Classical Marxism

The term Classical Marxism denotes the theory propounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
[citation needed]
As such, Classical Marxism distinguishes between “Marxism” as broadly perceived,
and “what Marx believed”; thus, in 1883, Marx wrote to the French labour leader Jules Guesde
and to Paul Lafargue (Marx’s son-in-law) — both of whom claimed to represent Marxist
principles — accusing them of “revolutionary phrase-mongering” and of denying the value of
reformist struggle; from which derives the paraphrase: “If that is Marxism, then I am not a
Marxist”.[4] To which, the US Marx scholar Hal Draper remarked, “there are few thinkers in
modern history whose thought has been so badly misrepresented, by Marxists and anti-Marxists
alike”.[5]

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818—14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political
economist, and socialist revolutionary, who addressed the matters of alienation and exploitation
of the working class, the capitalist mode of production, and historical materialism. He is famous
for analysing history in terms of class struggle, summarised in the initial line introducing the
Communist Manifesto (1848): “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles”. His ideas were influential in his time, and it was greatly expanded by the successful
Bolshevik October Revolution of 1917 in Imperial Russia.

Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820–5 August 1895) was a nineteenth century German
political philosopher and Karl Marx’s co-developer of communist theory. Marx and Engels met
in September 1844; discovering that they shared like views of philosophy and socialism, they
collaborated and wrote works such as Die heilige Familie (The Holy Family). After the French
deported Marx from France in January 1845, Engels and Marx moved to Belgium, which then
permitted greater freedom of expression than other European countries; later, in January 1846,
they returned to Brussels to establish the Communist Correspondence Committee.

In 1847, they began writing The Communist Manifesto (1848), based upon Engels’ The
Principles of Communism; six weeks later, they published the 12,000-word pamphlet in February
1848. In March, Belgium expelled them, and they moved to Cologne, where they published the
Neue Rheinische Zeitung, a politically radical newspaper. Again, by 1849, they had to leave
Cologne for London. The Prussian authorities pressured the British government to expel Marx
and Engels, but Prime Minister Lord John Russell refused.

After Karl Marx’s death in 1883, Friedrich Engels became the editor and translator of Marx’s
writings. With his Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) — analysing
monogamous marriage as guaranteeing male social domination of women, a concept analogous,
in communist theory, to the capitalist class’s economic domination of the working class —
Engels made intellectually significant contributions to feminist theory and Marxist feminism.

[edit] Early intellectual influences

Main article: Influences on Karl Marx
Different types of thinkers influenced the development of Classical Marxism; the primary
influences derive from:

 German philosophers: Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach et al.

 British political economists: Adam Smith & David Ricardo et al.
 French social theorists: Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Charles Fourier; Henri de Saint-Simon; Pierre-
Joseph Proudhon; Flora Tristan; Louis Blanc et al.

and secondary influences derive from:

 Ancient materialism, e.g. Epicurus, Lucretius et al.

 Aristotle
 Giambattista Vico
 Lewis Morgan
 Charles Darwin

Concepts
Historical Materialism

"The discovery of the materialist conception of history, or rather, the consistent continuation and extension of
materialism into the domain of social phenomenon, removed two chief defects of earlier historical theories. In
the first place, they at best examined only the ideological motives of the historical activity of human beings,
without grasping the objective laws governing the development of the system of social relations… in the
second place, the earlier theories did not cover the activities of the masses of the population, whereas historical
materialism made it possible for the first time to study with the accuracy of the natural sciences the social
conditions of the life of the masses and the changes in these conditions."

Vladimir Lenin, 1913.[6]

"Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations
within which these individuals stand."

— Karl Marx, Grundrisse, 1858 [7]

The historical materialist theory of history, also synonymous to “the economic interpretation of
history” (a coinage by Eduard Bernstein),[8] looks for the causes of societal development and
change in the collective ways humans use to make the means for living. The social features of a
society (social classes, political structures, ideologies) derive from economic activity; “base and
superstructure” is the metaphoric common term describing this historic condition.

The base and superstructure metaphor explains that the totality of social relations regarding “the
social production of their existence” i.e. civil society forms a society’s economic base, from
which rises a superstructure of political and legal institutions i.e. political society. The base
corresponds to the social consciousness (politics, religion, philosophy, etc.), and it conditions the
superstructure and the social consciousness. A conflict between the development of material
productive forces and the relations of production provokes social revolutions, thus, the resultant
changes to the economic base will lead to the transformation of the superstructure.[9] This
relationship is reflexive; the base determines the superstructure, in the first instance, and remains
the foundation of a form of social organization which then can act again upon both parts of the
base and superstructure, whose relationship is dialectical, not literal.[citation needed][clarification needed]

Marx considered that these socio-economic conflicts have historically manifested themselves as
distinct stages (one transitional) of development in Western Europe.[10]

1. Primitive Communism: as in co-operative tribal societies.

2. Slave Society: a development of tribal progression to city-state; Aristocracy is born.
3. Feudalism: aristocrats are the ruling class; merchants evolve into capitalists.
4. Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the proletariat.
5. Socialism: workers gain class consciousness, and via proletarian revolution depose the capitalist
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, replacing it in turn with dictatorship of the proletariat through
which the socialization of the means of production can be realized.
6. Communism: a classless and stateless society.

Criticism of capitalism

According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, "the principal content
of Marxism" was "Marx's economic doctrine".[11] Marx believed that the capitalist bourgeois and
their economists were promoting what he saw as the lie that "The interests of the capitalist and
those of the worker are… one and the same"; he believed that they did this by purporting the
concept that "the fastest possible growth of productive capital" was best not only for the wealthy
capitalists but also for the workers because it provided them with employment.[12]

A person is exploited if he or she performs more labour than necessary to produce the goods that
he consumes; likewise, a person is an exploiter if he or she performs less labour than is necessary
to produce the goods that he consumes.[13] Exploitation is a matter of surplus labour — the
amount of labour one performs beyond what one receives in goods. Exploitation has been a
socio-economic feature of every class society, and is one of the principal features distinguishing
the social classes. The power of one social class to control the means of production enables its
exploitation of the other classes.

In capitalism, the labour theory of value is the operative concern; the value of a commodity
equals the total labour time required to produce it. Under that condition, surplus value (the
difference between the value produced and the value received by a labourer) is synonymous with
the term “surplus labour”; thus, capitalist exploitation is realised as deriving surplus value from
the worker.

In pre-capitalist economies, exploitation of the worker was achieved via physical coercion. In the
capitalist mode of production, that result is more subtly achieved; because the worker does not
own the means of production, he or she must voluntarily enter into an exploitive work
relationship with a capitalist in order to earn the necessities of life. The worker's entry into such
employment is voluntary in that he or she chooses which capitalist to work for. However, the
worker must work or starve. Thus, exploitation is inevitable, and the "voluntary" nature of a
worker participating in a capitalist society is illusory.

Alienation denotes the estrangement of people from their humanity (German: Gattungswesen,
“species-essence”, “species-being”), which is a systematic result of capitalism. Under capitalism,
the fruits of production belong to the employers, who expropriate the surplus created by others,
and so generate alienated labourers.[14] Alienation objectively describes the worker’s situation in
capitalism — his or her self-awareness of this condition is unnecessary.[clarification needed]

The identity of a social class derives from its relationship to the means of production; Marx
describes the social classes in capitalist societies:

 Proletariat: “those individuals who sell their labour power, and who, in the capitalist mode of
production, do not own the means of production“. [citation needed] The capitalist mode of production
establishes the conditions enabling the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat because the
workers’ labour generates a surplus value greater than the workers’ wages.
 Bourgeoisie: those who “own the means of production” and buy labour power from the
proletariat, thus exploiting the proletariat; they subdivide as bourgeoisie and the petit
bourgeoisie.
o Petit bourgeoisie are those who employ labourers, but who also work, i.e. small
business owners, peasant landlords, trade workers et al. Marxism predicts that the
continual reinvention of the means of production eventually would destroy the petit
bourgeoisie, degrading them from the middle class to the proletariat.
 Lumpenproletariat: criminals, vagabonds, beggars, et al., who have no stake in the economy,
and so sell their labour to the highest bidder.
 Landlords: an historically important social class who retain some wealth and power.
 Peasantry and farmers: a disorganised class incapable of effecting socio-economic change, most
of whom would enter the proletariat, and some become landlords.

Class consciousness denotes the awareness — of itself and the social world — that a social class
possesses, and its capacity to rationally act in their best interests; hence, class consciousness is
required before they can effect a successful revolution.

Without defining ideology,[15] Marx used the term to denote the production of images of social
reality; according to Engels, “ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker
consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him
remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he
imagines false or seeming motive forces”.[16] Because the ruling class controls the society’s
means of production, the superstructure of society, the ruling social ideas are determined by the
best interests of said ruling class. In The German Ideology, “the ideas of the ruling class are in
every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is, at the
same time, its ruling intellectual force”.[17] Therefore, the ideology of a society is of most
importance, because it confuses the alienated classes and so might create a false consciousness,
such as commodity fetishism.[citation needed]

The term political economy originally denoted the study of the conditions under which
economic production was organised in the capitalist system. In Marxism, political economy
studies the means of production, specifically of capital, and how that is manifest as economic
activity.

[edit] Revolution, socialism and communism

Marxists believe that the transition to socialism is an inevitable part of the development of
human society; as Lenin stated, "it is evident that Marx deduces the inevitability of the
transformation of capitalist society [into a socialist society] wholly and exclusively from the
economic law of motion of contemporary society."[18]

Marxists believe that a socialist society will be far better for the majority of the populace than its
capitalist counterpart, for instance, prior to the Russian revolution of 1917, Lenin wrote that "The
socialization of production is bound to lead to the conversion of the means of production into the
property of society… This conversion will directly result in an immense increase in productivity
of labour, a reduction of working hours, and the replacement of the remnants, the ruins of small-
scale, primitive, disunited production by collective and improved labour."[19]

Marxism as a political practice

Since Marx's death in 1883, various groups around the world have appealed to Marxism as the
theoretical basis for their politics and policies, which have often proved to be dramatically
different and conflicting[citation needed]. One of the first major political splits occurred between the
advocates of 'reformism', who argued that the transition to socialism could occur within existing
bourgeois parliamentarian frameworks, and communists, who argued that the transition to a
socialist society required a revolution and the dissolution of the capitalist state. The 'reformist'
tendency, later known as social democracy, came to be dominant in most of the parties affiliated
to the Second International and these parties supported their own governments in the First World
War[citation needed]. This issue caused the communists to break away, forming their own parties which
became members of the Third International[citation needed].

The following countries had governments at some point in the twentieth century who at least
nominally adhered to Marxism[citation needed]: Albania, Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, Chile,
China, Republic of Congo, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ethiopia, Grenada, Hungary,
Laos, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Korea, Poland, Romania,
Russia, the USSR and its republics, South Yemen, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Vietnam. In addition,
the Indian states of Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal have had Marxist governments, but change
takes place in the government due to electoral process. Some of these governments such as in
Venezuela, Nicaragua, Chile, Moldova and parts of India have been democratic in nature and
maintained regular multiparty elections.

History

The 1917 October Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, was the first large scale attempt to put
Marxist ideas about a workers' state into practice. The new government faced counter-revolution,
civil war and foreign intervention[citation needed]. Many, both inside and outside the revolution,
worried that the revolution came too early in Russia's economic development[citation needed].
Consequently, the major Socialist Party in the UK decried the revolution as anti-Marxist within
twenty-four hours, according to Jonathan Wolff.[citation needed] Lenin consistently explained "this
elementary truth of Marxism, that the victory of socialism requires the joint efforts of workers in
a number of advanced countries" (Lenin, Sochineniya (Works), 5th ed Vol XLIV p418.) It could
not be developed in Russia in isolation, he argued, but needed to be spread internationally.

The 1917 October Revolution did help inspire a revolutionary wave over the years that
followed[citation needed], with the development of Communist Parties worldwide, but without success
in the vital advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe. Socialist revolution in Germany and
other western countries failed, leaving the Soviet Union on its own. An intense period of debate
and stopgap solutions ensued, war communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP). Lenin died
and Joseph Stalin gradually assumed control, eliminating rivals and consolidating power as the
Soviet Union faced the events of the 1930s and its global crisis-tendencies. Amidst the
geopolitical threats which defined the period and included the probability of invasion, he
instituted a ruthless program of industrialization which, while successful[citation needed], was executed
at great cost in human suffering, including millions of deaths, along with long-term
environmental devastation.

Modern followers of Leon Trotsky maintain that as predicted by Lenin, Trotsky, and others
already in the 1920s, Stalin's "socialism in one country" was unable to maintain itself, and
according to some Marxist critics, the USSR ceased to show the characteristics of a socialist state
long before its formal dissolution.

In the 1920s the economic calculation debate between Austrian Economists and Marxist
economists took place. The Austrians claimed that Marxism is flawed because prices could not
be set to recognize opportunity costs of factors of production, and so socialism could not make
rational decisions.

Following World War II, Marxist ideology, often with Soviet military backing, spawned a rise in
revolutionary communist parties all over the world. Some of these parties were eventually able to
gain power, and establish their own version of a Marxist state. Such nations included the People's
Republic of China, Vietnam, Romania, East Germany, Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, South
Yemen, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and others. In some cases, these nations did not get along. The most
notable examples were rifts that occurred between the Soviet Union and China, as well as Soviet
Union and Yugoslavia (in 1948), whose leaders disagreed on certain elements of Marxism and
how it should be implemented into society[citation needed].

Many of these self-proclaimed Marxist nations (often styled People's Republics) eventually
became authoritarian states, with stagnating economies. This caused some debate about whether
Marxism was doomed in practise or these nations were in fact not led by "true Marxists". Critics
of Marxism speculated that perhaps Marxist ideology itself was to blame for the nations' various
problems. Followers of the currents within Marxism which opposed Stalin, principally cohered
around Leon Trotsky, tended to locate the failure at the level of the failure of world revolution:
for communism to have succeeded, they argue, it needed to encompass all the international
trading relationships that capitalism had previously developed.
The Chinese experience seems to be unique. Rather than falling under a single family's self-
serving and dynastic interpretation of Marxism as happened in North Korea and before 1989 in
Eastern Europe, the Chinese government - after the end of the struggles over the Mao legacy in
1980 and the ascent of Deng Xiaoping - seems to have solved the succession crises[citation needed] that
have plagued self-proclaimed Leninist governments since the death of Lenin himself. Key to this
success is another Leninism which is a NEP (New Economic Policy) writ very large; Lenin's
own NEP of the 1920s was the "permission" given to markets including speculation to operate
by the Party which retained final control. The Russian experience in Perestroika was that markets
under socialism were so opaque as to be both inefficient and corrupt but especially after China's
application to join the WTO this does not seem to apply universally.

The death of "Marxism" in China has been prematurely announced but since the Hong Kong
handover in 1997, the Beijing leadership has clearly retained final say over both commercial and
political affairs[citation needed]. Questions remain however as to whether the Chinese Party has opened
its markets to such a degree as to be no longer classified as a true Marxist party.[citation needed] A sort
of tacit consent, and a desire in China's case to escape the chaos of pre-1949 memory, probably
plays a role[citation needed].

In 1991 the Soviet Union was dismantled and the new Russian state, alongside the other
emerging republics, ceased to identify themselves with Marxism. Other nations around the world
followed suit. Since then, radical Marxism or Communism has generally ceased to be a
prominent political force in global politics, and has largely been replaced by more moderate
versions of democratic socialism—or, more commonly, by neoliberal capitalism. Marxism has
also had to engage with the rise in the Environmental movement. Theorists including Joel Kovel
and Michael Löwy have synthesized Marxism, socialism, ecology and environmentalism into an
ideology known as Eco-socialism.[20]

Social Democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Many parties in the second half of the 19th century described themselves as social democratic,
such as the British Social Democratic Federation, and the Russian Social Democratic Labour
Party. In most cases these were revolutionary socialist or Marxist groups, who were not only
seeking to introduce socialism, but also democracy in un-democratic countries. Many social
democrats reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through class conflict,
revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat.

The modern social democratic current came into being through a break within the socialist
movement in the early 20th century, between two groups holding different views on the ideas of
Karl Marx. Many related movements, including pacifism, anarchism, and syndicalism, arose at
the same time (often by splitting from the main socialist movement, but also through the
emergence of new theories) and had various, quite different objections to Marxism. The social
democrats, who were the majority of socialists at this time, did not reject Marxism (and in fact
claimed to uphold it), but wanted to reform it in certain ways and tone down their criticism of
capitalism[citation needed]. They argued that socialism should be achieved through evolution rather
than revolution. Such views were strongly opposed by the revolutionary socialists[citation needed], who
argued that any attempt to reform capitalism was doomed to fail, because the reformists would
be gradually corrupted and eventually turn into capitalists themselves[citation needed].

Despite their differences, the reformist and revolutionary branches of socialism remained united
until the outbreak of World War I. The war proved to be the final straw that pushed the tensions
between them to breaking point[citation needed]. The reformist socialists supported their respective
national governments in the war, a fact that was seen by the revolutionary socialists as outright
treason against the working class (Since it betrayed the principle that the workers "have no
nation", and the fact that usually the lowest classes are the ones sent into the war to fight, and
die, putting the cause at the side)[citation needed]. Bitter arguments ensued within socialist parties, as
for example between Eduard Bernstein (reformist socialist) and Rosa Luxemburg (revolutionary
socialist) within the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Eventually, after the Russian
Revolution of 1917, most of the world's socialist parties fractured. The reformist socialists kept
the name "Social democrats", while the revolutionary socialists began calling themselves
"Communists", and soon formed the modern Communist movement. (See also Comintern)

Since the 1920s, doctrinal differences have been constantly growing between social democrats
and Communists (who themselves are not unified on the way to achieve socialism), and Social
Democracy is mostly used as a specifically Central European label for Labour Parties since then,
especially in Germany and the Netherlands and especially since the 1959 Godesberg Program of
the German SPD that rejected the praxis of class struggle altogether.

[edit] Socialism
Main articles: Socialism and Socialism (Marxism)

The term "socialism" could be used to describe two fundamentally different ideologies -
democratic socialism and Marxist-Leninist socialism. While Marxist-Leninists (Trotskyists,
Stalinists, and Maoists) are often described as communists in the contemporary media, they are
not recognized as such academically or by themselves[citation needed]. The Marxist-Leninists sought to
work towards the workers' utopia in Marxist ideology by first creating a socialist state, which
historically had almost always been a single-party dictatorship. On the other hand, democratic
socialists attempt to work towards an ideal state by social reform and are often little different
from social democrats, with the democratic socialists having a more leftist stance.

The Marxist-Leninist form of government has been in decline since the collapse of the Soviet
Union and its satellite states. Very few countries have governments which describe themselves as
socialist. As of 2007, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, Cuba, and the People's Republic of China had
governments in power which describe themselves as socialist in the Marxist sense[citation needed].

On the contrary, electoral parties which describe themselves as socialist or democratic socialist
are on the rise, joined together by international organizations such as the Socialist International
and the Fourth International. Parties described as socialist are currently dominant in Third World
democracies and serve as the ruling party or the main opposition party in most European
democracies. Eco-socialism, and Green politics with a strong leftist tinge, are on the rise in
European democracies.
The characterization of a party or government often has little to do with its actual economical
and social platform. The government of mainland China, which describes itself as socialist,
allows a large private sector to flourish and is socially conservative compared to most Western
democracies. A more specific example is universal health-care, which is a trademark issue of
many European socialist parties but does not exist in mainland China. Therefore, the historical
and cultural aspects of a movement must be taken into context in order for one to arrive at an
accurate conclusion of its political ideology from its nominal characterization.

Communism

A number of states declared an allegiance to the principles of Marxism and have been ruled by
self-described Communist Parties, either as a single-party state or a single list, which includes
formally several parties, as was the case in the German Democratic Republic. Due to the
dominance of the Communist Party in their governments, these states are often called
"communist states" by Western political scientists. However, they have described themselves as
"socialist", reserving the term "communism" for a future classless society[examples needed], in which
the state would no longer be necessary (on this understanding of communism, "communist state"
would be an oxymoron) – for instance, the USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Marxists contend that, historically, there has never been any communist country[citation needed].

Communist governments have historically been characterized by state ownership of productive

resources in a planned economy and sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such as
nationalization of industry and land reform (often focusing on collective farming or state farms.)
While they promote collective ownership of the means of production, Communist governments
have been characterized by a strong state apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling
Communist Party. Dissident 'authentic' communists have characterized the Soviet model as state
socialism or state capitalism.

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism, strictly speaking, refers to the version of Marxism developed by Vladimir

Lenin known as Leninism[citation needed]. However, in various contexts, different (and sometimes
opposing) political groups have used the term "Marxism-Leninism" to describe the ideologies
that they claimed to be upholding. The core ideological features of Marxism-Leninism are those
of Marxism and Leninism, that is to say, belief in the necessity of a violent overthrow of
capitalism through communist revolution, to be followed by a dictatorship of the proletariat as
the first stage of moving towards communism, and the need for a vanguard party to lead the
proletariat in this effort[citation needed]. Those who view themselves as Marxist-Leninists, however,
vary with regards to the leaders and thinkers that they choose to uphold as progressive (and to
what extent)[citation needed]. Maoists tend to downplay the importance of all other thinkers in favour
of Mao Zedong, whereas Hoxhaists repudiate Mao[citation needed].

Leninism holds that capitalism can only be overthrown by revolutionary means; that is, any
attempts to reform capitalism from within, such as Fabianism and non-revolutionary forms of
democratic socialism, are doomed to fail[citation needed]. The first goal of a Leninist party is to educate
the proletariat, so as to remove the various modes of false consciousness the bourgeois have
instilled in them, instilled in order to make them more docile and easier to exploit economically,
such as religion and nationalism[citation needed]. Once the proletariat has gained class consciousness
the party will coordinate the proletariat's total might to overthrow the existing government, thus
the proletariat will seize all political and economic power. Lastly the proletariat (thanks to their
education by the party) will implement a dictatorship of the proletariat which would bring upon
them socialism, the lower phase of communism. After this, the party would essentially dissolve
as the entire proletariat is elevated to the level of revolutionaries[citation needed].

The dictatorship of the proletariat refers to the absolute power of the working class. It is
governed by a system of proletarian direct democracy, in which workers hold political power
through local councils known as soviets[citation needed].

Trotskyism

Main article: Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself
a Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. He considered himself
an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed sharply from those of Stalin or Mao,
most importantly in declaring the need for an international "permanent revolution". Numerous
groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as
standing in this tradition, although they have diverse interpretations of the conclusions to be
drawn from this.

Trotsky advocated proletarian revolution as set out in his theory of "permanent revolution", and
he argued that in countries where the bourgeois-democratic revolution had not triumphed already
(in other words, in places that had not yet implemented a capitalist democracy, such as Russia
before 1917), it was necessary that the proletariat make it permanent by carrying out the tasks of
the social revolution (the "socialist" or "communist" revolution) at the same time, in an
uninterrupted process. Trotsky believed that a new socialist state would not be able to hold out
against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in
other countries as well, especially in the industrial powers with a developed proletariat.

On the political spectrum of Marxism, Trotskyists are considered to be on the left. They
fervently support democracy, oppose political deals with the imperialist powers, and advocate a
spreading of the revolution until it becomes global[citation needed].

Trotsky developed the theory that the Russian workers' state had become a "bureaucratically
degenerated workers' state". Capitalist rule had not been restored, and nationalized industry and
economic planning, instituted under Lenin, were still in effect[citation needed]. However, the state was
controlled by a bureaucratic caste with interests hostile to those of the working class. Trotsky
defended the Soviet Union against attack from imperialist powers and against internal counter-
revolution, but called for a political revolution within the USSR to restore socialist democracy.
He argued that if the working class did not take power away from the Stalinist bureaucracy, the
bureaucracy would restore capitalism in order to enrich itself[citation needed]. In the view of many
Trotskyists, this is exactly what has happened since the beginning of Glasnost and Perestroika in
the USSR. Some[who?] argue that the adoption of market socialism by the People's Republic of
China has also led to capitalist counter-revolution[citation needed].

Maoism

Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (simplified Chinese: 毛泽东思想; traditional Chinese: 毛澤東
思想; pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the
teachings of the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong (Wade-Giles transliteration: "Mao Tse-
tung").

The term "Mao Zedong Thought" has always been the preferred term by the Communist Party of
China, and the word "Maoism" has never been used in its English-language publications except
pejoratively. Likewise, Maoist groups[which?] outside China have usually called themselves
Marxist-Leninist rather than Maoist, a reflection of Mao's view that he did not change, but only
developed, Marxism-Leninism. However, some[who?] Maoist groups, believing Mao's theories to
have been sufficiently substantial additions to the basics of the Marxist canon, call themselves
"Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" (MLM) or simply "Maoist".

In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong Thought is part of the official doctrine of the
Communist Party of China, but since the 1978 beginning of Deng Xiaoping's market economy-
oriented reforms, the concept of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" has come to the
forefront of Chinese politics, Chinese economic reform has taken hold, and the official definition
and role of Mao's original ideology in the PRC has been radically altered and reduced (see
History of China).

Unlike the earlier forms of Marxism-Leninism in which the urban proletariat was seen as the
main source of revolution, and the countryside was largely ignored, Mao believed that peasantry
could be the main force behind a revolution, led by the proletariat and a vanguard Communist
party. The model for this was of course the Chinese communist rural Protracted People's War of
the 1920s and 1930s, which eventually brought the Communist Party of China to power[citation
needed]
. Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large-scale industrial
development was seen as a positive force, Maoism made all-round rural development the
priority[citation needed].

Mao felt that this strategy made sense during the early stages of socialism in a country in which
most of the people were peasants. Unlike most other political ideologies, including other socialist
and Marxist ones, Maoism contains an integral military doctrine and explicitly connects its
political ideology with military strategy. In Maoist thought, "political power grows from the
barrel of the gun" (a famous quote by Mao), and the peasantry can be mobilized to undertake a
"people's war" of armed struggle involving guerrilla warfare in three stages.

Left communism

Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the Communist Left, which
criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more
authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist
International after its first two Congresses.

Two major traditions can be observed within Left communism: the Dutch-German tradition; and
the Italian tradition. The political positions those traditions have in common are a shared
opposition to what is termed frontism, nationalism, all kinds of national liberation movements
and parliamentarianism and there is an underlying commonality at a level of abstract theory.
Crucially, Left Communist groups from both traditions tend to identify elements of commonality
in each other[vague].

The historical origins of Left Communism can be traced to the period before the First World
War, but it only came into focus after 1918 . All[according to whom?] Left Communists were supportive
of the October Revolution in Russia[citation needed], but retained a critical view of its development.
Some[which?], however, would in later years come to reject the idea that the revolution had a
proletarian or socialist nature, asserting that it had simply carried out the tasks of the bourgeois
revolution by creating a state capitalist system[citation needed].

Left Communism first came into being as a clear movement in or around 1918[citation needed]. Its
essential features were: a stress on the need to build a Communist Party entirely separate from
the reformist and centrist elements who were seen as having betrayed socialism in 1914,
opposition to all but the most restricted participation in elections, and an emphasis on the need
for revolutionaries to move on the offensive[citation needed]. Apart from that, there was little in
common between the various wings. Only the Italians[original research?] accepted the need for electoral
work at all for a very short period of time, and the German-Dutch, Italian and Russian wings
opposed the "right of nations to self-determination", which they denounced as a form of
bourgeois nationalism.

Dispute that the Soviet Union was Marxist

Some academics such as Noam Chomsky dispute the claim that the political movements in the
former Soviet Union are Marxist.[21] Communist governments have historically been
characterized by state ownership of productive resources in a planned economy and sweeping
campaigns of economic restructuring such as nationalization of industry and land reform (often
focusing on collective farming or state farms.) While they promote collective ownership of the
means of production, Communist governments have been characterized by a strong state
apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. Dissident communists
have characterized the Soviet model as state socialism or state capitalism. Further, critics such as
Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg have often claimed that a Stalinist or Maoist system of
government creates a new ruling class, usually called the nomenklatura.

Marx defined "communism" as a classless, egalitarian and stateless society. To Marx, the notion
of a communist state would have seemed an oxymoron,[22][23][24] as he defined communism as the
phase reached when class society and the state had already been abolished. Once the lower stage
towards communism, commonly referred to as socialism, had been established, society would
develop new social relations over the course of several generations, reaching what Marx called
the higher phase of communism when not only bourgeois relations but every class social
relations had been abandoned. Such a development has yet to occur in any historical self-claimed
socialist state.[22][23][24]

Some[22] argue that socialist states have contained two new distinct classes: those who are in
government and therefore have power (sometimes referred to as the political class), and those
who are not in government and do not have power, the working class. This is taken to be a
different form of capitalism, in which the government, as owner of the means of production,
takes on the role formerly played by the capitalist class; this arrangement is referred to as "State
capitalism."[22] These statist regimes have generally followed a planned economy model without
making a transition to this hypothetical final stage.[21]

Variants
Marxism-Leninism

At least in terms of adherents and the impact on the world stage, Marxism-Leninism, also known
colloquially as Bolshevism or simply communism is the biggest trend within Marxism, easily
dwarfing all of the other schools of thought combined.[25] Marxism-Leninism is a term originally
coined by the CPSU in order to denote the ideology that Vladimir Lenin had built upon the
thought of Karl Marx. There are two broad areas that have set apart Marxism-Leninism as a
school of thought.

First, Lenin's followers generally view his additions to the body of Marxism as the practical
corollary to Marx's original theoretical contributions of the 19th century; insofar as they apply
under the conditions of advanced capitalism that they found themselves working in. Lenin called
this time-frame the era of Imperialism. For example, Joseph Stalin wrote that

Leninism grew up and took shape under the conditions of imperialism, when the
“ contradictions of capitalism had reached an extreme point, when the proletarian revolution
had become an immediate practical question, when the old period of preparation of the
working class for revolution had arrived at and passed into a new period, that of direct assault
on capitalism.[26] ”
The most important consequence of a Leninist-style theory of Imperialism is the strategic need
for workers in the industrialized countries to bloc or ally with the oppressed nations contained
within their respective countries' colonies abroad in order to overthrow capitalism. This is the
source of the slogan, which shows the Leninist conception that not only the proletariat, as is
traditional to Marxism, are the sole revolutionary force, but all oppressed people:

Workers and Oppressed Peoples of the World, Unite![27]

“ ”
Second, the other distinguishing characteristic of Marxism-Leninism is how it approaches the
question of organization. Lenin believed that the traditional model of the Social Democratic
parties of the time, which was a loose, multitendency organization was inadequate for
overthrowing the Tsarist regime in Russia. He proposed a cadre of professional revolutionaries
that disciplined itself under the model of Democratic Centralism.

[edit] Marxism-Leninism after Stalin

For better or worse, Marxism-Leninism as a body of thought and practice was closely identified
with the figure of Joseph Stalin after the death of Lenin. After the death of Stalin, the leader of
the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev made several ideological and practical ruptures with his
predecessor which lead to the eventual split of Marxism-Leninism into two main branches, post-
Stalin "Moscow-aligned" communism and anti-revisionism. In turn, these branches evolved into
multiple schools of thought over time.

[edit] Post-Stalin Moscow-aligned communism

At the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev made several
ideological ruptures with his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. First, Khrushchev denounced the so-
called Cult of Personality that had developed around Stalin, which ironically enough Khrushchev
had had a pivotal role in fostering decades earlier. More importantly, however, Khrushchev
rejected the heretofore orthodox Marxist-Leninist tenet that class struggle continues even under
socialism. Rather, the State ought to rule in the name of all classes. A related principle that
flowed from the former was the notion of peaceful co-existence, or that the newly emergent
socialist bloc could peacefully compete with the capitalist world, solely by developing the
productive forces of society.

[edit] Eurocommunism

Beginning around the 1970s, various communist parties in Western Europe, such as the Partito
Comunista Italiano in Italy and the Partido Comunista de España under Santiago Carillo tried to
hew to a more independent line from Moscow. Particularly in Italy, they leaned on the theories
of Antonio Gramsci, despite the fact that by 1921 Gramsci believed that a Communist Party in
the Leninist sense was needed. This trend went by the name Eurocommunism.

[edit] Anti-revisionism

There are many proponents of Marxist-Leninism who rejected the theses of Khrushchev,
particularly Marxists of the Third World.[citation needed] They believed that Khrushchev was
unacceptably altering or "revising" the fundamental tenets of Marxism-Leninism, a stance from
which the label "anti-revisionist" is derived. Usually, they are referred to externally by the
following epithets, although anti-revisionists typically refer to themselves simply as Marxist-
Leninists.

[edit] Maoism

Maoism takes its name from Mao Zedong, the erstwhile leader of the Peoples Republic of China;
it is the variety of anti-revisionism that took inspiration, and in some cases received material
support, from China, especially during the Mao period. There are several key concepts that were
developed by Mao. First, Mao concurred with Stalin that not only does class struggle continue
under the dictatorship of the proletariat, it actually accelerates as long as gains are being made by
the proletariat at the expense of the disenfranchised bourgeoisie. Second, Mao developed a
strategy for revolution called Prolonged People's War in what he termed the semi-feudal
countries of the Third World. Prolonged People's War relied heavily on the peasantry. Third,
Mao wrote many theoretical articles on epistemology and dialectics, which he called
contradictions.

[edit] Hoxhaism

Hoxhaism, so named because of the central contribution of Albanian statesman Enver Hoxha,
was closely aligned with China for a number of years, but grew critical of Maoism because of the
so-called Three Worlds Theory put forth by elements within the Communist Party of China and
because it viewed the actions of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping unfavorably. Ultimately,
however, Hoxhaism as a trend came to the understanding that Socialism had never existed in
China at all.

[edit] Trotskyism
Main article: Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the usual term for followers of the ideas of Russian Marxist Leon Trotsky, the
second most prominent leader of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky was a contemporary of Lenin
from the early years of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, where he led a small trend
in competition with both Lenin's Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks; nevertheless Trotsky's
followers claim to be the heirs of Lenin in the same way that mainstream Marxist-Leninists do.
There are several distinguishing characteristics of this school of thought; foremost is the theory
of Permanent Revolution. Another shared characteristic between Trotskyists is a variety of
theoretical justifications for their negative appraisal of the post-Lenin Soviet Union; that is to
say, after Trotsky was expelled by a majority vote from the CPSU[28] and subsequently from the
Soviet Union. Trotsky characterized the government of the USSR after his expulsion as being
dominated by a "bureaucratic caste" and called for it to be overthrown.[29] Trotskists as a
consequence usually advocate the overthrow of socialist governments around the world that are
ruled by Marxist-Leninist parties.

[edit] Left Communism

Main article: Left Communism

Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which
criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more
authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist
International after its first two congresses.

Although she lived before left communism became a distinct tendency, Rosa Luxemburg has
been heavily influential for most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents
of left communism have included Herman Gorter, Anton Pannekoek, Otto Rühle, Karl Korsch,
Amadeo Bordiga, and Paul Mattick.

Prominent left communist groups existing today include the International Communist Current
and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party. Also, different factions from the old
Bordigist International Communist Party are considered left communist organizations.

[edit] Western Marxism

Main article: Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in
Western and Central Europe (and more recently North America ), in contrast with philosophy in
the Soviet Union, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the People's Republic of
China.

[edit] Structural Marxism

Main article: Structural Marxism

Structural Marxism is an approach to Marxism based on structuralism, primarily associated with

the work of the French theorist Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France
during the late 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and
sociologists outside of France during the 1970s.

[edit] Autonomist Marxism

Main article: Autonomism

Autonomism is a term applied to a variety of social movements around the world, which
emphasizes the ability to organize in autonomous and horizontal networks, as opposed to
hierarchical structures such as unions or parties. Autonomist Marxists, including Harry Cleaver,
broaden the definition of the working-class to include salaried and unpaid labour, such as skilled
professions and housework; it focuses on the working class in advanced capitalist states as the
primary force of change in the construct of capital. Modern autonomist theorists such as Antonio
Negri and Michael Hardt argue that network power constructs are the most effective methods of
organization against the neoliberal regime of accumulation, and predict a massive shift in the
dynamics of capital into a 21st Century Empire.

[edit] Marxist humanism

Main article: Marxist humanism

Marxist humanism is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on Marx's earlier writings,
especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which Marx develops his
theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more
with his structural conception of capitalist society. It was opposed by Louis Althusser's
"antihumanism", who qualified it as a revisionist movement.
Marxist humanists contend that ‘Marxism’ developed lopsidedly because Marx’s early works
were unknown until after the orthodox ideas were in vogue – the Manuscripts of 1844 were
published only in 1932 – and it is necessary to understand Marx’s philosophical foundations to
understand his latter works properly.

[edit] Marxism-Deleonism

Marxism-Deleonism, is a form of syndicalist Marxism developed by Daniel De Leon. De Leon

was an early leader of the first US socialist political party, the Socialist Labor Party. This party
exists to the present day. De Leonism lies outside the Leninist tradition of communism. The
highly decentralized and democratic nature of the proposed De Leonist government is in contrast
to the democratic centralism of Marxism-Leninism and what they see as the dictatorial nature of
the Soviet Union. The success of the De Leonist plan depends on achieving majority support
among the people both in the workplaces and at the polls, in contrast to the Leninist notion that a
small vanguard party should lead the working class to carry out the revolution. Daniel De Leon
and other De Leonist writers have issued frequent polemics against 'democratic socialist'
movements, especially the Socialist Party of America, and consider them to be "reformist" or
"bourgeois socialist". De Leonists have traditionally refrained from any activity or alliances
viewed by them as trying to reform capitalism, though the Socialist Labor Party in De Leon's
time was active during strikes and such, such as social justice movements.[citation needed]

[edit] Marxist feminism

Main article: Marxist feminism

Marxist feminism is a sub-type of feminist theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism
as a way to liberate women. Marxist feminism states that private property, which gives rise to
economic inequality, dependence, political confusion and ultimately unhealthy social relations
between men and women, is the root of women's oppression. According to Marxist theory, in
capitalist societies the individual is shaped by class relations; that is, people's capacities, needs
and interests are seen to be determined by the mode of production that characterises the society
they inhabit. Marxist feminists see gender inequality as determined ultimately by the capitalist
mode of production. Gender oppression is class oppression and women's subordination is seen as
a form of class oppression which is maintained (like racism) because it serves the interests of
capital and the ruling class. Marxist feminists have extended traditional Marxist analysis by
looking at domestic labour as well as wage work in order to support their position.[citation needed]