Marxism emerged from the debris of the industrial revolution. The factory system had uprooted thousands of people and put them into ghetto-like situations as there was no fixed wage and working hours, and exploitation was rampant. Karl Marx, like early socialist thinkers like Saint Simon and Robert Owen, was peeved at their precarious living conditions and pathetic situations. He clearly understood that industrialization was wreaking havoc on workers’ lives.
He wanted to transform society on human grounds, so he underlined the contradiction inherent in a society working on crass profit, free competition, and laissez-faire principles. Marxism is one of the most powerful ideologies of the 20th century. Jean-Paul Sartre rightly said: If one wants to understand the 20th century, one must understand Marxism. Some have termed it as the dominant ideology of the last millennium. Marxism has some tenets like Historical materialism and class struggle that must be understood.
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Historical Materialism
Marx believes that economic activities are the guiding forces of human history. Hence, when dialectical materialism is applied to the society, it becomes historical materialism. Everything ranging from political system, law, and jurisprudence to morality is decided and derived from the way economic activities are carried on. Marx has observed that ‘the history of the society is the history of material production and of the contradiction between the material productive forces and relations of production that arise on their basis.
The change in the mode of production brings forth corresponding changes in the production relations. The transition of human society from primitive to slave society, slave society to feudal society and bourgeoisie, and finally classless society. Thus, the basic assumption of Marxism is that any changes in the mode of production give rise to corresponding changes in the social framework. It gives rise to new social formation and the process is continued until a classless society is established.
Engels sums up historical materialism in his words, ‘that in a historical epoch the prevailing mode of production and exchange, and social organization necessarily following from it, from the basis on which can be built up and from which alone can be explained the political and intellectual history of that epoch’.
Class Struggle
Marx underlined the prevalence of permanent conditions of social conflict between two economic classes. At every stage of history, the working mode of production had given rise to two classes – haves and have-nots or exploiters or exploited. Moreover, these two classes have always been at war and conflict with each other. Every change in the economic life of society gives rise to the emergence of new classes. Some own the means of production, others are dependent on them for their existence.
The conflict is inevitable because those who own the means of production give them low wages. Moreover, they corner the ‘surplus value’ which is the difference between the value produced by the workforce and the actual wage given to them. The owner of the means of production indulges in the exploitation to maximize his profit. On the other hand, the wage-earner of laborers’ conditions deteriorate due to low wages and exploitation. This class struggle ends with the overthrow of the exploiting class by the exploited one and the establishment of a classless society.
Hence, both historical materialism and class struggle are important tenets of Marxism.