Making of the Modern World

Making of the Modern World Lecture Socialism

Outline • Introduction 2. Marx and Engels 3. Revolution or evolution? 4. Lenin and his critics 5. Socialism goes global 6. Outlook

Influences • German philosophy: Immanuel Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel • English and Scottish political economy: David Ricardo and Adam Smith • Utopian Socialism (Fourier, Saint-Simon, Owen)

“My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of 'the Idea,' he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of 'the Idea.' With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.” Karl Marx Dialectics (very simple definition): develop in three steps: Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis (new quality)

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

Alienation • From the product, which as soon as it is created, is taken away from its producer. • From his productive activity (work), which is experienced as a torment – division of labour reduces him to small cog in production process. • From his species-being (Gattungswesen – human nature), for humans produce blindly and not in accordance with their truly human powers. • From other human beings, as the cash nexus replaces mutual need

All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletariat movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority

Karl Marx (1818-1883) • Materialism: material or physical conditions are the basis of human development

Superstructure: Ideas, values, beliefs, laws The state Relations of Production Property relations, relations to objects of work, organisation of production Forces of Production: Material resources, technology

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.

Communism Classless society Socialism Dictatorship of the Proletariat SOCIALIST REVOLUTION Expropriation of Expropriators Capitalism Bourgeoisie against Proletariat Feudalism Feudal lords against Peasants Slaveholder Society Slaveholders against Slaves Primitive Communism Hunter-gatherer societies

Owners and workers • Owners exploit workers • Workers are oppressed wage slaves • Workers are indoctrinated by capitalist ideology and religion (false consciousness) • ‘The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range.’ (Marx) • ‘Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.’ (Communist Manifesto)

The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat. (Communist Manifesto)

Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864) Advocate of parliamentary democracy – road to socialism

Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932) Marx’ prophesies proved wrong: no pauperisation, no disappearance of middle classes, not fewer, but more capitalists Perspective for social democracy in German Empire: after end of anti-socialist laws, strong representation in parliament, 1912 strongest party, Social-democratic organisations, press, clubs, trade unions Revolution not only way to socialism, parliamentarisation – perhaps an evolutionary process

Socialist parties in autocratic Russia illegal and persecuted • Reflection of State: autocratic state – authoritarian socialist party • Split of Russian Social Democratic Party in 1903: organisation – minority (Mensheviks) mass party, majority (Bolsheviks) – cadre party, members dedicated to revolution • Party doctrine: professional revolutionaries, • Fought against revisionism, saw himself as orthodox Marxist • But also revisionist: industrialist society not precondition of revolution Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov) (1870-1924)

Lenin’s pecularities • Weakest link in imperialistic system: Russia – imperial power and colony at the same time • Age of imperialism: revolution in a single imperialist country (Russia) brings about fall of whole system – world revolution, because of crisis of global economy – chain reaction • Dictatorship of the proletariat in a backward country like Russia • In Russia: Alliance of workers and overwhelming majority of population: poor and middle peasants • The vanguard of the working class (= Communist Party) as an interim ruler until world revolution and help from more advanced countries, then self-government of workers and peasants (withering away of the state)

Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919) Emphasis on spontaneity of working class in revolution, self-organisation Criticism of Bolshevik revolution: • voluntaristic • despotic and opportunistic • undemocratic Russian Revolution will end in a dictatorship not in a socialist democracy

Rosa Luxemburg “Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party — even if they are quite numerous — is not freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters. The essence of political freedom depends not on the fanatics of "justice", but rather on all the invigorating, beneficial, and deterrent effects of dissenters. If "freedom" becomes "privilege", the workings of political freedom are broken. “

Leninism and Stalinism Leninism revolutionary, materialist ideology based on Marxism one party state + dictatorship of proletariat + nationalised industry + planned economy + aims of revolution and socialism justify all means, certain plurality in Bolshevik party accepted Stalinism Leninism + excessive use of force, rule of terror, cult of the leader (Stalin), system of camps, people with different views imprisoned or killed, no pluralism allowed inside Bolshevik party

Soviet Union: model for socialist state building • Soviet development: role model – only one path to socialism: dominant until 1950: war communism followed by New Economic Policy (with capitalist elements), collectivisation of agriculture accompanied by industrialisation with focus on heavy industry (ideological aim: creating working class – mass base for communism) • Soviet Army takes revolution to other countries (setting example for China, Cuba) • After Stalin’s death: return to more Leninist principles, camps dissolved, de-Stalinisation, more Leninist than Stalinist • Oppressive but no use of terror • Foreign policy: wars can be avoided (after invention of nuclear weapons)

Four leaders Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) 1893-1976 Leader of Chinese communist party Kim Il-Sung 1912-1994 Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Fidel Castro 1926-2016 Cuban leader of the 1959 revolution Secretary of the CCP Hồ Chí Minh 1890-1969 President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)

What do they have in common? • All leaders of extra-European communist parties • All leaders of communist states • All had exposure to the Western world • All were exposed to the world of agriculture • All had connections to the military

What do they have in common? • Nationalist tendencies, perhaps originating with experiences of colonial occupation in their youth • Leaders of politically isolated states • Cult of personality

Liberalism to Marxism How did the transition from liberal nationalists to radical Marxists come about? Students of the history of relations between the first and the third worlds realised that capitalism was impoverishing the majority on a global scale. There seemed to be a connection between imperialism and capitalism, and it was not working in favour of the majority of the population in the non-European world (see here Lenin’s views of the nature of imperialism) Socialism seemed to offer an alternative for understanding the relationship between imperialism and capitalism, and offer solutions Promising young bureaucrats returned home as flaming Marxists.

Impact of world war I Peace Treaty Negotiations in Versailles in 1919. Woodrow Wilson offered self-determination of nations, but in practice their requests were denied. National intellectuals in colonies disappointed from victorious Western democracies – looking for alternatives Egyptian women demonstrating in the 1919 Revolution, precipitated by the British-ordered exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlûl

Communism, decolonisation and the Cold War • After 1945 Soviet Union no longer isolated • In Western Societies: Communist scare • Communist movement is no longer mono-centric: Yugoslavia, China, later Cuba • Fear in the West that more and more previous colonies would fall under Communist influence • Korean war (1950-1953), Vietnam war (1956/65-1975) – successful and failed attempt to contain communism • Soviet Union since Khrushchev: peaceful coexistence, reluctant to support communist insurgencies • In several Asian, African and South American states communist guerrilla fighters fighting against ‘national bourgeoisie’ and against (mostly) American economic imperialism • Unrest in Soviet camp: 1953 GDR, 1956: Poland and Hungary, 1968: Czechoslovakia

Communism, reformismandthe New Left • Social-democratic parties completely embrace reformism (SPD 1959 eliminates any traces of Marxism in its programme) • New protest movements in 1960s • New left and student movements • Marxism inspires theorists and intellectuals (Sartre, Marcuse and others, also historians - Hobsbawm)

Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe 1989 ff • End of socialism or communism as an alternative to capitalism? • Some revival of socialist ideas in South America Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) • After financial crash sales of Das Kapital (Karl Marx) in Germany went up • Increasing gap between top earners and low earners in many ‘developed’ societies • Child labour, exploitation of workers in many ‘less developed’ countries • What will be the future of capitalism?

Making of the Modern World