KARL MARX: ALIENATED LABAOR AND COMMUNISM

Junior Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Karl Hienrich Marx

I. Biography

Karl Hienrich Marx (1818 - 1883)

- he was born in Trier, in the kingdom of Persians province of the lower Rhine.

- Heinrich Marx, his father, was born a Jew but converted to Lutheranism prior to Karl's birth, in part to advance his career as lawyer.

- he studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin where he joined the group of young Hegelians.

- in 1842, Marx married jenny von Westphanlen, the educated daughter of a Prussian baron, on the Pauluskirche, at bad Kreuznach.

they where blessed with seven children but only three survived to adulthood because of poverty.

- Marx major source of income was from the support of friedrich Engels, who was drawing a steadily increasing income from the family business in Manchester.

- on December 1881, his wife jenny died.- Marx develop a character that kept him in ill health

for the last 15 months of his life.- he died of bronchitis and pleurisy in London on

march 14, 1883 and he was buried in high gate cemetery on march 17, 1883 with only 11 mourners present at his funeral.

The Alienation of Labor in the Historical process

throughout the course of history, however, private property was introduced and this resulted to the gradual alienation of labor from man. Marx believes that this alienation culminates today in this era of capitalism.

ALIENATION:

Is a situation in which man has lost himself, that is, it has estranged himself itself from his own humanity for the benefit of aggregate external forces which disposes him of his concrete humanity.

Thus, the alienated is a man has ceased to be recognized or to recognize himself as a free being, creator, actor of his history, master of natural forces, transformer of the world. He is encased in the aggregate of mechanical gearing in which he finds himself dehumanized, depersonalized.

Marx’s Theory of Historical epoch:

A.) Primitive Society

Is likewise termed as primitive communism since there is no private property because the whole earth belongs to everyone. Furthermore, neither is there masters nor slaves in this original state of nature. In short, man in this era owns himself and his labor.

B. Slave-labor Society:

Is divided into lords or freemen and slaves, and which is characterized of ancient Greece and Rome, private property is introduced. Here, the freemen will not just own the work tool but also the slaves who operate such tools. This is the first stage of the alienation of labor, that is, on the part of the slaves who are and whose works are subjected to the wishes of their masters.

C. Serf-Labor or Feudal Society:

Is basically an agricultural society and which is divided between the serf or the peasants and the feudal lords. In this society, the serf work for the feudal lords but remain something for themselves and do not belong as persons to the lord.

D. Hired-Labor or Capitalistic society:

Is divided between two classes: The capitalists or the bourgeoisie and the paid worker or the proletariat. On the one hand, honorship is relegated to the few, that is, the bourgeoisie. Having owned the means of production such as factories and machineries,

They do not only lean solidly or their security upon the capital which its factories represent but also augment constantly its capital with the benefits obtained from the exploitations of its factories. On the other hand, the proletariat are radically excluded from all participation on the ownership of the instruments of production…

And for that reason, deprived the guarantee, obtained their subsistence solely from the salary which the capitalist pay him in exchange for the power of his labor. This economic arrangement, then, necessarily leads to the alienation of the worker.

II. The alienation of the worker from the product of labor.

- Marx presents the phenomenon of alienation of the worker under various aspects; (a.) the alienation of the worker from the product of his labor. (b.) the alienation of the worker in the excess of production. (c.) the alienation of worker as a species- being and (d.) the alienation of man from the others.

A. The alienation of the worker from the product of his labor

• The product refers to the man that produces it, because it is his product: the object which labors produces its product, stands opposed to it as an alien thing, as a power independent of the producer

the alienation of the product necessarily presupposes the alienation of the activity that leads to it. there's no dependence between both forms of alienation, but a reciprocal relation.

b. the alienation in the relation between the worker and his activity.

3 features in the alienation of producing activity

1. The externalization of labor: first is the fact that labor is external to

the laborer - that is, it is not part of his nature - and that the worker does not affirm himself in his work but denies himself, feels miserable and unhappy, develops no free physical and mental energy but mortifies his flesh and ruins his mind.

2. Coercive or forced labor: labor is work.... is not voluntary, but coerced, forced labor. its not the

satisfaction of need but only a means to satisfy other needs.

3. Loss of himself: the external nature of work for the

workers appears in the part that its not his own but another person, that in work he does not belong to himself but some one else.

c. Alienation of man as species- being

- according to Marx, man is a species- being not only in that he practically and theoretically makes his own species as well as that of other things his a object, but also... in that as present and living species he considers himself to be a universal and consequently free being.alienation labor alienates species-life from man, that is, changes man's species- life in to simple means of individual life; " life activity... appears to man ... as a means to satisfy a needs, the needs to maintain physical existence. only a means for existence.

d. Alienation from man to man;

- a direct alienation from the produces of his work, from his activity, and from his species- existence is the alienation of man... the state is the alienation of man from his species existence means that one man one man is alienated from another just as each man alienated from human nature; the alienation of man, and the relation of man himself is realizes and expressed in the relation bet. man and other men.