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Today in our
society we are told that capitalism, is the greatest system
to organise society. we are told by the media ,by the
history books that history is made by famous individuals
such as kings, queens, politicians and the working class
never played a role in changing society .
lets see
what is Marxists view of the history ….
the theory of
historical materialism developed by Marx and Engels, is a
theory for analysing human society and the laws of its
developments . it explains that class society hasn’t always
existed and the earliest human society were classless and
based on co-operation not exploitation .
Marx and
Engels based their theory on how society develops in
struggle against idealist philosophisers. Unlike the way
most people understand today, "idealism" originally meant a
trend within philosophy itself. the idealists believed that
ideas comes first and material reality is the result of
these ideas, idealists think that changes in reality is
caused by ideas, but Marxists are materialists who believe
that changes in human society and history is shaped by
material, social and economic forces and ideas are the
reflection of reality in human consciousness.
Early
Societies to today’s world …
hunter
gathering society which Marx called the primitive communism.
Marx and Engels theory define the earliest human society
were classless societies based on co-operation without
exploitation of any group by other. This was the only way
the human society were organised until class began to
develop over 10.000 years ago. They used hunting and
scavenging wild animal and gathering wild plants, every one
was involved in producing the necessities of life (food,
shelter ...etc) and there weren’t a room for elite to
develop so who could exploit the labour of other ?
The
Neolithic revolution ….
In the
Neolithic revolution two discoveries began to revolutionise
the way human society was organised . first the cultivation
of plants, second the domestication of animals. These two
achievements known as Neolithic revolution which enabled
human to control their environment and for the first time
human society were able to produce a permanent surplus (the
amount of food and good produced). This allowed a section of
that society to be free from their normal work of producing
the necessities . as the productivity of labour were
increased and some societies became more complex, a layer of
administrators also emerged .
The first
writing system in the world was developed by the
Sumerians. Sumerians society which grew between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers not far from today’s Baghdad was based
on irrigation. they made system of channels to take rain
water to the fields and this increased crops enormously, so
to make sure the water distributed to the fields Sumerian
society needed administrators. In many areas they began to
become a ruling elite , a new class with different interests
to other on society. They made rules in order to protect
their privilege positions, the most successful of these new
elites established special bodies errand, warriors that they
played to enforce their rule within the group. This did not
happen with out a reaction in some group is appeared that
an emerging ruling class blocked from consolidating their
grip on power and collective organisation were
re-established however those group used to be weaker than
those with the ruling class.
where the
productive forces been developed further unless they were
divided geographically from other more developed societies,
the collectively run hunter gathering groups became
dissolved in to them society often by wars and enslavement.
There are
three type of class society that’s most known and they are :
slavery, feudalism and capitalism ……
SLAVERY
the ancient
slave society in Greece, Rome and Egypt were based on
exploitation of slaves labour on a massive scale, the
wealthy land owners lived their life in big cities which
supported by massive numbers of slaves. the slaves worked on
the lands and they produced most of the goods of that
society for instance wine, pottery, oil and jewellery which
made that society to be so rich.
FEUDALISM
Feudalism were
different it was a peasant based economy, the peasants
controlled their production in their plot land, and they
were forced to give half or three quarters of their products
and their labour to the feudal lords who controlled the
whole lands were the peasants lived. This surplus of the
feudal lords taken certain forms, for example the peasants
worked on the lords lands and gave a proportion of the
years produce or pay money rent.
The landowning
aristocracy were the ruling class under feudalism.
CAPITALLISM
capitalism ,
the economic system that dominates our world today is based
on private ownership of the means of production and
exploitation of the working class. the working do not own a
land and they are not slave but they are forced to sell
their labour to survive. the capitalists buy their labour
power to produce the necessities and other products and make
profit by selling the products to the working class and
other classes. The working class in today’s world are the
most oppressed class as if they don’t sell their labour they
cant survive and the money they get for their work if they
don’t spend it on the products that they made the again they
cant survive . Capitalism is the system we are living under
today, unequal and undemocratic , the system that create
poverty and war . is based on the exploitation of the
working class who are the majority of people by the
capitalist class who are the minority , who control and own
the industries and the financial institutions and dominates
governments and political establishment .
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