karl marx his life and teaching

8/12/2019 Karl Marx His Life and Teaching

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rINTEBlfATIONAL SOCIALIST LIBRARY 6K RL MARX:

is Life andTeaching

By

ZELDA KAHAN COATES

In Commemoration of the Marx Centenary1818 ay 5th 1918.

TWO PENCE

London :BRITISH SOCIALIST PARTY

21a Maiden Lane Strand W C 2

May 1918


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Karl Marx His Life and Teaching

By ZELDA KAHAN-COATES.

KARL RX was born on May 5th 1818 at Treves. Hisfather was a prominent Jewish lawyer and notary publicat the County Court. He was a man of great talent highly

educated and thoroughly imbued with the liberal progressive ideas of ISth century France. In 1824 a Prussianedict was issued commanding all jews to be baptised onpain of forfeiting all official position. Although a freethinker a disciple of Voltaire the old Marx submittedrather than give up his profession and thus bring ruin tohis family. Karl Marx s mother was a Dutch Jewess ofHungarian descent whose ancestors were Rabbis.

Karl soon showed great promise intellectually andfortunately his parents were able to give him everyencouragement and opportunity for cultural development.

His father read Racine and Voltaire to him and earlymade him familiar with the French classics whilst at thehome of Ludwig von Westphalen his future wife s fatherhe learnt to love Homer and Shakespeare. Karl Marx sdeep sympathy with the working class and his revolutionaryardour were based on pure reasoning insight and study

it was not in any way due in the first instance to meresentiment to class position or personal suffering. Nevertheless he was anything but the mere cold philosopherthe impersonal scientist the detached dissector of history.As all his personal friends and his whole life testify he wasnot like Darwin his contemporary a mere specialist butbesides being a genius he was an all-round human beingwith all the loves desires passions and weaknesses of tbehuman being. It is interesting to note that his firstliterary efforts were poetry. His daughter Eleanor relatest h t he was always loved and feared by his schoolmates


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- l oved because he was always ready for boyish pranks,and feared because he wrote cutting satirical poetry andexposed his enemies to derision. All his life he remained passionately fond of poetry art and music. His

favourite authors were Homer Dante, Shakespeare Cervantes Balzac Schedrin and Pushkin. He was thepersonal friend of all the German revolutionary poets ofthe time Heine Freiligrath and Weehrt and not onlyinspired many of the ir revolut ionary poems but oftenhelped Heine whilst they were together in Paris to polishoff lines every word in a poem sometimes being discussedbetween them until all was smooth and polished. Marxknew about half a dozen languages could write literary

French and English like a native and was moreoverdeeply interested in the progress of science. Liebknechtrelates how excited he became when the first electricengine was exhibited in July, 1850. Engels also emphasises the joy Marx always felt when a new discoverwas made in any sphere of theoretical science although,he adds this was not equal to what he felt when such adiscovery could at once be applied to industry and thuscontribute to the development of society. When Darwin s

rigin of pecies was published in 1859 and even beforethat, Marx at once recognised the epoch-making importance of Darwin s work and for months in the circle of theGerman fugitives nothing was spoken of but Darwin.

\\ e mention all this in order to show his universalitvand to refute the fairly prevalent idea that Marx was mere dry-as-dust economist. We shall speak later ofhis work but we may here mention that whilst even Marx

could not make the science of economics exactly easynevertheless even the more formal aspects of the subjectare not treated in his work as drearily as by the oldereconomists. whilst the historical sections of even Capitalare so full of human sympathy and understanding theHlustrations are so apt the sarcasm so natural and to thepoint that no worker imbued with ordinary intelligenceand a general elementary education need be afraid oftackling his works providing he has a certain power ofconcentration and determination to learn.


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RLY POLITIC L CTIVITIES

At 16 Marx entered the University of Bonn and in 1836h e went to the Berlin University in order at the desire of

his father to study law but he does not seem to have paidmuch attention to his studies. Philosophy interested himfar more and although his parents hopes were disappointed, the world undoubtedly gained by the fact thatthe young Marx became an arden t s tudent of philosophyand joined the circle of the Berlin young Hegelians. Therehe made the acquaintance of much older men such asBruno Bauer and F. Koppens who soon recognised thegenius of the young s tudent , a lthough they were later to

differ from him very materially. Already at that timehis thirst for knowledge was inexhaust ible and his capacityfor work self-criticism and attention to every detail whichc ould clari fy a philosophical or historical problem was remarkable. In 1841 Marx obtained his doctorate andthought of establishing himself at the University as lecturero f philosophy; but the experience of his friend Bauer,who was a private lecturer th ere and had had no end oftrouble with the authorities soon convinced Marx that

such a position would be untenable. The same yearhowever the Rhenish liberal bourgeoisie founded a newo pposit ion paper th e Rheinishe Zeitung and although:Jlarx was then only 24 years of age he was made editoro f the paper. His editorship was one continual fight witht he censorship But , as Engels said th e censorshipc ould not get away with the Rheinishe Zeitung. Marx sgreat ability to win and dominate men already showeditself here. The censors allowed many a passage to gothrough that gave offence to the Berl in authori ties. Theywere reprimanded and continually changed but nothingavailed, and finally the Government adopted the bestand surest means of getting rid of the nuisance. They Suppressed the Rheinishe Zeitung altogether. At the sametime the embarrassment he found himself in when it wasaecessarv to engage in controversy on so-called materialinterests controversies on forest thefts free trade, protec

t ion etc. gave Marx the first impulse to study economicquestions


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InS M RRI GE

About this time Marx married the playmate and friendof his childhood and youth, Jenny von Westphalen.Herself a highly-intelligent and well-educated woman,

Marx could not have had a better helpmate for life. Fromthe day of her marriage to the day of her death, she sharedall the joys and sorrows, all the hopes and aspirations ofher husband. They were devoted to one another. Theirdaughter, Eleanor, relates how, when her mother, in theautumn of 1880, was so that she could scarcely even risefrom her couch, her father also had an attack of pleurisywhich kept him in bed in a separate room. ~ o h r(thatwas the name by which Marx was known to the family

circle and friends because of his black, shaggy hair andbeard , she says, recovered from his sickness this time.Never shall I forget the morning when he felt strongenough to go into dear mother s room. They were youngonce more together-she a loving girl, and he an adoringyouth who, together entered on their l i fe-not an old manwrecked by sickness and a dying old woman who weretaking leave of each other for life. Mehring states thatone of the most sworn enemies of this worst of atheistsand communists nevertheless characterised this marriageas having been consummated in heaven.

ms M TING WITH ENGELS After the suppression of the Rheinische eitung Marx

and his wife went to Paris. There he worked for a shorttime on the Franzosische f hrbuchcr Deutsche and later onthe Paris V orwaerts Whilst working on the former Karl

Marx became acquainted wi th Frederick Engels, and henceforth these t wo became t he closest possible persona l,political and literary friends . By this time Marx hadalready reached the first beginnings of the fundamentalsof his conception of materialism, of which we shall speaklater. He had reached it mainly from the phi losophicside. On the other hand, Engels, who had lived for along time in England, the cradle of modern indust ry, hadcome to similar conclusions from a study of the practica l

condit ions of industrial life in England. The two thuscomplemented each other, and together they were able to


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achieve what would have been if not impossible at anyrate far more difficult for one alone to accomplish. Fromthis time onward they were in almost daily intercourse.either personally or by letter and how voluminous interest-

ing and intimate the ir l it erary relations were can be seenfrom the four volumes of the ir lette rs to one anotherwhich were published a few years ago in Germany byBebel and Bernstein. For the most part Marx devotedhimself to the study and investigat ion of the more theoreti-cal side of their work whilst Engels chiefly devoted hisenergies to the practical appl ication of their theoreticaldeductions and particularly later on to the propagandaof their ideas and to polemics with their opponents. utwe have it on the authority of Engels himself that scarcelya word that e ither wrote or a policy that they promul-gated but was discussed between them first.

T m M TERI LIST DI LECTICS

Their first scientific work was a complete break withthe contemporary school of German philosophy. We havealready mentioned that Marx when still studying in Berlinhad joined the school of Young Hegelians. Marx hadmade himself thoroughly master of the Hegelian phil-osophy without however becoming a slavish imitator ordisciple. He extracted from it all that was revolutionaryand useful for the study and interpretation of history.The Hegelian philosophy proposes as a law of progressthe continuous transformation and upsetting of existingconditions and the continuous growth of new oppositionsand the overcoming of existing ones. It puts it down asa law that the germ of the new exists in the old that asthis germ develops so at first the difference between thetwo is merely quantitative but when the quantitativedifference has reached a certain stage there is a breakbetween the two and the difference becomes qualitative.This law is true throughout organic and inorganic natureand it is perhaps well worth one s while to stop to illustrateit by a few examples. In chemistry we know of a numberof series of carbon compounds only differing one from theother by the number of carbon and hydrogen atoms theycontain. Thus if we take marsh gas we may representit by CH 4 we add to this under whatever conditions


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either carbons (C) or hydrogen (H), we shall only get amixture of marsh gas and carbon or hydrogen. This willcontinue until we add a quantity corresponding to oneatom of carbon and two of hydrogen, when the whole nature

of the substance changes and we get a n w gas, with newproperties, acetylene, or C H6, and so forth. Quantityhas changed into quality. Now let us take a simpleexample from physics. When water is healed it becomeswarmer and warmer, but up to a certain point the differ-ence is merely in the degree of heat : fundamentally thecold water and the hot water are still the same liquid, butwhen the heat applied reaches a certain quantity 100 Cor 212 F the water suddenly turns into a new substance-steam , a gas with quite different properties from water.Quantity has changed into quality. Now let us take oneexample from history. So long as the labourer was tiedto the soil, so long did we have the form of society knownas serfdom. But as production and commer ce developed, it gradually became more and more necessary to havefree a ccess to labour in certain areas which could only beobtained by allowing the labourer, or potential labourerto travel where work was to be found. Also, as the oldprocesses and forms of agriculture either became obsoleteor not so profitable to the landowners, the l at te r s ta rt edto give their serfs either more freedom of movement or toconvert their forced labour for them into money paymentsor rents. Thus gradually there developed all the condi-tions in society for the abolition of the system of serfdom,and when this development reached a certain stage, serf-dom gave way to free private production. In some casesthe change was brought about with much, in other caseswith less, violence. In some cases the change was rapid;in others it was slow. But in all cases the change was arevolutionary o n e a new form of society took the placeof the old, because the new conditions necessitated thischange.

We have no space to multiply these examples, as mightbe done from all the sciences and from all experiences inlife. These laws and these methods of study Jarx andEngels adopted from the Hegelian philosophy. But whilstthey held fast to Hegel s dialectieal m tho they rejected


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his dogmatic idealistic superstructure. The Hegelianphi losophy, like all other idealistic schools of philosophytook it for granted that ideas are not images ofreal conditions, but that they exist independently, andthat their development forms a foundation for the development of things. This Marx and Engels repudiated. Theysubstituted as the foundation materialism, the world ofreal things, nature and history for ideology or the inde-pendent idea developing apart from things. They gaveexpression to this new dialectical materialsim, as well asa refutation of the use to which the small bourgeoisHegelians had put Hegel s philosophy, in a book entitledThe Holy Family published in 1845. Later they wroteanother book together on the same subject, which, althoughnot published, served to clear their own ideas and to givethem a thorough grasD of the ir mater ia li st conceptions.

In the meantime, Marx had been studying politicaleconomy in Paris, and also carrying on vigorous polemicagainst the Prussian Government. The latter took itsrevenge by securing his expulsion from Paris. Marx thenwent to Brussels, where he wrote occasionally for the

DeutscheBriisseler ZeitungAt the Free Trade Congress in 1846 he delivered a

speech on Free Trade which was later published in pam-phlet form, and in 1847 he wrote Poverty of Philosophyin French as a reply to Proudhori s book, The Philosopliyof Poverty In this work Marx, using the Hegelian dialectic in the materialist revolutionary form adopted byhimself and Engels, lays bare the laws of society anddevelops the fundamentals of modern scientific socialism.

THE OMMUN ST LE GUE

In Brussels Marx and Engels entered t h e League ofthe Just, which, assuming different forms in differentcountries, finally developed into the Communist League, anopen legal propaganda association. In November, 1847,they were commissioned to draw up its complete, practicaland theoretical party programme. This they did in the

Communist Manifesto. A historical product of its time,this manifesto still forms the ground work of the moderninternational social democracy. h e Communist Mani-


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festo exhibits in classic form the results of the theoreticaland practical work of Marx and Engels. Whilst with itskeen analysis of bourgeois society it could not possiblyhave appeared at any earlier epoch than it did, neverthe

less, unlike the numerous other systems and programmesof a future society drawn up at about the same time,which have passed into oblivion sooner or later, t he Communist Manifesto still remains, indeed is becoming moreand more a beacon of light to the workers of the world.And the fact that the programme drawn up by Marx andEngels has endured and is still true seventy years after itspublication, is due to the extraordinary insight and understanding its authors who could trace with a sure hand

the inevitaole r-sults of a system then only in its infancy.So importarrc is this short work for our movement, so

well does it exhibit the spirit of the Marxian teaching, thatit will be well worth our while to stop to analyse it.

THE OMMUNIST JM NIF S TO

The: l : Communist Manifesto] is based on historicmaterialism. Its fundamental idea is that the political

and intellectual development of any historical epoch isbased on, and can only be explained from, the prevailingmode of economic production and exchange of that epoch,and the social structure resulting therefrom. The wholehistory of mankind, since the dissolution of primitivetribal society, holding land in common ownership (thisprehistoric period of human society has been worked outby Morgan, Engels, and others, and fully supports thematerialist conception of history) has been a history of

class struggles, struggles between exploiter and exploited,the governing and the governed, at different stages ofdevelopment in society. The history of these strugglesforms a series of evolutions in which a stage has now beenreached, when the oppressed and exploited class- theworking class--ean only attain its emancipation from theexploiting and ruling class-the capitalist class-byemancipating the whole of society once for all from all-exploitation, class distinctions and class struggles.

The first section of the Manifesto deals with the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and proletarians (workers) and shows in


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brief how the modern capitalist class developed from theearlier systems of society, and how the increase in themeans of exchange and of commodities, the opening up ofnew markets and the discovery of new lands g a v e animpulse never before known to commerce, to navigation,and to industry and thereby also gave a more rapiddevelopment to the revolutionary element in the totteringfeudal society of the time. E ach s tep in the development of the bourgeoisie, which played a very revolutionaryrole, was accompanied by a corresponding polit ical advanceof that class. T he bourgeoisie, wherever it has obtainedthe upper hand has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal

idyllic relations

in one word, for exploitation veiledby religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked,unashamed direct brutal exploitation. The bourgeoisiehas stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honouredand looked up to with reverent awe. has converted thephysician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man ofscience, into its paid wage servants. All veneratedopinions are swept away and all new ones become anti-quated before they can ossify, and the consequence of all

this is that man is at last compelled to face realities andto get a clearer insight into things.

The capitalist mode of production, once brought intobeing, compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adoptits own mode of production; it compels them to introducewhat it calls civilisation into their midst, i e to becomebourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a worldafter its own image. The capitalist system has concentrated vast masses of the population into huge towns. has centralised the means of production and has concentrated property in few hands, and from this necessarilyfollowed political concentration and the formation of themodern nations from the former loosely connected provinces. has made the country subject to the town.In the same way, it rendered barbarian and semi-barbariancountries dependent on more civilised ones, nations ofpeasants on nations of capital ists, the East on the West. Since then of course, the East has been awakening, andis necessarily itself rapidly becoming bourgeois, showingin its development, in spite of all the peculiarities of the


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climate and races inhabiting the Eastern hemisphere,similar features to the older bourgeois West.

During its rule of scarcely 100 years, the bourgeoisiehas created more massive, more colossal productive forcethan all the preceding generations put together. But as the fetters of feudalism had to be burst asunder tomake room for the growth of capitalist production so bour-geois society is becoming incompatible with the rapidlydeveloping mode of production and all the social, politicaland intellectual relations in soc ie ty re sul tin g the refrom.The very weapons with which capitalism beat feudalismare now turned against itself. The great expansion in

production which resulted in its triumph will now alsobe the cause of its death. As an example of this, theManifesto points to the ever more frequent occurrence ofcommercial crises in which there breaks out an epidemicof over-production.

The bourgeoisie, however, has not only forged theweapon to be directed against itself, it has also producedthe men who are to wield this weapon- the modern workingclass- the proletarians. The Manifesto then traces the riseof the proletariat its relation to the capitalist and howit is recruited from all classes of the population. From itsbirth the working class is engaged in a conscious or un-conscious struggle with the capitalist class. But thebourgeoisie itself is also constantly engaged in s t rugglesat first with the aristocracy later with those portionsof the bourgeoisie whose interests are antagonistic tothe further progress of industry and at all times withthe bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battlesthe capitalist class is compelled in its own interests to callin the aid of the working class, and although the latterwithout knowing it, is really fighting the battles of itsworst enemy, it nevertheless in the process, learns thevalue of co-operative effort; it is dragged into the politicalarena and is thus supplied by the capitalists themselveswith the weapon with which it will slay them. Althoughthe lower middle class, the small manufacturer the shop-

keeper, the handworker and the peasant are all at warwith the bourgeoisie, the proletariat alone is a really revolu-tionary class. I t is the peculiar and essential product of


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modern industry and is destined to bring about those newsocial relations and political conditions which will bringthe latter into harmony with modern industrial development. As for the social scum, or, as it is known in Germanthe lumpen proletariat it may now and again beswept into the movement by a proletarian revolution, butits whole condition of life is such as to make it the everready, bribed tool of reaction. The Manifesto then proceeds: A ll previous historical movements were movements of minorities or in the interest of minorities. Theproletarian movement is or must become) the self-consciousindependent movement of the immense majority in the

interest of the immense majority. The proletariat thelowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannotraise itself up without the whole super-incumbent strata ofofficial society being blown into the air. The development of modern industry therefore in the above andother ways) cuts from under its feet the very foundationon which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie consequently produces, aboveall, are its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory

of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

In the second section the Manifesto first points out therelation of the communists now read socialists) to theproletariat. The former have no interests apart from thelatter; they are only the advance guard of the workingclass movement in all countries. Further the ideas expressed by the communists have not been invented ordiscovered by this or that would-be universal reformer.

They merely express in general terms, actual relationsarising from an existing class struggle, from a historicalmovement going on under our very eyes. The abolitionof existing property relations is not at all a distinctivefeature of communism. All property relations in the pasthave continually been subject to historical change, consequent upon the change in historical conditions. Communism does not propose the abolition of property ingeneral, but of bourgeois private property and a varietyof still familiar objections to socialism are then dealt with.Savs the Manifesto : You are horrified at our intentionof doing away with private property. But in your existing


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society priva te property is already done away with fornine-tenths of the population; its existence for the fewis solely due to its non-existence for these nine-tenth s,You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away witha form of property the necessary condition for the existence of which is the non-existence of any property for the :immense majority of society. In one word, you reproachus with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so: that is just what we do intend. . Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate thproducts of society: all that it does is to deprive him ofthe power to subjugate the labours of others by means ofsuch appropriation.

As for the philosophicalarguments against

the communists, the Manifesto says : What else does the history of ideas prove than that intellectual productionchanges its character in proportion as material productionis changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever beenthe ideas of its ruling class. When people speak of ideathat revolutionise society, they only express the fact tha twithin the old society the elements of a new one have beencreated, and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps

even pace with the dissolution of the old conditions ofexistence.But then it has been, and is still repeatedly urged, tha t

there are cer ta in eternal truths such as freedom, justice ,etc., that survived all changes. This is quite t rue -bu twhy? The history of all past society has consisted inthe development of class antagonisms, these antagonismsassuming different forms at different epochs, but theexploi ta tion of one part of society by the other has been

common to all past ages. Small wonder then that however the social consciousness and ideas have varied, acommon basic thread runs through them all, which canonly disappear with the final disappearance of all class.antagonisms. T he communist socialist) revolution beingthe most radical rupture with traditional property relations, its development necessarily involves the mostradical rupture with traditional ideas.

Section III. is a masterly exposition of the variousschools of mere reformist, reactionary and utopiansocialists.


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The last section points out that whilst the communistsfight for the attainment of immediate aims and the enforce-ment of the momentary interests of the workers they never-theless do not lose sight of their real a im- the completeemancipation of the working class and the Manifesto endswith the historic words: T he communists disdain to


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round its neck, and with it will vanish all the misery anddegradation, all the carnage, the slaughter of the innocent-s,which takes place daily in slum and factory, and periodicallyon the bloody fields of battle. Then we shall be relieved of

the shame of prostituting science to the gods of Mammonand War, and shall at last allow the beauties and wondersof Nature the wonderful achievements of science, literature and art to be the common and inelienable heritageof every human being.

THE INSURRECTIONS OF 848

On February 22nd, 1848, a few weeks after the publication of the Communist Manifesto, revolution again

broke out in Paris, and amongst other places disturbancesoccurred in Brussels and, although previously the BelgiumGovernment had refused to expel Marx at the bidding ofthe Prussian Government it did so now. He went toParis, took part in the movement there for a short timeand then went back to Germany, where the revolution wascalling him. He went to Cologne and there started the eue Rheinische Zeitung Engels, who took a very activepart the paper says: t was the only paper in the

democratic movement of the time defending the standpointof the proletariat. Whilst advocating energetic and decisive action against the old order and its representat ives,it nevertheless showed clearly that the destruction of thereactionary Government was but the beginning, not theend of the revolutionary struggle--that it would but pavethe way for the real class struggle between the proletariatand bourgeoisie. It frankly supported the Paris Julyinsurgents of 1848, although it thus estranged nearly allits stockholders.

After repeated attempts the Prussian Government atlast felt itself strong enough to suppress the paper May19th, 1848), nearly a year after its appearance, and Marxwas once more exiled. He went to Paris with a mandatefrom the Democratic revolutionary Central Committee,an insurrection being planned by the Democratic Partyboth for France and Germany. But this insurrection,

which was chiefly the work of the radical middle-class, andtook place June 13th, 1849, failed. Marx had to leave


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France, and he went to London with his family, where heremained for the rest of his life.

M RX S WORK IN LONDON

Here, after the dissolution of the Communist League,which took place in 1852, Marx at first devoted himself tojournalism and to his scientific studies. In London,leading the life of a poor political refugee, constantlyworried by grave bread-and-butter problems for his family,Marx nevertheless managed to g et through a tremendous.amount of work. To earn a living he wrote a long seriesof articles for the Ne w York Tribune on political conditionsin Germany and on economic subjects. A brilliant study

which will ever remain va luab le for the student of Con-tinental history of the time , this work was subsequentlyreprinted in book form under the title of Revolution andCounter Revolution. At about this time Marx also wroteThe 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte a brilliant ex-position of the Coup d Etat of December 2nd, 1851. Healso wrote a remarkable series of articles on the relationsof Lord Palmerston to the Russian Government.Urquhart s writings on Russia, says Marx, h a dinterested but not convinced me. In order to arrive at adefinite opini on, I made a minute analysis of Hansard sParliamentary Debates, and of the Diplomatic Blue Booksfrom 1807 to 1850. Two pamphlets o n entitled HerrVogt exposing the hypocrisy of France and Prussia intheir war of liberation on behalf of Italy aga inst Aus tr iaand the other The History and Life of Lord Palmerstonare written in Marx s best , characteristic, satirical style,and in their small volume are veritable treasure stores of~ p y history.

M RX S E ONOMI THEORIES

In 1859 the Critique of Political Economy was published,giving for the first time an exposition of Marx s theory ofvalue. In the introduction, he lays down the generaltheory which, once reached, served as the leading threadin his studies -namely, the dependence of the general

character of the social, political and spiritual processes oflife on the mode of production in material life, and thisindeed runs throughout this and his other economic


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use of the one who desires it its distinctive feature undereapitalism is its exchange value. A thing is a commodityonly so long as it has exchange value and it is no longer a commodity when its use value asserts itself i e whenappropriated for use in whatever form or degree by theconsumer . The use value of a thing is inherent in thething itself in relation to the person using it whereas theexchange value is a definite economic relation it is essen-tially a social product and depends for all its peculiarattributes on the prevalent mode of production. Onecannot tell by the taste of wheat whether it has been pro-duced by a Russian serf or French peasant or Englishcapitalist. Its use value remains the same howeverproduced. But its exchange value in a given society willdepend on the forms of production prevalent in thatsociety.

Capitalist wealth is an aggregation of exchange valuesand in order to understand capitalism the nature of ex-change value and the distribution of commodities mustbe explained. Take any factory product which is thecharacteristic form of production under capitalism. It

was produced in a factory by a large number of working men hired by an employer or manufacturer. It was then sent to the wholesale dealer whence it went to the retailerwho sold it to the consumer. There may have been moreor less middlemen between the production and the use ofthe things by the consumer but all who took part in itsproduct ion and distribution did so not because of anyneed or love of the thing itself but in order to make aprofit for themselves. Whence did this profit for each ofthem come? We assume of course that all concernedare quite honest and that each paid the fair market pricefor the article. Each received his share from the purchaseprice paid by the consumer or from the exchange value ofthe article. The exchange value of the article first mani-fests itself in the price paid for it by the wholesaler to themanufacturer. Value t must be remembered is thecause of price but is not identical with t and they do noteven always coincide in amount. Things may be boughtcheap or dear that is below or above their value for whilstvalue is determined by the social conditions of productonprice is determined by individual motives the given


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estimate of its value by or to the individual the hagglingof the market supply and demand and so forth. Theaverage of the prices paid for an article is its market pricewhich will always be governed by the social value of the

substance sold.What is this social value common to all commodities

t is human labour. A thing has exchange value only inso far as human labour physical or mental is embodiedin it. And it is not merely l abou r under any conditions. What determines the value of an article is the sociallynecess ry labour contained in it that is the amount ofaverage human labour necessary for its production underthe given conditions of society. anyone uses more orless labour that does not alter the exchange value of thearticle which is measured only by the soci lly necess ryl bour Further if more articles are produced than underthe exis ting social condition can be distributed for use theexchange value of such articles will fall. the tools ofproduction are improved then during the first period oftransition when the old methods are still the generallyaccepted methods of production the value of an articleis measured according to the human labour socially necessary with the old system of production whereas when thenew system becomes the more prevalent the value ismeasured according to this new system.

All this applies to all commodities including the peculiarcommodity labour power which whilst belonging to theindividual and inseparable from him is in the capitalistmode of production unlike that in all former modes ofproduction bought and sold like any other commodity.

Like all other commodities when bought by the capitalistthe price paid for the worker s labour-power is in accordance with the necessary social labour contained in itsreproduction that is he will have to pay the labourer inwages the amount which under the given conditions oflife the labourer needs for his maintenance and for thepropagation of his species. This will of course vary withthe standard of life with the supply and demand of labourwith the degree of association of the labourers for their

common interests and so forth. But so long as only oneportion of society is engaged in production whilst the


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other section lives on the products of that labour, the wage..paid for the maintenance of the labourer will be less thanthe value of the goods he produces. This is the essenceof the capitalist system of production. The amount oflabour spent by the labourer in producing the value of hiswages i s necessary labour, and the product produced is.. necessary product, and the value of the product.. necessary value, whereas the labour put in above thatnecessary to reproduce the value of his wages is .. surpluslabour, the product so produced surplus product andits value .. surplus value, .. necessary being used herein the sense of necessary to make a living under the givenconditions possible.

There are one or two other points to note. By increasinghis capital, and by improving his plant and machinery, thecapital is t increases his profit although, be it noted, not hisrate of profit, but we cannot go into this subject now). Itmight thus, at first sight, appear as though the machinerycreated at any rate some of his surplus value. But amachine, when produced for sale to the capitalist, is asmuch a commodity as any other article, and the valuecontained in it is equal to the n e e ~ s r ysocial labour required for its production. The same is true for the restof the plant the raw material, and accessories employedin the production of any p articular article, let us s i.y cloth.And spread over a number of years, this value of the rawmaterials, machinery, etc., finds its way into the finishedproduct-cloth. The cotton and accessories in thefinished cloth, as cotton, etc., have not changed their

value; the machine and other plant as such, has notchanged its value except in so far as it has given up a littleof it, which is written off s wear and tear.

Why, then, profits are the result of the surplus value produced by surplus labour, do profits increase the moremachinery is perfected? Simply because a machine is atime-saving apparatus. It enables the worker to reproduce the value equivalent to his wages in a shorter number

of hours every day, thus leaving a longer number of hoursto be employed in the production of surplus value. previously the worker had to work six out of every twelve -


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hours to reproduce his wages, an improved machineenables him to do it in, say, three hours, and to presentthe capitalist with nine hours unpaid toil. That is why,with every advance in the mode of industry the rate of

exploitation increases and the class antagonism betweenthe workers and capitalists becomes sharper. A similarresult, that is, an increase in the rate of exploitation, isobtained by increasing the working day this being limitedhowever, to the point when it might impair the efficiencyof the worker . Being a more open, direct effort at ex-ploitation, it leads to resistance hence the fights on theworking day between the capitalist and working classes.

Again, the same result is achieved by lowering thestandard of living of the workers by reducing the costof living hence, on the one hand, the employment ofwomen and children whose standard of living is generallylower than that of men and who, so far, have also beenmore docile, helpless tools than men , and, on the otherhand the introduction of Free Trade when England hadas yet nothing to fear from the competition of othercountries , thus reducing the cost of food to the workers. is no mere accident that the same industrial capitalistswho were so largely instrumental in bringing about FreeTrade for the main purpose, as they themselves made clear,of lowering the cost of food, these same philanthropistsbitterly opposed every attempt to shorten the workingday, or to limit the employment of women and childrenunder even the most inhuman conditions.

And it is from this surplus labour of men, women andchildren, producing surplus value, and for which the capita-list has paid nothing, that the wealth of the capitalist hasbeen, and is being, built up. At one time, the owner ofslaves or serfs simply appropriated the products of hischattels, and saw to their feeding, clothing, etc., as hewould to that of his cattle. Now, however, men are out-wardly free, and mystery surrounds the wealth of the non-producing class. This mystery is simply the appropria-tion by the capitalist of the surplus labour or the surplusvalue produced by the worker. This is the peculiar formof expropriation of one class by the other taken undercapitalism, and upon this, the necessary relation between


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the capitalist as a class and the worker as a class which isthe very essence of the capitalist form of production isbuilt the whole superstructure of capitalist jurisprudencecapitalist laws of property, capitalist ethics in a word thewhole of capitalist ideology. And whatever real reformsmay be brought in the exploitation of the workers willcontinue, and the morals of capitalists will be the generallyaccepted morals of society so long as the capitalist formof production endures. Only with the expropriation ofthe expropriators and the substitution of production foruse instead of for profit will the workers the vast majorityof the nation be rescued from exploitation and really

.become free men in bodyand

in mind.

T M TERI LIST ON EPTION O mSTORY

We cannot go more fully into this subject here but beforeleaving :\larx s theoretical system we desire to say a fewwords on the Materialist Conception of History. For ofall the theories ever promulgated, this has been the mostpopularly misunderstood and it is of the very essence of

the Marxian teaching.Of course it goes without saying that we do not mean

by this conception that the individual of any given epoch isactuated by his own material gain to act as he does. Onthe contrary, the materialist is the first to recognise theenthusiasm, ideals and aspirations of individuals. Thephilosophic materialists those who accept Marx s materia-list conception of history most completely are the veryindividuals who are most ready to sacrifice and havesacrificed their own material advantages for the sake oftheir ideals witness as only one example the numberlessMarxian socialists in Russia who have given up and aredai ly prepared to give up their all including their life forthe cause dearest to their hearts the social revolution.What distinguishes the materialist is not that he is a manwithout ideals and denies the possession of these to othermen but that he probes deeper into the reality of thingsand inquires whence come these ideals and enthusiasm-why these particular ideals and morals and thoughts atthis particular epoch.


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Why for instance do we now shudder with horror atthe idea of cannibalism of slavery even of serfdom whereaswe accept without demur the hidden form of slaveryexisting at the present time? Simply because when theproductive forces of society were small and primitive theprisoner of war or the stranger caught trespassing couldserve no more useful purpose than that of a meal for hisconqueror to keep him would only have meant a burdenfor society and for a very poor society even an intolerableburden. The cannibal did not thus reason with himselfbut unconsciously to himself his ideas his moral feelingshis whole psychology accepted the eating of his fellow-menas a natural quite moral thing to do because withoutknowing it it was the most natural thing to do under theconditions of the society in which he lived. Similarly withthe custom of killing off female or weakly babies prevalentin some primitive societies who otherwise are extremelykind and tender to their children. As however the productive forces develop and the means of substance therefore increase additional men are a blessing and not aburden. A new ideal the sacredness of human life a horrorat eat ing one s fellow-being appears first faintly thenmore strongly until it finally takes the place of the old.But what underlies this ideal what has made its appearancepossible what has caused this often enough unconsciouschange in moral outlook? Simply the development ofthe productive forces or in a later stage of society thechange in the mode of production. We do not now killoff our weakly babies but we let them grow up withoutproper care to make them strong in mind and body; weallow them to breathe the foul atmospher of factory andworkshop at a tender age when they should still be atschool or in the country. We crush them in body mindand spirit with monotonous toil. Kind honest tenderpeople that we are we rob the vast majority of mankindof all that makes life worth l iving our morality our religion allows all this. Why? Because our mode of production necessitates a plentiful supply of cheap labourwhatever may happen to the individual labourer. Wemake and obey laws regarding private property and theft ;we obey a certain code of morals and regard these laws and


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-rnorals as immutable and yet we allow the product of the la bour of the majority to be appropriated by a minority.and regard it as a legal honest righteous action. Why?Because as Marx has shown the morals and laws of the

governing class are unconsciously to ourselves imposed onthe whole of society and growing up as we do in theiratmosphere we regard as natural what is in reality but theoutcome of a given form of economic industrial conditions.

But many of us are revolting against this; we proclaimthat we do not necessarily regard as moral and as rightprinciples which are thus regarded simply because theyhave been hallowed by custom or because they coincide

with the convenience of the governing class. We areready to sacrifice everything to bring about a new socialorder in which the horrors of the present day shall beburied for ever. How is it that we are imbued with theseideas ide als and enthusiasms and what is it that hasgiven them the form which they have actually taken ofdemanding the establishment of socialism? Becausecapitalism is fast outl iving its time because as Marx hasso well sh own and as we have indicated above the giant

advances made in the mode of industry are fast becomingno longer com pa t ible with the existence of society undercapitalism. :\Ioreover the whole mode of life which hasresulted fr om the capitalist form of society the aggregation of vast masses of the people in town the association oflarge numbers of workers in factories the more and morecentralised and collectivist forms of production resultingfrom the a dvances in industry the sight of the unheard ofwealth and luxuries of the possessing classes in comparisonwith the untold misery and poverty of the propertylessclasses all that and more that we have no room to mentionhere has resulted in giving us new ideals new hopes newenthusiasms. The germs of the new are already sproutingin the old and the new ideals are gradually taking theplace of the old. we say that the breakdown of capitalism and the establishment of socialism is inevi table we donot mean that if we sit still with folded arms eyes shutand mouths open the plums of socialism will fall into ourmouths. No we mean that it is inevitable that we do t sit with folded arms and do nothing. It is inevitable


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that a larger and larger proportion of the population o fevery capitalist country should be driven into revolt,should get to understand the real nature of the systemunder which we live. is inevitable that the collectivism

which is manifesting itself more and more daily in thedomain of production should lead to the association ofthe workers engaged in this production first for compara-tively small economic gains, then more and more for political aims, for the purpose of mastering production insteadof being mastered by it. In short, it is inevitable that thecapitalist psychology of the workers should change intosocialist psychology as the economic conditions becomeripe for socialism. But the more we understand the need

and necessity of this change, the more enthusiastically wework for ideals which we know to be in accordance withthe historic development of society, the quicker will thischange be brought about .

The materialist is, therefore, anything but a fatalistHe is simply logical and practical. Instead of beingmoved by mere sympathy to devise pretty schemes as,for instance did the Utopion socialists) which m a y o r

may not be possible of realisation, he works in a direction .which he ows must bear fruitful results. Further inchoosing his methods, he again studies economic andhistoric conditions. Here he finds that what gives ourcapitalist society its characteristic form is the appropria-tion by the capitalist, without any equivalent return ofthe surplus values created by the workers. There is thus .a fundamental antagonism between the capitalists as aclass and the workers as a class. is the working class

which is most vitally interested in freeing itself from theenslavement of capital. is, therefore, to the workerthat the scientific socialist chiefly appeals. l\Ioreover,.studying the conditions of present day life, we see thatthe workers in their mass are those to whom socialism willappeal most strongly. Compare the psychological effecttheir respective conditions of life are bound to have on thefactory worker, the small peasant working on his own bitof land, and the small shopkeeping class or private trades-

man. The peasant leads an isolated life; he has littlemeans of intercourse with his fellow-beings; his ideas are


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likely to be narrow; he knows little of the great world,and cares less. He is mastered by the forces of naturedepends on them and lives in awe of them thus being aready subject for the belief in the supernatural. He gets

his living by his own exertions on his own bit of land; theidea of association with his fellowmen can scarcely enterhis mind. The idea of collectivism, of common ownership,at once conjures up to him the idea of losing his all, hisplot of land on which his whole life depends. He wouldquite naturally not readily risk so much for what mustseem to him a mere chimera. He is evidently not verysuitable material for socialist propaganda. Of course thecase is different with the hired peasants on large fa I1l l6 ,

where the land is being worked on capitalist lines.Now take the small shopkeeper. While his mind may

be somewhat broadened by the fact that he lives a moresocial life than the peasant nevertheless he is not readymaterial for the socialists. The small property he possessesgives him a certain sense of a stake in the existing order ofthings. He is living in daily dread of being hurled into theworking class, but on the other hand he is also living in

hopes of increasing his property and thus lifting himselfup to a higher social order. It is true he hates the largecapitalist, but there is more envy than distrust in his feelingtowards the latter. He may even rise up against him, butit will be for reactionary purposes, to stay further progress,and he will not go too far, lest the horny handed sons oftoil also lay their grimy hands on his property . That iswhy, as a class , the small bourgeoisie has always proveda treacherous ally of the working class. That of course,

does not mean that individuals of this, or a higher classmay not join in the struggle for the emancipation of theworkers, and may not by their greater opportunities andknowledge render great service to the movement, providingalways that they quite de-class themselves intellectually,i e providing they adopt in its entirety the idealsof the class conscious workers.

Lastly, let us take the factory worker. He has noprivate property; his attachment to it, is therefore, comparatively slight. Of course he believes in it and stands awe of it, and wants some, and so on, but his attachment


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to it is not personal. The idea of a society without privateproperty cannot appal him to the same extent that it doesthe others. He has none to lose himself and he willtherefore be more disposed to accept the possibility of aform of society where no one shall possess any. He is indaily intercourse with his fellow-workers; his ideas havebroadened. He is associated with his fellow-workers inthe production of things; the idea of producing thingscollectively seems a natura l thing to him; the idea ofowning these things collectively is but a step. His employers associate for their common good why should notthe workers associate for t ir common good and they doso. In the factory and in town he is constantly broughtface to face with the wonderful human achievements andsees how men have mastered the forces of nature. Thesupernatural therefore loses some of its terrors for himand he learns to rely on his own efforts. Thus apartfrom all the other influences at work the extension of education and so on the aims and ideals of socialism fallon fruitful ground when propagated amongst the workers.That is why the scien tific socialist says it is inevitable thatthe masses of the industrial workers must sooner or laterembrace socialism and by carrying on his propagandaamongst them he is do ing all he can to bring about thischange as rap idly as possible.

If in this brief sketch of the materialist conception ofhistory we have succeeded in clearing away some of thecommon misconceptions and have stimulated to furtherstudy and thought on the subject our time will not havebeen wasted.

TH INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN S SSOCIATIONIn addition to his theoretic studies Karl Marx also took

part in the practical work of the international labourmovement.

When in 1864 at a mee ting at St. James Hall t he inter-national Working Men s Association was definitely foundedMarx was its intellectual leader. was a society for theorganisation of the work ing classes of all countries and it didan immense amou nt of wo rk in that direction. Wh ilst notexactly respons ibelfor the uprising of the Paris Commune


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Ct nevertheless declared itself entirely at o n ~ t the ParisCommunards, and upon its Parisian members fell the chiefburden of directing the Commune while it lasted. As tothe war of 1870-1871 immediately preceding the Commune,

Marx fully approved of the atti tude of the German SocialDemocracy, and addressed a letter to the Brunswick Conference of the party, accurately forecasting the -inevitableresults of a policy of annexation.

The Commune of 1871, on which there is an interestingwork by Marx entitled The Civil War in France fell, andwith it the International, long an object of fear andhatred to the governing classes, was banned in all coun

tries. With this its field of practical action was largelycut off. Moreover, the organisation of the working classesparticularly in Germany, had reached a stage when themembers perforce had to devote their chief energies to theperfection and development of their national organisations.Finally, largely owing to the fact that this first International had outlived its time, internal dissensions ofmore or less serious nature broke out from time to time.In the meantine Marx, as general secretary, became veryovercrowded with work, and desired to devote more timeto the completion of his main work, Capital He retiredfrom the se cretaryship, and on his suggestion, the headquarters of the International was removed to New Yorkin 1873. With this the International as an organisationfor the time being came to an end. Marx, however, continued to take an act ive interest in the work of the partyin every country, and he and Engels were generally recognised as the unofficial representatives of the Internationalin Europe, to whom socialists of all countries constantlycame for advice and guidance.

M RX S PRIV TE LIFE ND CH R CTER S

And now we cannot, perhaps, better conclude this hasty Sketch of the life and work of Karl Marx than by givinga few quotations from his daughter Eleanor s writings,

and from the memoirs of Liebknecht, throwing some sidelights on Marx s private character is tics and illustratingthe dire conditions under which Marx lived and worked.


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Quoting from her mother s notes, Eleanor Marx says: Soon after the arrival of the family (in London) a secondson was born. He died when about 2 years old. Then afifth child, a little girl, was born. When about a year oldshe too fell sick and died. Three days, writes my mother t h e poor child wrestled with death. She suffered so Her little dead body lay in the small back r oo m; weall of us i.e. my parents, Helen Demuth, the faithfulhousehold assis tant , who dedicated her life to Marx andhis family, and the three elder children) wen t into thefront room, and when night came we made us beds on thefloor, the three living children lying by us. And we weptfor the little angel resting near us, cold and dead. Thedeath of the dear child came in the time of our bitterestpoverty. Our German friends could not help us; Engels,.after vainly trying to get literary work in London, had beenobliged to go, under very disadvantageous conditions,into his father s finn as a clerk, in Manchester; ErnestJones, who often came to see us at this time and hadpromised help, could do nothing. . In the anguish ofmy heart I went to a French refugee who lived near andwho had sometimes visited us. I told him our sore need.

At once, with the friendliest kindness, he gave me 2.With that we paid for the little coffin in which the poorchild now sleeps peacefully. I had no cradle for her whenshe was born, and even the last small resting place waslong denied her. . t was a terrible time, Lieb-knecht writes to me, but it was grand, nevertheless. Int h a t front room (they only had two rooms) in DeanStreet, the children playing about him, Marx worked. Ihave heard tell how the children would pile up chairs

behind him to represent a coach, to which he was harnessedas horse, and would whip him u p even as he sat at hisdesk writing.

Liebknecht, who for a long time was in daily intercoursewith him, also lays stress on the unusual affection Marxhad for children. H e was not only the most loving offathers, who could be a child among children for hours,he also was attracted towards strange children, particularly

helpless children in misery that chanced his way

physical weakness and helplessness always excited his


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pity and sympathy. A man beating his wife hecould have ordered to be beaten to death. By his impulsivecharacter on such occasions he not unfrequent ly broughthimself and us into a f ix . . is necessary to have

seen Marx with his children in order to understand fullythe deep mind and the childlike heart of this hero of science,In his spare minutes or on his walks he carried themaro un d, p layed with them the wildest, merriest g a m e s -in short, was a child among children . . . \Vhen his ownchildren were grown up his grandchildren took their place .. . . Jean or Johnny Longuet, his first daughter, Jenny s,eldest son, was grandpa s pet. He could do whatever hepleased with him, and Johnny knew i t . Once Johnny conceived the ingenious thought of transforming Mohrinto an omnibus, on the driver s seat of which, i.e. Marx sshoulders, he seated himself, while Engels and myselfwere to be the omnibus horses. Having been hitched up,there was a wild chase. . And Marx had to trot untilthe sw eat p oured down his forehead, and when Engels orI tried to slacken our pace down came the whip of thecruel driver, Y ou naughty horse. En avant and soforth, until Marx could stand it no longer: then,by negotiation with Johnny, a halt was called.

Liebknecht further throws some interesting sidelights onMarx s character. For instance, his ability at times toto play mad, boyish pranks; his love of chess o w hewas capable of playing till late at night and the whole ofthe next day, and when he lost a game he would at thesame time lose his temper, and even be most disagreeableat home. On this account Mrs. Marx and Lenchen (HelenDemuth) begged Liebknecht not to play chess with fl\Iohr in the evening.

Marx was a wonderfully/ clear and efficient teacher.He was stern in that he demanded the thoroughness whichhe himself practised; at the same time, he was kind,patient, ever ready to help. As for popularity, he carednothing for it. He knew that the vast masses could notfor the time being understand him, and a favouri te saying

of his was: Follow your course and let others talk.Marx s eldest boy, Edgar, a very gifted child, butweakly from his birth, died in London when about 8 years


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-old, shall never forget the scene, says Liebknecht.The sobbing Lenchen, the weeping mother convulsivelyclasping her two girls , and Marx in terrible excitementalmost angrily refusing all consolation. At the funeralMarx sat in the carriage, dumb, holding his head in hishands. I stroked his forehead: Mohr, you still haveyour wife, your girls and u s - a n d we love you so well.', You cannot give me back my boy he groaned. . . .At the graveside Marx was so excited that I stepped tohis.side, fearing he might jump after the coffin.'

Thirty years later, when his wife died, Engels likewiseat the funeral had to grasp his arm quickly or he wouldhave jumped into her grave. Marx s wife died of cancer,December 2nd, 1881, after a brave fight with death. spite of terrible suffering she maintained interest in generalaffairs to the last, and tried to dispel the fears of her familyby joking and bright spirits. Their daughter Eleanorsays: When our dear general (l ngels) came, he s a i d -what I then almost resented- Mohr is dead too, and itwas really so. Owing to overwork, his habit of often work}ng almost all night, he had so undermined his originallystrong constitution that he had already been ill for sometime, and was obliged from time to time to give up work andtravel for his health. His wife's death, however, undidall the good his travels had done him. He tried to keepup his strength and heart for the sake of the movement,but when , at the beginning of January, 1883, Jenny, hiseldest daughter, also died, he never recovered from theblow. He died quietly in his study arm-chair on MarchIMh, 1883. Thus passed away, as Engels said, the greatest mind of the second half of the 19th Century,and for his epitaph we have eve ry right to use the wordschosen by Eleanor Marx :

. . . The elementsSo mixed in him that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world: This was a man.


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