Marxist theory

Marxist theory was given by Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a German philosopher born in 1818 and died in
1883.

Below is a discussion for understanding Marxism.

The time when Marx was born was a time of Industrialization. Everywhere people were working in these
industries. Before industrialization people had to do manual labor which means they had to do
everything by hand. For example shoes were made in a way that there was a shop in which 1000 people
used to do work every day. They will wake up in the morning, go to this place and make shoes. All 1000
people will be given money on the basis of how much shoes they can make in one hour. Some people
used to make shoes in their own houses and then they would sell them in the market. One day, a person
comes to this shop and talks to the owner of the shop in private. He tells the owner that I can give you a
machine which can make these shoes more efficiently, more quickly and the job of 1000 men can be
done by this singly machine. He tells the owner that you will not have to pay 1000 men. You will only be
paying 50 and the rest of the job of making shoes will be done by this machine. In this way the jobs of
many people ended due to industrialization. This is one thing. Another thing which is important to know
is the difference between two terms, Capitalism and Communism. Capital means the value of money or
how the amount of wealth so Capitalism is related to money but it is not that simple. Capitalism is an
economic theory according to which these industries about which we just talked were owned by private
owners. For example, in Capitalism the factory which makes shoes will by owned by a man who bought
this factory. He can buy this factory by selling his land and then hire 50 men to run this factory and he
will only have to pay these 50 men their salary and give tax to the government. So, in Capitalism the
trade, industry, and all these things are owned by private owners and they just pay taxes to the
government. On the other hand we have another economic system which is called Communism. In
simple terms, Communism means the ownership of all trade and industry by the government (the exact
definition is that in communism, all the people collectively own all the industries and they get their
share according to their ability and needs). In practice, however, the government owns all the industry
and trade. So, in communist society the shoe factory is owned by the government which means there is
not just one shoe factory, there are many shoe factories all over the country and they are all controlled
by government. The government will give an ad in the newspaper that we want 200 people for each
factory. Unlike in Capitalism, the communist system will try to employ more people than required in a
factory so that they can work in a relaxed environment and more people can earn money. Now lets have
some more example for a clear understanding. In Capitalism there will be competition between
different shoe making companies. When there is competition there will obviously be more good quality
result. If there are two factories (we are talking about capitalism now) in one city they will both try to
make good quality shoes so that their shoes are bought by more people. Then, they will introduce
variety in their product. Then, the shoes will be more cheap because each factory will try to get more
customer than the other and due to competition they will lower their prices for the buyer. In this way
CAPITALISM provides comfort for the consumer. We are consumers. We dont care about the 50
workers. We are getting cheaper, good quality and variety shoes in a Capitalist country. On the other
hand there are very less jobs in the country. In communism there are many job opportunities but the
products are not of good quality because there is no competition. Take the example of private and
government schools. In private schools the teachers are more hardworking because they know if they
will not do their job they will be fired from their jobs. In government schools or university, like ours, the
teachers know that they have a pakki noukri (regular job) so they dont give a damn to the future of
students because they are government employees and government is not present all the time on their
head. But it has a benefit. MORE people can get jobs in a communist society. These are very limited
examples of communism and Capitalism. Lets broaden our context a little further. In Capitalist society
there will be more and more cheap products. There will be different types of fancy products. There will
be competition so in the markets you can see quality products. Now we will have a liquid dish wash
soap, a paste for dish washing, different types of sponge which are used for dish washing. For clothes
there are not just powders, there are now fabric conditioners there are different perfumed
conditioners. The point is there are so many products which even though useless seem fancy and
people wish to buy them. Why these different and so many products come in the market. Due to
capitalism. Lets get back to our earlier example. We had one factory making shoes in communism where
200 people are working. Another factory in capitalist system where 50 people are working. Those people
who are in the favor of Capitalist system they say that after 1 year there will be so much competition
that there will be 5 more factories installed in the same area and you will have 250 workers. Moreover
you will have variety of shoes and they will be cheap and that in communism there will be no progress
and these 200 workers will not innovate anything new. HMM! Thats interesting. So this kind of debate,
whether communism is better or capitalism is a never ending debate. The Capitalist system began when
industries were introduced which means in 1760 or you can say 1800. On the other hand Communism
(according to our limited discussion) began during the time when world war 1 was fought. And who gave
the idea of this system which we called Communism? Well our dear Boy Karl Marx is also known as
FATHER OF COMMUNISM. Go and type father of communism and Mr Google will tell you that Uncle
Karl Marx is the father of communism. In the end lets give you another interesting piece of information.
People said that world war 1 was fought due to CAPITALISM. How? Well there is not just one or two
shoe making factory. There are industries which make cars, railway engines, aeroplanes, mobile phones
and almost everything that is super expensive. And these companies are owned by rich people. These
rich people are all friends of each other. They pay money to the government so that government listens
to them. Take the example of Nawaz Sharif. He has enough money to give so many laptops today to the
people. This is nothing. He can buy votes too. He can give thousands of rupees to his followers. During
election he gives money to all those people who are involved in the process of election and wins. He
buys all those candidates who are famous in an area. For example in my area, 49 tail, there is Dr Bhatti.
Dr Bhatti was a PPP follower. He was very famous. Just before election he switched sides because
someone gave him money. All over Pakistan Nawaz Sharif buys off the sharif people and people vote
them because they trust them. So coming back to our discussion in capitalist society the rich people
become so powerful they start to control the governments. WW1 started because all these rich people
had their own interests at stakes. They had threats from different countries. Lets not go into details
otherwise we will miss our topic. Now we will begin our proper study of Karl Marx. (Marxist System was
used as a slogan after WW1 by Germany and Russia who promised people that they will use his theory
and Capitalism will by abolished)

Marxist Theory:

Marxism is a political and economic theory which aims at improving the economic system. Now we will
look at some important things that he proposed or said.
The terms which are written in bold are those which are pointed out or dictated by Mam Bushra in the
class which means you have to write about these things in exam.

Classless Society & Common ownership of means of production:

Marxism is often known as a philosophy of social revolution. He wanted to establish an
egalitarian society known for equality and social coherence. He intended to see a classless
society free from all types of exploitations. Marx said that in a Capitalist system there is a
society where the rich becomes rich and poor remains poor. He was against this idea. In a
classless society people have equal opportunity to improve their economic conditions. A
classless society means no one is born rich and no one is born poor. Landowners will not
benefit at the cost of poor people. He said, in capitalist society people are born in rich families
and they continue becoming rich while poor are born in poor families and they remain poor. As
Marx stated, when the human society in its historical development reaches the capitalistic stage
of production it gets divided into only two classes namely capitalist class [or the Bourgeoisie]
and the working class [or the proletariats]. The former one is the exploiting class while the
latter is the exploited one.

Why class conflict is generated?

Marx said that classes are based on property. We measure a class on the basis of the property
owned by a certain class. Upper class have more property, lower class have less property.
Each class has its own interests. The upper class wants to have money and they dont care
about the plight of the poor people. Due to class conflict all social relations are absorbed.
The rich people dont mix with poor people and the social structure of the society is disturbed
which gives rise to social conflict. The rich people will not want their children to marry in poor
families. The rich people will not want to sit with poor people. The rich people will go to Murree
to spend Ramazan and poor people will spend Ramazan in Sargodha. The rich people will go to
Fry Chicks and poor people will hold iftar parties at a local dhaba. The rich people will wear sit
with rich people and poor will sit with poor. So, due to class conflict all social relations are
absorbed. Marx believed that one day the Proletariat will raise their voice and create a
classless society. (proletariat is a term used in Marxism which means those people who are
working class. The word blue collar is also used for working class. The term white collar is used
for Bourgeoise class.). According to Marx there are two classes BOURGEOISE AND
PROLETARIAT. Bourgeoise class is the upper class or the class which exploits the lower class.
Proletariat Class is the lower class which is the working class. Proletariat class is exploited by
the Bourgeoise class. Marx defines class on the basis of ownership of property. Which
means that class is based on the economic status of people. Karl Marx believed that
distribution of resources should be equal.
HOW PROGRESS IS MEASURED:
According to Karl Marx the progress of a country is measured according to the economic
stability of a state. Those countries which are economically stable have more power. This
brings us to the concept of BASE AND SUPERSTRUCTURE introduced by Marx.

For simple understanding take it as a house. The base of the house is economic stability. If a
country is economically stable which means it has more factories, more machines, more stable
money it means you will have good structure. More money and more stable base means a
healthy social structure. Superstructure means you will have healthy family relations, there will
be more music, arts, and most importantly the ideology of the country will be solid. The country
will be powerful if base is strong. If base is strong the ideology will be powerful. For example
those countries which are rich such as America, have English as international language. Their
music and movies are watched all over the world. Their fashion/arts is followed all over the
world. Their customs are followed all over the world. Their structure is strong. Their education
level is better. This is all because their base is strong.
Now we will write this concept in a way which you can write in exam.
One of the fundamental concepts of Marxism is the concept of base and superstructure which refers to
the relationship between the material means of production and the cultural world of art and ideas.
Marx said that if the base, which means the economy, of a country is strong it will have more strong
social, cultural and ideological stance. In other words a stronger base leads to a stronger superstructure.
Commodity and Commodification:
Anything that we can buy or sell according to its exchange value is called commodity. Commodities
include items of everyday use, human labor-power, works of art (paintings) and natural resources.
A commodity is something useful which is made for sale, for instance, a coat which is produced in a
tailoring factory and sold to a customer who will wear it. But if a man makes a coat for his own use it
is not a commodity. A commodity has a use value, an exchange value, and a sign exchange
value.

When a thing has use we call it a use value. This means that the article can be used in some manner.
Use value is measured on the basis of the physical properties of the commodity. The objects such as
bread, ball pen, television, and shampoos are all used by us and because they have a use they have a
value attached to them on the basis of their physical properties. The use value is often misunderstood
by some people. Some people say that if the use of an object is more then its value rises. But thats not
true. The use of bread is more than diamond. Why diamond is expensive and bread cheap? Because
the use value is measured on the basis of the physical properties of the commodity. Another factor
that is involved in measuring the use value is the amount of time required to produce a commodity. For
example in earlier days the mobile phones and televisions were expensive because the factories which
made these commodities had to take more time to make them. Nowadays these commodities are made
in less time so their use value has decreased.

Exchange Value is the amount of a commodity not identical to its price but the amount of a
commodity in comparison with other commodities. If I buy a new mobile phone for 10,000 rupees and
open the box then its exchange value will drop. The mobile phone that is not in its packing is considered
as of low value than that which is in the packing. Both mobile phones are not used, have equally same
functions but the value of the phone which is out of the box is less because it will be exchanged on a
lower price. So, a diamond ring can buy 2 cars which means we can exchange a diamond ring for two
cars so the value of diamond ring is measured in comparison with other commodities or in exchange
of other commodities. The value of a loaf of bread is less than a diamond ring because a loaf of bread
cannot buy you two cars.

Sign Exchange Value:

The value of a commodity on the basis of the sign attached with that commodity is called sign
exchange value. If there are two mobile phones with equally same features but one has a brand name
which is considered more reliable and the other has no brand name then the value of the phone with
brand name is more than the value of the phone which has no brand name. The best definition of sign
value is sign value denotes and describes the value accorded to an object because of
the prestige (social status) that it imparts upon the possessor. A man possessing a Samsung phone
has more prestige than one with China phone. The prestige of Samsung is more than China phone.
Now what is commodification? It means to buy or sell things according to their exchange value. In
other words we can say that commodification is the process of turning a thing into commodity. A
person who is a labor in a factory can be considered as a commodity if the owner of the factory is
going to sell his factory. The owner will say that I will give you this factory and with this factory you
will get 50 workers. If for the same amount the person is getting a factory without any workers
already in it then obviously he will buy the first factory because now the workers are being treated as
commodities here. The workers are transformed into commodities. This process of turnig a thing into
a commodity is called commodification. Remember? We have discussed above that a commodity is
anything which can be bought and sold and has an exchange value? So commodification is making
objects or producing objects which will sell and will have an exchange value.
Below is a short definition of commodification.

Commodification is the transformation of goods, services, ideas and people into commodities, or
objects of trade

In the end two of other concepts are important for our discussion:

Hegemony and Interpellation

Hegemony:

Hegemony is the domination of particular section of the society by the powerful classes. Most often it
works through consent rather than by power. In other words Hegemony is a class alliance by means of
which one, leading [hegemonic] class assumes a position of leadership over other classes. The term
Hegemony is related with Gramsci who said that the working class assumes the upper class as its leader
in social context and tries to follow the norms set by the upper class. And if you can cram it the exact
definition from the internet is
The concept of hegemony first appeared in Gramscis Notes on the Southern Question (1926),
where it was defined as a system of class alliance in which a hegemonic class exercised political
leadership over subaltern classes by winning them over.
Interpellation:
Whereas hegemony is the domination of upper class over lower class in a social context with the
consent of the lower class, Interpellation is the process through which the upper class tricks the
lower class into restricting their choices.
The important word in interpellation is choice. The upper class makes it appear to the lower
class as though they are making their own choice but in fact they are being tricked into following
the things that the upper class wants them to do.
Girls being portrayed in magazines playing with dolls and loving the color pink is an example of gender
role interpellation

Interpellation is used in almost every aspect of our society, especially in the marketing of merchandise
for example in TV commercials we see that those people who are busy, serious, business minded,
intellectual, & hero type they buy Rolex watches. Or we see that a good housewife always buys her
children ice-cream. A loving wife brings Lipton Tea to her husband. We are made fool by these people
to believe that this idea of being a good housewife, a loving wife is related to that commodity. We buy
that commodity and think.STUPID PEOPLE

So we can say that Interpellation is to develop a need for commodity.

The concept of HEGEMONY WAS GIVEN BY GRAMSCI AND THE CONCEPT OF INTERPELLATION WAS
GIVEN BY LOUIS ALTHUSSER