To what extent is Marxism still relevant today

To what extent is Marxism still relevant todayIn commie society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activitysociety regulates production and thus makes it possible for me to do one intimacy today and a nonher tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in evening, notice after dinner, just as I surrender a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic. (Marx/Engels The German Ideology)I love talking and thinking about politics and to imagine a break society, where I locoweed reflect on what to write in my essays, however the quality of these activities would change truly much, if one was not forced to do it, to pass exams, to start a degree, and eventu whollyy to find a job to survive in the capitalist society. E genuinelyone knows the difference in the midst of self-fulfilling activity and the obligation of w mature labour, what we ordinarily call work.When we atomic number 18 looking at the quotation above, we see that Marxism is rather a social utopia than a political program. The utopia of a society without exploitation of population by people, a society where concurrence is overthrowed and the volunteer cooperation of men and women is the motor of production.The precondition for this get a line is the idea, that the individual is a social being and for that reason moldiness be analysed in its social and historical context and that is continually in development.The fundamental difference in the history of political thought surrounded by the left wing and the right wing is based on the view of the human being. Hobbes for example describes the condition of archaic societies as a bellum omnium contra omnes2, that is why the main idolatry of men comes from its similars so to protect people from people, there is the need of a strong state and constabulary and order. You ca not change mankind, there is no developmentThere were al ways these two views of existence that built the radicals of i deologies and it seems to be more a matter of popular opinion than a fact that you can prove.In the last decades we experienced a dominance of what I call new escaped thinking, hidebound think tanks began to describe human behaviour with the rules of the neo trackical school of economics, that sees the person as a advantage maximising individual, all aspects of life argon tried to condone as economic behaviour.In 1989 the concurrent system to capitalism mazed its last battle of the cold war the right keep the victory of capitalism and liberal state and the left was paralysed. The well-known Francis Fukuyama described the End of history as the end point of mankinds ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy. (National Interest, 1989, 16) In the homogeneous article Fukuyama says that it will be a sad time, because there is not going to be either ideological struggle either more, patternism would be replaced by economic calculations, the end less solving of proficient problems environmental concerns and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer needs.The right wings argument against Marxism today is the breakdown of communism and the dark lieus of the soviet system, although we know from an Marxist point of view, that the system in Russia had not anything to do with the ideal and the utopia of Marxism. It was state capitalism without any form of democracy that failed because of social drives in eastern United Statesern Europe, for example Solidarinosc in Poland.The problem is that left wing intellectuals fell into agony after 1989 because they shared the feeling that capitalism had win and the world is bad, many of them stopped to think about alternatives and lost their utopia, went fishing, or about Jewish-Orthodox ones lost their belief and became new liberals, others searched for deuce-ace ways.The dominance of new liberalism also colonised the social democracy, for example the voice communication of the s ocial pop Austrian chancellor, who said in the eighties, that somebody who has visions needs a doctor.The theory of the third way left the road of Marxism as a result of 1989 and is defined by Anthony Giddens as a way between old social democracy and new liberalism. The question is is the third way a road that deals to nowhere? It is very likely so because there is no final perspective. I would explain it rather as a parking lot of conservative and liberal political ideas, than as a way.Ten years after the transition in the east we are facing a increment social movement with a big scepticism about the economic globalisation, more and more people experience the negative effects of capitalism and more and more people are claiming for alternatives.Social utopias are still relevant because naturally an other system comes to your mind, when you are not satisfied, even if they are whole wishes sort of dreams, the next step is the thinking process to realise your dreams. You cannot kil l utopias. Marxism is still relevant as an utopia to reach a society of free and equal.The function of ideologies is to conquer the minds, because the actions of people are led from their view of the world and their wishes. Ideology only has an influence on a personality if there is a belief in it. The task of the academic left (if there is still one) today is to win back the hegemony at the battlefield of ideas.2. Marxism as an instrument of critiqueI think it is incontestable that Marxism is still relevant as a critique of capitalism the state and liberal democracy. Marxism is a child of the Industrial Revolution and was natural as a reaction to the bad effects of proletarianisation, dependency on wage labour, the new way of production, which caused hunger and oppression.The theory that the development of the capitalist system, with a growing number of wage labourers leads more or less automatically to a revolution forgot, that capitalism was able to react to social and economic changes very fast. So the ruling class understood how to bring more and more wage employees on their side (ex. white collar employees).Nevertheless a big majority in Europe has to live with their income through with(predicate) wage labour, and when we look to a world perspective, we find a massive proletarianisation in the world. (compare Callinocos, 1992, p. 113), In a world perspective we also see growing differences between the south and the north, which makes Marxs theory in a global perspective very plausible.Globalised capitalism with its new liberal face, hasnt found an service to the exploitation of nature and the growing social inequalities. The waste of resources and the economic crisis cant be abolished through capitalism. The principle of profit is the principle of exploitation.The regular breakdowns of the stock markets with their destructive effects on states, is a impregnable example.Marx knew that the state couldnt be neutral, because the state represents the in terests of the ruling classes and the owners of the resources, thats why liberal democracy could not be a real democracy, it leads toa passive citizenery in the 1988 presidential elections in the US, upper-income electors were twice as likely to vote as lower income electors the displacement of parliamentary institutions by unelected centres of power . structural constraints on the piecemeal transformation of capitalism it was above all the massive flight of capital from France which forced the Mitterand disposition to abandon the program of reforms on which it was elected in 1981. (Callinicos, 1992, p. 109)Variables like class, gender and income are very all-important(a) for a sociological description of the society, the marxist point of view, played always an important role for class analyses and the question, who has the power in a society, who owns the production means and so on.3. Marxism as an alternativeFirst we have to define our aims even if they are utopian, first we have to know what we want, then we can search for ways to reach our aims. We will see that there are many ways that lead in the alike(p) direction, so the main difference between Marxists, are the means they are using.Marx conceived the post capitalist next as an association of all workers, an association in which freedom and equality were combined through (1) the democratic regulation of society (2) the end of politics (3) the planned use of resources (4) efficient production and (5) greater leisure. (Held, 1999, p. 147)These are the aims shared by all Marxists to overcome capitalism, to abolish the state and the power and to introduce democratic self-government. What they all have in common is the utopia.The differences between them are the way to come closer to these aims.Libertarian Marxists reject all forms of compromises with organisations of the capitalist society, authoritarian leadership, division of labour. They refuse political party organisation. They believe that pro gress can only be made with democratically organised mass movements.Pluralists are using the institutional framework of the liberal democracy to win control of the state for restructuring it. They believe in the necessity of party organisation, using power to abolish it and extension of participation. Many social democratic parties, some communist parties come from this tradition, green movements can be subsumed under this category too.The orthodox Marxist branch belief in a strong party organisation with professional leadership and cadre discipline, but rejects compromises with the capitalist democracy, which only represents the interests of the capital. (compare Held, 1999, p. 148 150)So Marxists are flake in many places, in parliaments (pluralists), in basic movements (libertarians), in hidden places (planning the revolution), but they all ensure on big demonstrations against globalisation. They dont like each other, but every branch plays its role.The orthodox Marxists lost i nfluence, but the forces of the traditional democratic left in the parliaments could come closer to libertarians, because of the growing movement against new liberalism. In the so-called civil society we will find libertarian Marxists.The main difference between these two factions is the question of reform or revolution. Pluralists wanted to get control of the state to transform capitalism, but they became part of the state and of the capitalist system, many lost their ideologies (Third Way), but there are still some left in the institutions. They wont bring innovation, what they could remobilize is a strong democratic, anti capitalist basic movement, that is inspired by libertarian Marxist ideas.If this movement is strong enough, it could be the beginning of a new age of a sustainable transformation of capitalism to something different, what seems not realistic at the moment, but who knows.In any case the libertarian branch with its allies in the civil society could wake up the old pluralists in the parliaments and party machines to start a new offensive against new liberalism, to improve democracy, to concentrate on redistribution and to get back or defend important public resources and so on.My theory is, that social movements are a motor of reform, even if they dont manage to bring revolutionary changes. Marxism always was a brat for the capitalism, that forced capitalism to adapt, but not the theory brought a welfare state or state-controlled elements to capitalist states, it were always the social movements in connection with the utopia that brought the change.I believe that Marxism is an alternative, because of the weak sides of capitalism and liberal democracy, the exploitation of humans and the nature, the waste of resources and the social inequality, but as long as we dont have Marxism as an practical alternative, it has three functionsAs an utopia it shows us an aim a direction, as an analysing order helps it to show us the contradictions of capi talism and it is a threat for the free market system and liberal democracy, that could lead to an permanent reform of the system. Perhaps we need no revolution. Perhaps capitalism will reform as long as it turns into a communist society, and if not, the revolution will come, Marx said.BibliographieCallinicos, A The Revenge of History Marxism and the East European Revolutions (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992).Duncan, G. Democratic theory and practice (University Press, Cambridge, 1983)Held, D. Models of land (Blackwell, Cambridge, 1999) chapter 4.Levin, M Marxism and Democratic theory in Duncan, g. 1983.JournalsBooth, W.J. fashioning Sense of Marx concept of Communism (1989, Political Theory, 17/2).Fukujama, F. The End of History? (1989, National Interest, 16)Halliday, F. An Encounter with Francis Fukuyama (1992, newly Left Review No. 193).Milibald, R. Fukuyama and the socialist Alternative (1992, New Left Review No. 193)Milibald, R. The Plausability of fabianism (1994, New Left Re view No. 206).Pierson, C. Democracy, Markets and Capital Are there Necessary Economic Limits to Democracy? (1992, Political Studies, Special Issue).Rustin, M. No Exit from Capitalism? (1992, New Left Review No. 193).1 Utopos means nowhere, a place that doesnt exist an utopia is the birth of a wish.2 War between all