Key Concepts in Marxist Theory: Class, Labor, and Revolution

Part 1: Key Concepts in Marxist Theory

Social Class

A social class is a group of people with the same material conditions of existence and an awareness of these common elements. The division of society into social classes arises from the division of labor and private property. The class struggle begins when the exploited class becomes the antithesis of the ruling class and will cause a revolution.

Communism

Communism is a socio-economic system in which there is no private ownership of the means of production; instead, these belong to the community. It is the final stage in the development of mankind, and with it begins the true history of mankind. It is characterized by the abolition of the division of labor, control of production, and the dissolution of alienation.

Consciousness

Consciousness is a set of ideas or representations that a man or social class has of themselves, their place in the world, and the story that is conditioned by its material production. Spiritual life (socio-legal ideas, morals, philosophical and religious views) emanates from material production.

Division of Labor

The division of labor is the progressive fragmentation and specialization of work associated with the development of production and the origin of hierarchical relationships of domination. Its manifestation is the rural-urban separation and physical versus intellectual work. The capitalist division of labor turns the producer into a partial laborer, forced forever to do a certain operation. Communism must overcome this.

Productive Forces

Productive forces are a set of means of production and human energy production techniques used in the work process. The productive forces change throughout history, determined above all by the degree of development of the means of production.

History

History is the only science; it is the progressive development of different modes of production, governed by necessary laws that predict that dialectical contradictions are overcome. No action is an imaginary subject or a collection of dead facts. Historical materialism is the theory of history.

Men

Men are real individuals, as they live. Individuals who are forced into certain relationships to produce their livelihoods and meet their needs. They are the true subjects of history.

Ideology

Ideology is a false consciousness that believes that consciousness determines life, whereas real life determines consciousness. It is a set of ideas that show a distorted representation of the lives of humans, masking reality and impeding change. The origin of this false way of thinking is the unequal sharing of work. Every ideology is conservative, although it may appear progressive as it seeks to change reality from the criticism of ideas.

Means of Production

Means of production include land, capital, tools, machines (and the technology and science related to them), and raw materials from which production takes place.

Nature

Nature is the sensuous external world, the matter from which and with which the human being produces his material life, so that nature is nothing without man.

Foreign and Hostile Power

Productive activity stands against the human being and enslaves him, rather than allowing him to dominate it freely and contribute to his realization. The cause is the division of labor (and property), which requires each individual to perform only certain tasks without being able to get rid of them. It is the equivalent of economic alienation.

Production

Production is the transformation of an object, whether natural or already worked, into a given product through human activity and work.

Private Property

Private property is the ownership of the means of production and what is produced in a mode of production by the dominant class, which rests on the exploitation of men by others. Communism seeks to abolish the power to appropriate social products, to appropriate the work of others.

Relations of Production

Relations of production are the links established between people according to their position in the production process and include: forms of ownership of the means of production, work allocation or division of labor, the exchange of products, forms of production sharing, and the organization of society into social classes (i.e., classes that own the means of production or working-class, dominant or dominated). Under communism, relations are based on mutual cooperation.

Revolution

Revolution is the destruction or overthrow carried out by a revolutionary class, the real base of a company, which also changes the cultural and ideological superstructure. To change the way of thinking of men, it is necessary to destroy the actual social relations from which it arises. It is a consequence of the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production and of class struggle. The communist revolution will dissolve all forms of alienation.

Natural Society – Communist Society

Natural society is one in which there is no freedom, in which the worker does not dominate their working conditions but is dominated by them. These are all societies of “prehistory.” Communist society will dissolve alienation, and collective producer associations will monitor their working conditions. Then, the true “history” begins.

Civil Society

Civil society is the economic sphere of life and interests of men against the state or political society. In theory, it is an area of common interests, but in reality, it serves the ruling class. Civil society is not really expressive of the state, but the state is the expression of civil society. Beyond the consideration of political history based on the actions of commanders and men of the state, civil society is the real stage of history.

Real Life

Real life is the business and trade of material things by men. It is the set of productive forces and social relations of production that define a particular mode of production. Keep in mind that intellectual production is conditioned by material production.