Karl Marx and the Foundations of Capitalism

Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the backyard of the capitalist order: half of the food produced is wasted as people die around the world; international corporations profit from wars in which child soldiers kill each other; Factories employ cheap workers so that western companies can compete in the markets. All this terrible picture points to the obvious exploitation in the production system of the modern capitalist economy. Of course, this is not the first time you have heard this in the summary of the Communist Manifesto, it is not new. Nineteenth-century communists witnessed similar conditions in Europe’s industrialization process. The political philosophy of communism was built with the suffering of the working class. In the summary of The Communist Manifesto, you can grasp the basics of communist thought or refresh your existing knowledge. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. However, they have a whole world to gain.‍

Other topics in the Communist Manifesto Summary:

Why no one has the right to own private property,

Why our lives are not so different from those in feudal order,

What can he do to fight against bourgeois tyranny?

The Communist Manifesto Main Idea

The lesson to be drawn from the summary of the Communist Manifesto: Human history consists of the daily events of the ruling classes and the people they rule.

But the suppression of the working class by the capitalist bourgeoisie has become the pinnacle of exploitation. The aim of the communists is to seize all the production facilities that serve this exploitation.

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All workers, unite: only with international solidarity can we get rid of the power holders holding our chain. The bourgeoisie has never thought of our interests and will never give up their domination over the proletariat. In this case, it is in the hands of the workers to oppose the oppressors through revolutionary action.

When capitalism began to make its reality felt in Europe, people began to fear for social life. They were aware of the disaster that would come after the way capitalism would give social life. At least some of them were conscious that disaster was ahead of them. People with this consciousness were generally called socialists or communists. However, one of them made the move of consciousness against capitalism to a universal dimension and left a great legacy to his disciples. The name that went beyond his age and provided a universal quality and permanence with the forty-five-page manifesto he wrote is Karl Marx. With the manifesto he wrote, Marx became the theoretician and hero of the communist movement with his theoretical contribution to the change of societies, the dialectic he established to explain modern society, and his actual and verbal struggle against capitalism.

Well, if we say what was briefly explained in this manifesto, what kind of answer would we get? This work is definitely not a work that can be summarized. However, I will try to convey it in short terms using my notes.

It is good to start with the third part. In response to the mixed socialist intellectual experience of the time Marx lived, he drew his own opinion, his path. When the Manifesto was written, of course, there were different socialist ideas, but it differs from them with the criticism it brings in the third part of the book. Feudal socialism was criticized under the titles of petty-bourgeois socialism, German socialism, conservative socialism and utopian socialism, and with these criticisms, Marx drew his own path and the path of his followers. Marx states that he deals with utopias, that is, dreams, in a theoretical sense, while patching up some with power.

The part in which the bourgeois and proletarians are described in the Manifesto is the first part. The modern capitalist class, the bourgeoisie; It is the class that owns the social means of production and employs wage laborers. This working class, especially the exploited class, is the proletarians. Explaining the history of societies as class struggles, Marx claims that the struggle in modern society takes place only between these two classes, unlike in previous ages. Because the bourgeoisie dissolves social segments. He was leaving only two classes. Since it owed its existence to the working class anyway, it did not even occur to him to delete or destroy it. As a matter of fact, workers also owe their existence as workers to the bourgeoisie of modern society. Therefore, these two groups are in need of each other in terms of their class existence.

There are some parameters that are important in the rise of the bourgeois section in the world. Marx touches on these and provides information that will aid in understanding the foundation of modern society. First of all, it was understood that feudal society was not a healthy environment for the bourgeois, from its understanding of property to its intellectual activity. New markets and raw material regions have been found through exploration.

The discovery of America and the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope provided new opportunities for the bourgeoisie. Finally, the invention of the steam engine, which we can count, has turned everything upside down and increased the possibilities and areas to a high degree. Of course, the bourgeois who have reached this much power at a high speed will eat someone and enslave someone. And so it did. The new social system that took place consisted of two classes, a master and a slave class.

The second part of the manifesto defines a communist, there are answers given to the communist’s duties, what kind of characteristics it has and the criticisms made against communism. Marx states that communist and worker have the same interests and interests in terms of some amount of interest. In other words, he states that the communist has no interests separate and distinct from those of the proletariat as a whole. The task of the communist is the seizure of political power by the proletariat. Their previous existence as a subordinate class can be counted as ending the rule of the bourgeoisie. However, after these, the seizure of political power by the workers is in question.

After some scrutiny it quickly becomes clear that communism is a reactionary movement. Ownership, family, employer, education. The bourgeoisie has been destroying these institutions since it came to power. It’s building differently than it should be. The reaction of Marx and his circle to these events is in the form of a reaction. In other words, they emerged as a criticism of something in the context of the idea. They have a worldview based on this. It presents a very interactive structure with the outside, so Communism. According to Marx, the ruling class of an era determines the ruling ideas of that era. This determination was also influenced by Marx and others. When they wanted to make a radical critique of the ideas of the ruling class, they formed their opinion from this point of departure.

See also Émile Durkheim and his thoughts on Society