Marxism and Praxis: Class Struggle and Revolution
**If Marxism is a Philosophy of Praxis, What is Meant by Praxis?**
**In Which Respect is it Marxism, and in What Context?**
In the second half of the 19th century, capitalism arose, and its contradictions were already visible. In this context, the philosophy of Karl Marx sought to encourage and conduct awareness and revolution of the workers and oppressed class against class and bourgeois society. With respect to Hegel, Marx retained the notion of dialectic but from a materialist standpoint. History itself, in the inevitable process, step by step, leads to eventual revolution. Feuerbach takes the concept of man as material. But according to Marx, that materialism is purely theoretical; the new materialism has to be revolutionary praxis. Another important influence is French socialism, taking the idea of class struggle and some of its socialist and revolutionary claims. Marx says that to achieve a socialist or communist society, violent revolution and the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat are required. Marx did not merely describe a society as it is; therefore, he relied on studies of English economists.
**What is Marxism?**
The starting point is the human material needs that must be met by nature. Therefore, humans must work to meet them and enter into a dialectical relationship with nature and with other men. In their relationship with nature, productive forces result, and in their relations with other men, social production relations result. Among the first are included everything involved in the production of goods, including the product itself. Among the latter are the relationships established between people to get those products. Together, social productive forces and relations of production form the economic infrastructure, while the value system of beliefs and norms that exists in society will be its superstructure. The decisive element of history is the economic structure, and the superstructure is its reflection. The whole social structure, both infrastructure and superstructure, is the mode of production. The ruling ideas of each age are the idealized expression of the dominant material relationships. Thus, the motor of history is revolutionary praxis.
**Historical Progress and Modes of Production**
If history is determined by the specific forms of production, consumption, and property, we can distinguish progress in the history of several modes of production that predominate: the Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal, and the bourgeois. The capitalist system is a conflict, the unequal division of social classes. The proletariat can only achieve a dominant position if they delete the existing property type. However, for the final historical rise of the proletariat to take place, it is necessary that the proletariat be aware of their exploited condition and its revolutionary possibilities. However, the upper classes try to prevent this awareness by controlling the culture, especially through ideology. Ideology can only be removed with practice, eliminating the form of production base.
**Proletariat Awareness and the Contradictions of Capitalism**
If the ruling class controls ideology and the cultural level, how can the proletariat become aware of their situation? According to Marx, there are some contradictions of capitalism that can promote this awareness. The concentration of capital at one pole and poverty and misery at the other, the pauperization of the proletariat, the division of labor, and alienation may be stronger than ideological control and force the proletariat, together with revolutionary ideas, to become aware.
**The Keys of Revolutionary Praxis in the Communist Manifesto**
What are these ideas? The keys of revolutionary praxis are expressed by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto. The Communists, they say, put the common interests of the entire proletariat, representing the interest of the labor movement in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. They have theoretical and practical knowledge of the revolutionary dynamic, from the study of the relationships that produce the class struggle. They want the abolition of private property. They support every revolutionary movement that is directed against the existing social and political situation. Their purpose is the violent overthrow of the established social order. According to Marx and Engels, workers are realizing that, no matter how much they organize in unions and strikes, there will be a limit to what employers can give them, and they will rise up to conquer the state. Socialism is the first objective of the revolution and must begin with the seizure of political power through violent revolution.
**Communism as the Ultimate Goal**
The main goal is communism, but it can only be reached after a transition period and through the dictatorship of the proletariat. Communism does not eliminate the right to enjoy property but whether to use that property to exploit the work of others. Therefore, in the socialist phase, property is owned collectively, and wages are distributed according to a fixed principle. Since political power is possible, the centralization of production and distribution that tended to capitalism and so to increase the capacity of the productive forces will allow the elimination of alienated labor and the final release. The Commune council shall be composed of the state, chosen by universal suffrage, and politicians, judges, and other administration officials are also chosen. This form of social organization is based on the disappearance of the class character of the state, which in turn allows the disappearance of the state itself. The overcoming of alienation can only be achieved by abolishing the division of labor. The abolition of the division of labor will lead to the abolition of alienation. Communism is the realm of freedom; men work freely to be themselves and achieve the fullness that the past denied. The achievement of universal suffrage is the only way for full political participation. For example, the family will disappear, as will women as private property, prostitution, and the nation.
**The Influence of Marx’s Thought**
The influence of Marx’s thought extends, as is typical in his philosophy and practice, beyond the theoretical concepts, initially to the International Association of Workers and the First International (1864), later to a range of social and political movements, ranging from communist revolutions to labor movements, workers, students, ideological and philosophical, as art theory, history, science, or as a critical tool of capitalist society. However, their revolutionary predictions were wrong in many ways.