Marxist Theory: Class Struggle and Capitalist Production
The Structure of Society
Marx posits that human societies have progressed through different stages of development. In each of these socio-economic formations, there are three levels:
- Economic (infrastructure)
- Legal-political
- Ideological (superstructure)
The economic level involves activities for the production of material goods necessary for survival. The legal-political level establishes the mechanisms of power and the rules that govern a society, represented by the state and law. The ideological level encompasses the ideas that each society holds about itself and the world, along with the customs and habits of the time. Ideology’s function is to provide cohesion to the social structure and perpetuate the system of domination of one class over another. This occurs because the dominant ideology is that of the ruling class, which aims to extend its worldview to all of society to maintain its dominance and power.
The economic structure provides the explanation for the other two layers that make up the ideological superstructure. Marxist theory assigns a significant role to the economy in explaining different societies.
The Economic Status
To survive, human beings must act upon nature, transforming it into goods that sustain life. This transformative activity of nature that allows us to survive is work. Work is the element that defines the human being and is developed within the economic structure. Therefore, Marx believes that the way we work is crucial to understanding the political and ideological situation.
In work, human beings not only create things but also develop their skills and potential. It is the embodiment of human progress. Understanding work is to understand what the human being is, and therefore, it is necessary to analyze how it develops.
The essential element in work is the productive forces, which are all the necessary components for the development of work. This includes the set of means of production that each society uses to obtain various goods needed for subsistence. It encompasses natural resources or production materials, knowledge, and technical means used for production, along with the productive power of human beings. Its development indicates the degree of progress achieved by humanity.
The Capitalist Mode of Production
The political economy of A. Smith and D. Ricardo based capitalism on the goal of steady accumulation of capital, and thus, the equality and freedom that the market imprinted on social relations. However, Marx discovered that beneath the apparent freedom and equality lay a real inequality between the worker and the capitalist. This inequality arises because the employee is required (to survive) to sell their labor power in the market. For this sale, they receive a price: the wage, and the worker becomes a proletarian.
A curious feature of this system is that over time, the capitalist becomes richer, accumulating capital, while the proletariat becomes poorer the more they work. This contradiction is explained by the concept of surplus value.
Surplus value is explained as follows: in capitalist relations of production, the wage that workers receive for their work is essential to maintain and reproduce their conditions as laborers (iron law of wages). However, their labor produces more than they receive as wages. During their working day, the worker produces a part that is received as wages and another part that they do not receive, which remains with the capitalist as profit. This is surplus value.
A direct result of surplus value is the alienation of the worker. Marx understood this alienation in two ways. First, the worker is alienated from the fruits of their labor, as the result of their efforts does not belong to them but to the capitalist. It is strange and alien, thus separating and alienating them. Second, the worker is alienated from their own productive activity, becoming a commodity with a market value, not belonging to themselves but to another. Alienation is exacerbated when the employee accepts as natural that the capitalist appropriates the surplus because they own the means of production.
The effectiveness of capitalism lies in its ability to perpetuate the conditions under which it appears morally acceptable. Marx’s proposal to overcome capitalism is communism, defined by the abolition of private ownership of the means of production. The transition to a communist society is not automatic but requires the conscious organization of the proletariat once it becomes aware of its exploitation.
The Class Struggle
The course of history is the transition from one mode of production to another, driven by the contradictions generated within them. The mechanism of this transformation is the clash between classes defending their interests. The motor of history is class struggle.
Marx did not create or discover the concept of class struggle; it originated with French historians. However, they believed that class struggle ended with the rise of the bourgeoisie, whereas Marx argued that it did not.
The class structure at a given time is directly related to the mode of production. The economic system divides society between haves and have-nots, making antagonism inevitable. However, this does not mean that this struggle is inherent in human nature. Class struggle will disappear if the operation of private ownership of the means of production ceases.
Marx called the achievement of this classless society the revolution of the proletariat. This revolution stems from his analysis of the French Revolution, where he observed that it increasingly resorted to terror to continue. To avoid failure, the revolution must come from a real social mass movement that perceives it as necessary for its interests. The agent of this revolution is the proletariat, which, as a social class, has nothing to lose and will therefore establish a classless society.
This seizure of power by the proletariat will initially be violent, as capitalists will cling to their privileges. Once power is obtained, there will be a period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, necessary to eliminate the remnants of the capitalist state. This is called the socialist state. Once achieved, this state will disappear as a form of domination of one class over another. This does not mean the disappearance of any organization but the maintenance of a public power that has lost its oppressive nature: the communist state. However, Marx did not fully develop the form and organization of this power.