Following is the third part of an eleven-part series of study columns on the theory of Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought.
The study series was originally developed for study groups conducted by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) and is the product of a number of years of practice in leading study groups in Marxism-Leninism among workers and students.
Engels, “Karl Marx” in On Marx, pp. 9-15.
Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chapter III.
(Supplementary Readings: Marx, Wages, Price and Profit; Lenin, A Great Beginning.)
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Marx, through his economic studies of capitalism, uncovered the nature of exploitation. He showed that the poverty and oppression of the working class lay in the system of capitalism itself.
Marx also showed that capitalism was a system of crisis. As it develops, a sharper and sharper contradiction grows, the contradiction between the private ownership of production and the social nature of production. This contradiction manifests itself in the great division of society into classes and in the increasingly severe economic crises which plague the system. Unemployment, inflation, depression, etc., become a common occurrence. Increasingly, capitalism becomes a hindrance to the further development of the productive forces of society. It then falls to the working class to take over the means of production and put an end to the anarchy and waste of capitalism.
Marx and Engels showed that the proletarian revolution was inevitable, not simply an ideal. They showed that by basing oneself on the actual contradictions and objective motion of capitalist society, socialism could be converted from a dream for a better future into a real revolutionary movement.
The study of economics by Marx and Engels (or what is also called political economy) constitutes one of the main components of Marxism. The economic laws of capitalism which Marx unveiled in his studies remain a valuable tool for the working class today. The bourgeoisie tries to deny the truth of Marx’s lessons about capitalism by promoting the myths that capitalism will be able to solve its problems and prosper indefinitely. But everyday life refutes these capitalist lies: the reality of inflation, unemployment, exploitation and poverty in the U.S. today confirm Marxism’s economic teachings.
1. In your own words, what is the materialist conception of history? How is this conception different than the religious or other conceptions?
2. What is labor power, surplus value and wage slavery? From where does the capitalist get his profit? Give some examples from the U.S. today that illustrate these concepts.
3. What are the main social and economic consequences that arise from the contradiction between social production and private capitalist accumulation? What is the crisis of superabundance (also called overproduction)? Why is capitalist production on the whole anarchistic?
4. What are the basic differences between the socialist and capitalist economic systems, with regard to the ownership of the means of production, the aim of production, and the position of workers in the economy?