Marxist+Criticism

Marxist Criticism  Words to Know: [|Marxism] [|CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALISM] [|COMMUNISM] [|HISTORICAL MATERIALISM] [|literarcy criticism]
 * __What Marxist criticism involves__ **

__**How Marxism began**__ Marxism is both the theory and the political practice taken from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Any political practice or theory that is based on an interpretation of the works of Marx and Engels may be called Marxism. Karl's and Friedrich's writings were of atheist's views and centered on the capitalistic system and the social relations of people.

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__ **What Marxist Criticism is** __  The core of marxist ideas is the claim that each historical period has a mode of production that rests upon particular forces (the proletariat) and is lead or dictated by those in charge (the bourgeoisie). This criticism also focuses on the distinct development and ways of organizing social relationships between people in the economy. Marxism criticizes the patterns of the capitalistic sytem and how it is made up of those who control the means of production.  Marxism is the antithesis of capitalism which is defined by Encarta as //“an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit.”// Marxism is the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

[|**Aspects of Marxism**] > > 
 * 1) ** The [|dialectical] and [|materialist] concept of history ** — Humankind's history is fundamentally that of the struggle between social classes. The productive capacity of society is the foundation of society, and as this capacity increases over time the social relations of production, class relations, evolve through this struggle of the classes and pass through definite stages (primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism). The legal, political, ideological and other aspects (ex. art) of society are derived from these production relations as is the consciousness of the individuals of which the society is composed.
 * 2) **The critique of capitalism** — In capitalist society, an economic minority (the bourgeoisie) dominate and [|exploit] the working class ([|proletariat]) majority. Marx uncovered the interworkings of capitalist exploitation, the specific way in which unpaid labor ([|surplus value]) is extracted from the working class [|labor theory of value], extending and critiquing the work of earlier political economists [|value]. Although the production process is socialized, ownership remains in the hand of the bourgeosie. This forms the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society. Without the elimination of the fetter of the private ownership of the means of production, human society is unable to achieve further development.
 * 3) **Advocacy of proletarian revolution** — In order to overcome the fetters of private property the working class must seize political power internationally through a social revolution and expropriate the capitalist classes around the world and place the productive capacities of society into collective ownership. Upon this, material foundation classes would be abolished and the material basis for all forms of inequality between humankind would dissolve.