Transcript Murderous Seeds

Murderous Seeds
Communist Manifesto and the Birth
of Communism
The Cold War
• Polarized world in 2 camps
– Free World
– Communist bloc
• In 90 years Communism
affects more people than
Christianity in 2000 years
• Constitutional Republic vs
• Dictatorship of Proletariat
Communism
• Extreme humanism politics
• Revolution against
capitalistic society
• Dictatorship of proletariat
• Dialectic materialism
Definitions
• Dialectic = an idea and its antithesis in conflict
resulting in change
• Bourgeoisie = middle class property owners
• Proletariat = lower, working class
• Materialism = reality exists only in the realm of
matter (denies the supernatural existence)
• Young Hegelians = atheistic 19th century
philosophy that believed in an ideal form of
government yet to come that would arise through
conflict
th
19
Century Prussia
Our Story Begins
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 17701831
• German philosopher that brought
Enlightenment to central Europe
– Human reason as the ultimate moral
authority
• Introduced new concept of thinking:
– Speculative reason
• “what if?”
– Dialectic
• Two opposing viewpoints hold “dialog”
• Advocated freedom of selfdetermination
Enlightenment
• “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into
an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose
end shall be according to their works.” II Cor 11:14-15
• “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil.” Gen 3: 4,5
Hegelian Dialectic
• Abstract-Negative-Concrete
• Abstact is initial thesis that starts in the mind
• H. dialectic suggests flaws in any initial thesis—it is
too abstract and lacks the “negative” of trial, error
and experience.
• The Negative (antithesis of the abstract) whittles
away at the abstract preserving the useful portion of
its thesis through conflict
• The resolution of conflict is Concrete or material
result (reality)
Young Hegelians
• Hegel’s students split into two camps:
– “right” = conservative: believe dialectic fulfilled in
present Prussian government
– “left” = Young Hegelians, believe there was a better
form of government yet to come
• Had Hegel survived, he would have been dismayed
that the Young Hegelians embraced atheism
• Ludwig Feuerbach emerged as leader of this camp
– Inspired by revolutionary spirit sweeping Europe
– Critical of traditional unity of Church, State, philosophy
– Believed human progress required repudiation of state
and religion and substitute materialistic humanism
Ludwig Feuerbach
• Wrote Essentails of
Christianity
• God is merely an
externalization of man
because God is an object
• Accused God of being
“selfish”
• Concept of materialism –
reality is made of matter
Karl Marx
• Descendant of long line of Jewish
Rabbis
• Father embraced Protestant
Christianity out of fear
• Preoccupied with politics in college
• Disappointing to his family because of
lack of interest in working
• Angry and hostile, he was constantly
involved in disputes, arguments and
fights. If he could not dominate an
organization he would attempt to
divide it.
• Identified early on as Young Hegelian
1818-1883
“Regular work bored him....throughout life he was hard up. He was
ridiculously ineffectual in his endeavors to cope with the economic
needs of his household and his family; and his incapacity in
monetary matters involved him in an endless series of struggles and
catastrophes.....The thousands upon thousands which Engels handed
over to him, melted away in his fingers like snow.”
Marx combined the dialectic of Hegel with the materialism of
Feuerbach.
He believed in the evolution of economics: as feudalism was
replaced by capitalism, so socialism would replace capitalism, then
communism will replace socialism
Dialectic Materialism
• Materialism is a radically empirical philosophy
that is based in the conviction that all
phenomena originate from a physical cause and
can be understood and explained through natural
science.
• According to materialism, matter is the total
explanation for space, nature, man, society,
history and every other aspect of existence.
• Materialism does not acknowledge any alleged
phenomenon that cannot be perceived by the
five senses such as the supernatural, God, etc.
Dialectic Materialism
• "All nature, from the smallest thing to the biggest,
from a grain of sand to the sun, from the protista
to man, is in a constant state of coming into being
and going out of being, in a constant flux, in a
ceaseless state of movement and change." -Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature.
• All things contain within themselves internal
dialectical contradictions, which are the primary
cause of motion, change, and development in the
world.
Friedrich Engels
• More of a paradox than Marx
• Son of wealthy textile merchant,
dropped out of high school to
work.
– Studied German philosophy
– Dominated by Hegel as source of
intellectual development
• Father sent him to textile mills
in Manchester to change his
radical ideas 1842
– After reading Feuerbach’s
Essentials of Christianity, he
renounce all religion
– Met Mary Burns introduced him
to plight of working class
1820-1895
• “Lizzie” Burns mother died when she
was 9, the child went to work
– When she met Engels she knew the ins
and outs of the Irish laborer
– She became his common law wife 1842
until her death 20 years later
– Engels was against marriage which he
saw as unnatural and unjust
When Engels first met Marx in 1844,
the later rebuffed Engels for his
bourgeoisie class. But as Marx read
Engels essays on “grim future of
capitalism and the industrial age”, the
two became inseparable
Dangerous Seeds
• It was Engels who connected the family institution to
capitalism,
– “the concept of monogamous marriage came from the
necessity within class society for men to control women to
ensure their own children would inherit their property”
– “a future communist society would allow people to make
decisions about their relationships free from economic
constraints”
• Engels’ work The Condition of the Working Class in
England in 1844 led Marx to conceive the idea of the
historical dialectic in terms of class conflict
Marx and Engels
• While Engels made himself “second fiddle” to Marx
• It was Engels who financed the efforts (staying in the
job he hated in order to keep the work going)
• Engels influence helped Marx’s work to be published
• Together they wrote the
Communist Manifesto
• Engels finished and edited
Marx’s Das Kapital after Marx
died
Communist League
• Created 1847 in London
– Merger of League of Just &
– Communist Correspondence
Committee
• Considered ineffective during the
brief Revolution of 1848 in
Prussia
• Marx was editor of its paper
“Neue Rheinische Zeitung”
• (new Renish Newspaper)
• Anti-government articles
Communist League
• Government cracked down on
newspaper
• Marx deported 1849
• Last print, Mark wrote this threat
• “We have no compassion, and we
ask no compassion from you.
When our turn comes, we shall
not make excuses for the terror”
• Not sufficiently united in policy
and objectives, League disbanded
in 1852
Communist Manifesto
• 1848 Marx and Engels jointly published Communist Manifesto
• “The history of all hitherto existing societies is a history of
class struggles”
• Dialectic materialism
• It called for:
1. Abolition of property ownership and the application of rent to
public funds
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state by means of a
national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly
Communist Manifesto
6. Centralization of the means of
communication and transportation by the
state
7. Extension of factories and instruments of
production owned by the state, the bringing
into cultivation of wastelands and the
improvement of the soil generally in
accordance with a common plan
Communist Manifesto
8. Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of
industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing
industries; gradual abolition of the distinction
between town and country, by a more equal
distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public
schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its
present form. Combination of education with
industrial production, etc.
• Marx defines the bourgeoisie as the social
class that are “the owners of the means of
social production and the employers of wage
labor” in a capitalist society. The bourgeoisie
is the villain.
• The hero is the proletariat, the “class of
modern wage laborers who, having no means
of production of their own, are reduced to
selling their labor power in order to live.”
Communist League
This first appeared in 2005 as web-only newspaper!
Revolutions of 1848
• Focused on Prussia, Baden, Saxony
– Wanted united Germany
– Wanted parliament and free elections
• In March 1848, King Freidrich Wilhelm wore the
Tricolor and promised to adopt reforms
• By late 1848, monarchy regained power and
many of revolutionaries left country
– Including August Willich who became decorated
Union general in US Civil War!
– As member of Communist League, Engels served as
his aide de camp during 1848
First International
• Founded in London 1864
• International Workingmen’s
Association (IWA) was the first
socialist organization
• Up to 8 million members
• Lead to a rash of revolutionary
activity in Europe
• Heavily influenced under Marx’
leadership
• Disbanded 1876 from divisions
Second International
• Organization of leftist socialist and labor parties
founded in Paris 1889.
• Founded by Engels and others (Marx was dead)
• Far more successful than the First International
• Most famous for international campaign for 8hour working day
• Dissolved during World War I (1914) because
factions were divided regarding the war
Summary
• By the end of the 19th century, although
Communist organizations had formed, they
lacked sufficient strength or solidarity to
achieve revolutions (mainly in central Europe)
• They lacked popular support
• The official language of Communists
International was German