An Outline history of communist movement of the world - Book excerpts and review - Part 3
An Outline history of communist movement of the world - Book excerpts and review - Part 3
Engels support to Marx
In the early days of his marriage Karl Marx was supported by his family and after
the financial support from them slowly stopped, his mother in law supported the family and
after that his dear friend Engels took over the role and only for his sake he started working
for the purpose of supporting Marx family in his family enterprise Ermen and Engels firm in
Manchester and almost till the end of Marx life, Engels gladly supported the family. Engels
had to perform arduous dual tasks of working as a businessman in the day and in the evenings
and at night as a Communist, writing articles, letters to Marx and other leaders of the working class
movement. He did that for twenty years.
My take: It was an irony that Marx who got benefited hugely by the system of marriage the whole
of his life had to take a negative view of marriage system as to suggest complete abolition of the system
itself and called it exploitative of womenfolk. Though what he said was true to a large extent on the
macro side, the fact remains what he had to offer as an alternative to the system was not only
impractical but it was considered abominable in countries like Russia where it was first tried to be propounded. But, at the same time it led many welcome changes in the marriage institution like
freedom for women in matters like divorce, property inheritance,etc. For those changes the credit
should go to the communists. It was really a surprise to me that it was Russian dictator Lenin who first brought major reforms in marriages in the line of Marx and Engels thinking. It is pertinent to note here
that Marx and Engels were not favorably inclined with regard to rights of Homosexuals and in today's context their views were not exactly liberal and they were mocking the community as seen in some of
the letters written by them.
The condition of working class in England
While working in Ermen and Engels company in Manchester Engels had the opportunity
to work closely with factory and industrial workers there. He collected enormous amount of information
about their nature of work, Working hours, daily wage and exploitation by capitalists. They were slaved
away for more than 16 hours a day and in some worse areas, they had to toil for more than 40 hours at a
stretch and the study of working class people at that time molded him and made him aware of the
revolutionary and humanistic of the proletariat. The social condition of majority of the workers were
pathetic and and they were living in inhuman conditions as seen and recorded by Engels.
My take : This above condition was prevailing in England in the middle of 19th century when Britain's
Indian loot was in the definitive phase and the East India company and its minions were causing
countless hardships to India and its people by milking all their wealth and the infamous Tax for salt
was levied on the people of India which resulted in poor consumption of salt by the Eastern and Central Indian people.( British historian Roy Moxham )
As poor could not afford to take salt in their daily intake, lakhs of Indian people perished due to
sodium deficiency in their blood. The plunder and loot from India did not reach the poorer sections
of even British mainland leave alone India and it was very clear that the loot was only filling coffers
of East of company and its shareholders.
A contribution to the critique of political economy
This book is considered to be the world's finest work on money and money circulation
and here in this book Marx declares that labour to be the only source of value to commodity
produced and he discovers the specific feature of labour which creates value. It is the most
important breakthrough as economists were hitherto unable to see the qualitative side and
show the forms of labor represented in use value and value. In the chapter The Commodity
Marx elucidates with clarity his doctrine on the two fold nature of commodity as unity of
use value and exchange value and the two fold nature of labour as concrete labour and
abstract - universal labour.
Das Capital - Volume 1
After completion of book " A contribution to the critique of political economy" Marx started
working on its second part. After taking almost six years he finished and decided to publish the
work as fresh new book called Capital with sub title A contribution to the critique of political
economy. It was published on 14.9.1867 in Hamburg. In this book Marx exhaustively deals with
surplus value of labor in terms of money and use value and value. A simple illustration to excess
labour concept. A worker is paid Rs 100 for 8 hours work and within one hour he produces goods
worth Rs 100. Remaining 7 hours unpaid work goes to the owner of the factory as surplus value.
Thus, accumulation of that surplus value over period of time with the factory owner becomes wealth
for further investment or business in the hands of bourgeois owner. By this logic using complex
formulas he establishes that accumulated wealth belongs only to the proletariat class which is primarily responsible for creation of wealth. Subsequently this excess money becomes capital
for society. In other words only excess labour which comes out of the result of exploitation of
npaid wages to workers becomes profits at the hands of capitalists so the additional wealth thus
created truly belongs to whole society and not to the capitalist class.
My take:
Though I am yet to go through the original books of Marx ' Capital ", after reading this excess
labour theory, a lay man's doubt comes to my mind regarding the claim of Excess labour being
the one and only source of profits. In other words Profits' only source is excess unpaid labour
and none else.
Some say that this theory largely loses its value when prices or value factor is applied to it.
And again,a question comes 'don't we have to take into due consideration the enterprising ability of the entrepreneurial class for making the commodity saleable in the market and also foreseeing the demand of the commodity in the first place'? what will happen to the products when it remains unsold due to various factors like competition etc? He has to bear the losses in case if it is unsold for a period of time and if it is a perishable product labor value for those products will be lost forever for which redemption cannot be made from the labour class. The fact is, workers are paid first according to the market value of their services to the making of the commodity, the capitalist entrepreneur may or may not realize the rewards for his risk taking and other entrepreneurial expertise.
Death of Marx
In January 1883 Marx's daughter Jenny chen fell ill seriously and this shocking news
brought a nervous disorder in Marx. On 12th of the same month she died and this was terrible
blow to Karl marx who never recovered from it. He died on 14.3.1883 and Engels announced
the sad demise of Marx to the working class movement of the world. In the glowing tribute to
the great man Engels said, ....just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature,
so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: ...Marx also discovered the special
law of motion governing the present day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society
this has created. Two such discoveries would be enough for a life time and happy the man to whom
it is granted to make even one such discovery ... he made independent discoveries in every field he
investigated..
Engels continues Marx unfinished agenda
After his mentor Marx's death, Engels had to carry the entire burden of guiding International
proletariat movement. New editions of Marxist classics like Communist Manifesto were brought out
in various languages. The English translation of Capital first volume was published in 1887.
Another important contribution awaited Engels which was to compile the subsequent volumes of the
Marx magnum opus book Capital. Engels finished the work on volume in 1885 afterwards he started
working on volume III. It was awaited with great expectancy and it was only after ten years the could
appear for various reasons. V I Lenin said later on the contribution of Engels: ... by publishing the
two volumes of Capital, Engels created a majestic monument to the genius who had been his friend...
Dialectic materialism
In his book Dialectics of Nature, Engels enriched historical materialism by including the theory
of the role of labour in the origin of man. In his book 'the part played by labor in the transition from
ape to man'. Here Engels explained as to how labor created man himself. He made a detailed philosophical
study of the basic laws of natural science and revealed their dialectical nature. He also developed the
dialectical materialism teaching on the form of motion of matter.
On Russia
In the year 1858, Marx correctly visualized that the collapse of the serfdom in Russia was
inevitable. That is what he pointed out in his letters to Engels and he also felt that in Russia, due to
socio economic causes imminent changes were in the offing.
Passing away of Engels
On the 5th of August 1895 Engels breathed his last. In the month of July the same year,
V I Lenin came to see Engels, but due to health condition of Engels he was not permitted to meet
him. The founder and co founder of scientific socialism have passed into history. Atheism led them
to rationalism and anti monarchy anti feudalism led them to democracy. Both stood for press freedom, human and civil rights and their sympathy towards poor, downtrodden and their collective venture
made them to critically analyze the dialectics of Hegel and the Feuerbachian materialism and thereby
formulated a new Marxist theory of dialectical materialism. .
********* To be continued .....Part 4
Engels support to Marx
In the early days of his marriage Karl Marx was supported by his family and after
the financial support from them slowly stopped, his mother in law supported the family and
after that his dear friend Engels took over the role and only for his sake he started working
for the purpose of supporting Marx family in his family enterprise Ermen and Engels firm in
Manchester and almost till the end of Marx life, Engels gladly supported the family. Engels
had to perform arduous dual tasks of working as a businessman in the day and in the evenings
and at night as a Communist, writing articles, letters to Marx and other leaders of the working class
movement. He did that for twenty years.
My take: It was an irony that Marx who got benefited hugely by the system of marriage the whole
of his life had to take a negative view of marriage system as to suggest complete abolition of the system
itself and called it exploitative of womenfolk. Though what he said was true to a large extent on the
macro side, the fact remains what he had to offer as an alternative to the system was not only
impractical but it was considered abominable in countries like Russia where it was first tried to be propounded. But, at the same time it led many welcome changes in the marriage institution like
freedom for women in matters like divorce, property inheritance,etc. For those changes the credit
should go to the communists. It was really a surprise to me that it was Russian dictator Lenin who first brought major reforms in marriages in the line of Marx and Engels thinking. It is pertinent to note here
that Marx and Engels were not favorably inclined with regard to rights of Homosexuals and in today's context their views were not exactly liberal and they were mocking the community as seen in some of
the letters written by them.
The condition of working class in England
While working in Ermen and Engels company in Manchester Engels had the opportunity
to work closely with factory and industrial workers there. He collected enormous amount of information
about their nature of work, Working hours, daily wage and exploitation by capitalists. They were slaved
away for more than 16 hours a day and in some worse areas, they had to toil for more than 40 hours at a
stretch and the study of working class people at that time molded him and made him aware of the
revolutionary and humanistic of the proletariat. The social condition of majority of the workers were
pathetic and and they were living in inhuman conditions as seen and recorded by Engels.
My take : This above condition was prevailing in England in the middle of 19th century when Britain's
Indian loot was in the definitive phase and the East India company and its minions were causing
countless hardships to India and its people by milking all their wealth and the infamous Tax for salt
was levied on the people of India which resulted in poor consumption of salt by the Eastern and Central Indian people.( British historian Roy Moxham )
As poor could not afford to take salt in their daily intake, lakhs of Indian people perished due to
sodium deficiency in their blood. The plunder and loot from India did not reach the poorer sections
of even British mainland leave alone India and it was very clear that the loot was only filling coffers
of East of company and its shareholders.
A contribution to the critique of political economy
This book is considered to be the world's finest work on money and money circulation
and here in this book Marx declares that labour to be the only source of value to commodity
produced and he discovers the specific feature of labour which creates value. It is the most
important breakthrough as economists were hitherto unable to see the qualitative side and
show the forms of labor represented in use value and value. In the chapter The Commodity
Marx elucidates with clarity his doctrine on the two fold nature of commodity as unity of
use value and exchange value and the two fold nature of labour as concrete labour and
abstract - universal labour.
Das Capital - Volume 1
After completion of book " A contribution to the critique of political economy" Marx started
working on its second part. After taking almost six years he finished and decided to publish the
work as fresh new book called Capital with sub title A contribution to the critique of political
economy. It was published on 14.9.1867 in Hamburg. In this book Marx exhaustively deals with
surplus value of labor in terms of money and use value and value. A simple illustration to excess
labour concept. A worker is paid Rs 100 for 8 hours work and within one hour he produces goods
worth Rs 100. Remaining 7 hours unpaid work goes to the owner of the factory as surplus value.
Thus, accumulation of that surplus value over period of time with the factory owner becomes wealth
for further investment or business in the hands of bourgeois owner. By this logic using complex
formulas he establishes that accumulated wealth belongs only to the proletariat class which is primarily responsible for creation of wealth. Subsequently this excess money becomes capital
for society. In other words only excess labour which comes out of the result of exploitation of
npaid wages to workers becomes profits at the hands of capitalists so the additional wealth thus
created truly belongs to whole society and not to the capitalist class.
My take:
Though I am yet to go through the original books of Marx ' Capital ", after reading this excess
labour theory, a lay man's doubt comes to my mind regarding the claim of Excess labour being
the one and only source of profits. In other words Profits' only source is excess unpaid labour
and none else.
Some say that this theory largely loses its value when prices or value factor is applied to it.
And again,a question comes 'don't we have to take into due consideration the enterprising ability of the entrepreneurial class for making the commodity saleable in the market and also foreseeing the demand of the commodity in the first place'? what will happen to the products when it remains unsold due to various factors like competition etc? He has to bear the losses in case if it is unsold for a period of time and if it is a perishable product labor value for those products will be lost forever for which redemption cannot be made from the labour class. The fact is, workers are paid first according to the market value of their services to the making of the commodity, the capitalist entrepreneur may or may not realize the rewards for his risk taking and other entrepreneurial expertise.
Death of Marx
In January 1883 Marx's daughter Jenny chen fell ill seriously and this shocking news
brought a nervous disorder in Marx. On 12th of the same month she died and this was terrible
blow to Karl marx who never recovered from it. He died on 14.3.1883 and Engels announced
the sad demise of Marx to the working class movement of the world. In the glowing tribute to
the great man Engels said, ....just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature,
so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: ...Marx also discovered the special
law of motion governing the present day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society
this has created. Two such discoveries would be enough for a life time and happy the man to whom
it is granted to make even one such discovery ... he made independent discoveries in every field he
investigated..
Engels continues Marx unfinished agenda
After his mentor Marx's death, Engels had to carry the entire burden of guiding International
proletariat movement. New editions of Marxist classics like Communist Manifesto were brought out
in various languages. The English translation of Capital first volume was published in 1887.
Another important contribution awaited Engels which was to compile the subsequent volumes of the
Marx magnum opus book Capital. Engels finished the work on volume in 1885 afterwards he started
working on volume III. It was awaited with great expectancy and it was only after ten years the could
appear for various reasons. V I Lenin said later on the contribution of Engels: ... by publishing the
two volumes of Capital, Engels created a majestic monument to the genius who had been his friend...
Dialectic materialism
In his book Dialectics of Nature, Engels enriched historical materialism by including the theory
of the role of labour in the origin of man. In his book 'the part played by labor in the transition from
ape to man'. Here Engels explained as to how labor created man himself. He made a detailed philosophical
study of the basic laws of natural science and revealed their dialectical nature. He also developed the
dialectical materialism teaching on the form of motion of matter.
On Russia
In the year 1858, Marx correctly visualized that the collapse of the serfdom in Russia was
inevitable. That is what he pointed out in his letters to Engels and he also felt that in Russia, due to
socio economic causes imminent changes were in the offing.
Passing away of Engels
On the 5th of August 1895 Engels breathed his last. In the month of July the same year,
V I Lenin came to see Engels, but due to health condition of Engels he was not permitted to meet
him. The founder and co founder of scientific socialism have passed into history. Atheism led them
to rationalism and anti monarchy anti feudalism led them to democracy. Both stood for press freedom, human and civil rights and their sympathy towards poor, downtrodden and their collective venture
made them to critically analyze the dialectics of Hegel and the Feuerbachian materialism and thereby
formulated a new Marxist theory of dialectical materialism. .
********* To be continued .....Part 4
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