Marx's Success Philosophy: What's the Cost ?

We cannot talk about the philosophers and thinkers of the 19th century AD without stopping at Karl Marx, whose name was associated with the global Marxist and communist movement, after his ideas opposing Western capitalism spread and found those who seized them to make them the intellectual starting point for his revolutionary tendencies against the Western capitalist regimes accused of monopolizing wealth and production.

At the expense of the working class, in a transitional European century filled with transformations, revolutions, wars, processes of political construction, industrial development, and the dominance of capitalism, Marx came to present new social, political, and economic theories in the face of the capitalist theories dominating Western countries at the time, laying the intellectual foundations for establishing a more political, social, and economic system. Participatory and fairer than the capitalist system, and after that the world would be divided into two main camps: the capitalist camp led by the United States of America and the communist camp led by the Soviet Union, or what is known as the Western and Eastern camps, which competed for world leadership for more than 70 years, a competition in which tens of millions of people were victims, ending with the collapse of the communist camp, the fall of Marxist theory, and the victory of capitalism and the extension of its hegemony over the world.

Marx believes that the movement of history is linked to modes of production and the class struggle, and is pushing humanity towards a shift towards communist socialism, and that the capitalist system will inevitably destroy itself, and that the oppressed workers will eventually overthrow the class controlling the means of production, and form a non-class society.

Change by force Karl Marx (1818-1883) is considered one of the most influential philosophers in shaping the modern world in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was a philosopher, thinker, and journalist. He was born to a German-Jewish family that included 9 children. He studied law and philosophy, and obtained a doctorate in ancient philosophy. He was greatly influenced by the thought of the German philosopher Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), one of the founders of the doctrine of German idealism, who developed the dialectical method, which is based on presenting a proposition and its opposite and then reconciling them. However, Marx developed his own philosophy.

He began writing on the historical materialist theory that links the movement of society with productive power, criticizing the capitalist mode of production led by the bourgeois class and its violations of the working class (proletariat). He also spoke about the role of the modern state and the relationship between political life and the economy, believing that the movement of history is linked to patterns of production and class struggle, and pushes humanity towards a shift towards communist socialism, and that the capitalist system will inevitably destroy itself, and that the oppressed workers will eventually overthrow the class controlling the means of production. They constitute a classless society.

Marx's writings led to his exile from Germany in 1843, so he headed to France, which was forced to expel him two years later because he continued to write and was exposed to pressure from the German government. He left after establishing strong organizational relationships with the liberal and leftist class of French and Germans, who had a major role. In the French Revolution of 1848. Marx moved to Belgium in early 1845, which required him not to write about politics, but was forced to expel him in early 1948 because of his political activity. He returned to Paris and temporarily moved the executive headquarters of the Communist League there and established the “German Workers’ Club,” which included many socialists. Germans living there, hoping to see the French Revolution of 1848 spread to Germany. In the same year, Marx returned to the city of Cologne in western Germany, and issued a booklet entitled Demands of the Communist Party in Germany, in which he discussed only 4 of the 10 points of the Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Engels to be the program of the Communist Party, believing that the bourgeois class in Germany must overthrow With feudal monarchy and aristocracy, before the working proletariat could overthrow the bourgeoisie.

The demands of the German Communist Party included the unification of Germany, holding general elections, abolishing feudalism, and improving the conditions of the working class. However, the winds were not what the ships wanted, and the democratic parliament in Germany collapsed, and King Frederick William IV formed a new government from his “reactionary” supporters, who implemented counter-revolutionary measures to expel the leftist and revolutionary elements. The government ordered Marx to leave the country to return to Paris, which was then under the grip of the counter-revolution. It considered him a political threat and asked him to leave. Marx finally took refuge in London in August 1849 with the German thinker Frederick Engels (1820-1895), whom he met in Paris and became a close friend of his. The two had joined the membership of the Communist League, which was founded at the Justice League conference in London in June 1847, as the first international workers' communist party. The League commissioned both Marx and Engels to write the political program for the League, known as the "Communist Manifesto" or "The Party's Competitors." The Communist League,” which was first printed in 1848.

The League includes liberal, left-wing, and democratic activists from various countries who reject aristocratic monarchical systems and seek to overthrow them. The trial of German Communist leaders in Cologne following the defeat of the 1848 Revolution led to the end of the movement and the dissolution of the League. London was the last exile for Karl Marx, as its laws allowed the reception of political opponents and the practice of their intellectual and organizational activities on its territory. He continued to do so until his death in 1883.

Karl Marx died before he developed a plan to establish a communist state, nor did he envision the structures on which it would be based. However, his influence in the three decades that followed his death was enormous after the success of the communist revolution in Russia and its establishment of what is known as the Soviet Union, spreading Marxist thought throughout the world. Before it collapsed again with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, after staining the face of history with the blood of millions. From Paris to Moscow In 1848, Europe witnessed what is known as the “European Spring Revolutions” or “Spring of Nations” in most European and Latin American countries, following the French Revolution in February of the same year, due to a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the political leadership, and demands for democracy and more... Freedoms and improving conditions for the working class.

The revolution in France resulted in the overthrow of King Louis Philippe I, who had ruled since 1830, and the establishment of the Second Republic led by an elected government. However, it took a more conservative approach than before, and at the end of the same year Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president of the Second Republic. He declared the Second French Empire and declared himself its emperor until his death in 1870. The month of March 1871 witnessed the first Marxist workers’ experiment that succeeded in seizing power, known as the “Paris Commune” revolution, following the defeat that France suffered against Germany, its capture of Emperor Bonaparte, and its siege of the capital, Paris. The workers of Paris seized state power. They set out to implement a socialist program, but were brutally crushed after only two months, by regular French forces, in what is known as Bloody Week.

Marx saw in this process the first great revolutionary movement of the European working class since the crushing of the revolutions of 1848, and he closely followed all its actions and proposals, especially with regard to the problems of seizing power and the oppression it was subjected to by the counter-bourgeois class, in addition to the form of the state that would seek The working class itself was founded. During his self-imposed exile in London, Marx was busy completing his criticism of political economy, in addition to his writings in newspapers, including contributing more than 300 articles to the American newspaper “New York Daily Tribune” in the period 1864-1874. He published the first volume of his book "Capital" in 1867, and after his death, Engels collected the materials written by Marx in two other parts. The second volume was published in 1885, and the third in 1894. These three volumes are considered the most important among Karl Marx's intellectual legacy, especially in economics. The politician. Marx wrote about religion and considered it the opium of the people. He wrote about communist morality and considered it more just compared to capitalist morality.

He wrote about human alienation under capitalist systems. He believes that his theories start from real human beings who produce their means of subsistence to meet their material needs, which generate new material and social needs, with which new needs arise. With the development of material means of production, the types of economic structures multiply, so that communism ultimately becomes a real possibility once they are motivated by the plight and suffering of the workers. And their awareness of the alternative to become revolutionaries. Although Marx was an atheist Jew, he defended the political liberation of the Jews and in 1843 wrote his book “On the Jewish Question” in which he responded to his colleague Bruno Bauer, who wrote against the Jews from an atheistic perspective, considering that they and Christians were an obstacle to liberation. Karl Marx died before he developed a plan to establish a communist state, and he did not develop a vision for the structures on which it was based. However, his influence in the three decades that followed his death exceeded all expectations, especially after the success of the communist revolution in Russia, its seizure of power, and the establishment of what is known as the Soviet Union, to spread with it.

Marxist thought throughout the world, before it collapsed again with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, after staining the face of history with the blood of millions. The matter does not end there, as there are thousands of questions that need answers that history may not be able to provide in light of the complex intertwining of events, forces and entities and the magnitude of the transformations and their implications. Perhaps many do not know that the leaders of the Russian Revolution founded the nucleus of their revolution in the capital, London.