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'''Marxism''' is a [[pseudoscientific]] field of [[social science|social studies]] that began as a revolutionary movement developed by the German scholar and activist [[Karl Marx]] and his collaborator [[Friedrich Engels]].  Marx's approach is indicated by the opening line of the [[Communist Manifesto]] (1848): "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx believed that [[capitalism]], like previous socioeconomic systems, would produce internal tensions which would lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced [[feudalism]], capitalism itself will be displaced by [[communism]], a classless society which would emerge after a transitional period in which the state would be nothing else but the revolutionary dictatorship of the [[proletariat]]. Marxists are said to await "the revolution" with a religious fervor reminiscent of [[Christian]]s awaiting the [[Rapture]].

'''Marxism''' is a [[pseudoscientific]] field of [[social science|social studies]] that began as a revolutionary movement developed by the German scholar and activist [[Karl Marx]] and his collaborator [[Friedrich Engels]].  Marx's approach is indicated by the opening line of the [[Communist Manifesto]] (1848): "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx believed that [[capitalism]], like previous socioeconomic systems, would produce internal tensions which would lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced [[feudalism]], capitalism itself will be displaced by [[communism]], a classless society which would emerge after a transitional period in which the state would be nothing else but the revolutionary dictatorship of the [[proletariat]]. Marxists are said to await "the revolution" with a religious fervor reminiscent of [[Christian]]s awaiting the [[Rapture]].

Marx, when forming Marxism, also had in mind a particular event for his inspiration for the ideology: Long enamored with the [[French Revolution]] and its excesses, he advocated in a private letter to his co-author of the movement, [[Friedrich Engels]], as well as other sources such as a leftist newspaper, that they create "revolutionary terror" and that once they are at the helm, they would be obliged to reenact Robespierre's [[Reign of Terror]] from 1793, and that once their time comes, they won't excuse their terrorism, citing they will be pitiless and thus won't expect mercy from the monarchies, with the vengeance of the people being such that it would overtake even Robespierre's Reign of Terror in terms of blood spilt. He also fully acknowledged that they would be considered monsters as a result, but they wouldn't care less either way.

Marx, when forming Marxism, also had in mind a particular event for his inspiration for the ideology: Long enamored with the [[French Revolution]] and its excesses, he advocated in a private letter to his co-author of the movement, [[Friedrich Engels]], as well as other sources such as a leftist newspaper, that they create "revolutionary terror" and that once they are at the helm, they would be obliged to reenact Robespierre's [[Reign of Terror]] from 1793, and that once their time comes, they won't excuse their terrorism, citing they will be pitiless and thus won't expect mercy from the monarchies, with the vengeance of the people being such that it would overtake even Robespierre's Reign of Terror in terms of blood spilt. He also fully acknowledged that they would be considered monsters as a result, but they wouldn't care less either way.

==Current Marxist states==

==Current Marxist states==

==Communism==

==Communism==

[[Communism]], as it emerged around 1918-20, was a late political manifestation of Marxist philosophy.  [[Lenin]] in [[Russia]] and later [[Mao Zedong]] in [[China]] tailored Marx's ideas it to their expedient political needs.  

[[Communism]], as it emerged around 1918-20, was a late political manifestation of Marxist philosophy.  [[Lenin]] in [[Russia]] and later [[Mao Tse-tung]] in [[China]] tailored Marx's ideas to fit their expedient political needs.  

===Soviet experience===

===Soviet experience===

According to the formal ideology of Marxism, [[private property|private ownership]] in industry is to be eliminated—control is to be wrested by the masses as a whole. The crucial revolutionary act, therefore, would presumably be the actual taking of control in industry by the workers themselves. In the course of the [[Bolshevik]] revolution, the workers ousted not only the owners but all the directing staff and supervisors. The workers thought, in their own way, that the revolution was designed to rid them of all rulers and exploiters. They recognized that the managers, as well as the owners, were among the rulers and exploiters both of the past and, above all, of the future. The workers set about running the factories themselves.  

According to the formal ideology of Marxism, [[private property|private ownership]] in industry is to be eliminated—control is to be wrested by the masses as a whole. The crucial revolutionary act, therefore, would presumably be the actual taking of control in industry by the workers themselves. In the course of the [[Bolshevik]] revolution, the workers ousted not only the owners but all the directing staff and supervisors. The workers thought, in their own way, that the revolution was designed to rid them of all rulers and exploiters. They recognized that the managers, as well as the owners, were among the rulers and exploiters both of the past and, above all, of the future. The workers set about running the factories themselves.  

This state of affairs did not, however, last long. Two issues were at stake. In the first place, the separate factories and other instruments of production were not run very well under workers' control; and there were even greater difficulties in the coordination of the efforts of various factories.  It was even harder for them to collaborate in the theory of [[economic planning]] effectively to direct entire branches of industry. Workers' control would also mean the elimination of all privilege, or a 'classless society". The drive for class power needed to get rid of workers' control, and found justification in the inefficiency of workers' control.

This state of affairs did not, however, last long. Two issues were at stake. In the first place, the separate factories and other instruments of production were not run very well under workers' control; and there were even greater difficulties in the coordination of the efforts of various factories.  It was even harder for them to collaborate in the theory of [[economic planning]] effectively to direct entire branches of industry. Workers' control would also mean the elimination of all privilege, or a 'classless society". The drive for class power needed to get rid of workers' control, and found justification in the inefficiency of workers' control.

Hence workers' control was replaced by [[Lenin]], [[Trotsky]], and [[Stalin]] by the ''de facto'' managerial control in a new kind of state.  The technical direction of factory operations was turned over to "specialists", or managers, with the Factory Committees remaining in existence and still exercising substantial control through a [[veto]] power over the managers and jurisdiction over labor conditions.  Meanwhile, bureaus and commissions and individuals appointed from above by the Soviet regime were beginning to take over the job of coordinating the efforts of various factories and branches of industry. The powers of the managers and technicians increased at the expense of "workers' control" and the Factory Committees. The Factory Committee lost their veto powers. Their prerogative, labor conditions, became more and more narrowly interpreted. The Committee composition was changed to include one state representative, one managerial representative, and one man nominally representing the workers. Finally, even these Committees lost all their real power and remained as mere formalities, to be dropped altogether in during the [[Great Purge]] of 1938.

Hence workers' control was replaced by [[Lenin]], [[Trotsky]], and [[Stalin]] by the ''de facto'' managerial control in a new kind of state.  The technical direction of factory operations was turned over to "specialists", or managers, with the Factory Committees remaining in existence and still exercising substantial control through a [[veto]] power over the managers and jurisdiction over labor conditions.  Meanwhile, bureaus and commissions and individuals appointed from above by the Soviet regime were beginning to take over the job of coordinating the efforts of various factories and branches of industry. The powers of the managers and technicians increased at the expense of "workers' control" and the Factory Committees. The Factory Committee lost their veto powers. Their prerogative, labor conditions, became more and more narrowly interpreted. The Committee composition was changed to include one state representative, one managerial representative, and one man nominally representing the workers. Finally, even these Committees lost all their real power and remained as mere formalities, to be dropped altogether in during the [[Great Purge]] of 1938.

==Nomenklatura==

==Nomenklatura==

The freedom and end of privilege, which the oppressed thought the revolution was to bring, was giving way to a new form of class rule by the [[nomenklatura]]. At each decisive step, the "workers' socialist state" under Lenin and Stalin, backed not the workers but the managers. A wide campaign of "education" was undertaken to show the people why "workers' rule" meant, in practice, managers' rule. Where necessary, the education by the word was supplemented with education by [[firing squad]], [[concentration camp]] or [[slavery|forced labor]] battalion.  

Lenin and Trotsky, both, in the early years of the revolution, wrote pamphlets and speeches arguing the case of the specialists, the technicians, the managers. Lenin, in his forceful way, used to declare that the manager had to be a dictator in the factory.  "Workers' democracy" in the state, Lenin said in effect, was to be founded upon a managerial dictatorship in the factory.  

Lenin and Trotsky, both, in the early years of the revolution, wrote pamphlets and speeches arguing the case of the specialists, the technicians, the managers. Lenin, in his forceful way, used to declare that the manager had to be a dictator in the factory. "Workers' democracy" in the state, Lenin said in effect, was to be founded upon a managerial dictatorship in the factory.  

Lenin, as the head of the state, helped to smash workers' popular, control over those instruments and to substitute for it control by the managers.  And, of course, the managers of individual plants became subordinate to the big managers, to the boards and bureaus directing entire sectors of industry and governing industry as a whole.  The managers under the new state included many who had been managers under the old "capitalist rule". Lenin and Trotsky poured scorn on "infantile leftists" <ref>[http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html V. I. Lenin, ''"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder''] (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.</ref> who were against making use of the "services" of the "bourgeois specialists.".  Favorable terms were given to foreign "bourgeois specialists" who were willing to come to work under the new regime.<ref>James Burnham, ''The Managerial Revolution'', Indiana University Press, Bloomingham 1966.</ref>

The control, and the social rule which goes with it, when it leaves the hands of the capitalists, goes not to the workers, the people, but to the managers, the new ruling class. A parallel of the Russian process can be observed with particular clarity in connection with the events in [[Loyalist]] territories during the [[Spanish Civil War]], above all in Catalonia. There, just as in Russia, the workers and peasants began taking over direct control of the factories and railroads and firms. There too, not at once, but during the course of the first two years of the Civil War, the ''de facto'' power slipped from the workers' hands, sometimes voluntarily given up at the persuasion of a political party, sometimes smashed by arms and prison. It was not the troops of [[Franco]] who took control away from the people of Catalonia; they had lost control well before Franco's army conquered.

 

The control, and the social rule which goes with it, when it leaves the hands of the capitalists, goes not to the workers, the people, but to the managers, the new ruling class. A parallel of the Russian process can be observed with particular clarity in connection with the events in [[Loyalist]] territories during the [[Spanish Civil War]], above all in Catalonia. There, just as in Russia, the workers and peasants began taking over direct control of the factories and railroads and firms. There too, not at once, but during the course of the first two years of the Civil War, the ''de facto'' power slipped from the workers' hands, sometimes voluntarily given up at the persuasion of a political party, sometimes smashed by arms and prison. It was not the troops of [[Franco]] who took control away from the people of Catalonia; they had lost control well before Franco's army conquered.

== Cultural Marxism ==

== Cultural Marxism ==

*[https://www.hillsdale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1987-Marx_and_Lenin.pdf Marx and Lenin Clairemont paper] at [[Hillsdale College]].

*[https://www.hillsdale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1987-Marx_and_Lenin.pdf Marx and Lenin Clairemont paper] at [[Hillsdale College]].

*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/c-how-the-specter-of-communism-is-ruling-our-world How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World]. ''The Epoch Times''.

*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/c-how-the-specter-of-communism-is-ruling-our-world How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World]. ''The Epoch Times''.

[[Category:Sociology]]

[[Category:Sociology]]