China is a perfect example to illustrate the concept described above. Millions of Chinese lost their lives during Mao’s communist regime. Currently, the Chinese government is trying to popularize Marx’s ideas through books, social media and even press. At the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, It was decided that by the mid of this century, China will be a well-established modern socialist state.
Paris
In early 1843, a Prussian Census forced Karl Marx’s newspaper to shut its doors. He then decided to leave for Paris and got married to his childhood sweetheart that same year. Paris in the mid-19th century was a safe abode for free-thinkers of all types. There, they debated socialist and communist ideas e.g. the abolition of private properties. Marx had the opportunity to meet another young philosopher and revolutionary who had written about the misery of the working class in England which got Marx’s attention. He then decided to abandon journalism and focus more on political and economic philosophy.
This was the period he started writing about Class struggle and the self-emancipation of the Proletariats. Notable sentences in the book include: “In bourgeois’ society, all members of the society are formally equal and have equal rights. In reality the Proletariat can only choose where to sell their labor, and choose where they will be trained. Although workers are paid for their labor, what they produce is not in service of their own needs but the needs of their employer. The worker produces grains for the mills of another. The worker is trapped in a vicious cycle. His labor directly increases the wealth of the capitalist which all he serves is to intensify his own exploitation. Society as a whole will lose more and more, splitting into two (2) great classes directly facing each other.''
When jobs are at risk, Marx’s ideas usually come into play. An example is seen when some plant workers in France, took up the fight against the plans of their parent company; General Electric to slash jobs. The French Communist Party took the responsibility and decided to support the workers fight. The French Communist Party was very strong after the Second World War because it had played a vital role in fighting off Fascism in Europe at that time. It is worth noting that most of the important social and economic advances are communist in origin e.g. social security which was introduced and used by a communist Minister in 1945.
A fourth post in the series will be published soon enough for your consumption. Do stay tuned. Kindly drop comments and suggestions and share with others if you find the posts informative and educative enough.
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AS COMPOSED BY QUE