Political Philosophy PPE- Marxism

Marxism

"Les enfants de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé." It's revolution time:

Contents

1. Point of Departure

2. Communism as Beyond Justice 3. Communist Justice

4. Social Democracy and Social Justice 5. The Politics of Marxism

1. Point of Departure: the Problem

egalitarianism?

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1. Point of Departure: Politics

• Historical Materialism: "The development of societies is determined by class struggle , which is itself determined by the development of the means of

economic production, and the inevitable result of this development is the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by the prolateriat" (Kymlicka, p. 167). • Liberal egalitarianism cannot stop the revolution! It does not overcome the

inherent contradiction between capital and labor. The market and its inequalities are the real problem.

• Having said that, Marx would have clearly not endorsed the anti-globalization movement, though he perhaps could support the Occupy movements. The reason is that former is a moral and not a real social revolution.

1. Point of Departure: Methodology

• Marx's stance is that of the scientist. He observes society and tries to

individuate the causes moving society, exactly in the same manner as for example Newton tries to understand the cause that make apples fall from the tree to earth.

• Marx's project is to identify the social laws that determine the development of societies.

• In this sense, Marx is not a moral philosopher. It is not that communism is

desirable, it is inevitable. The laws of capital necessarily bring about

communism.

• Marx denies individual freedom and responsibility. People's choices are the result of their material or cultural circumstances.

2. Communism as beyond Justice:

Summary

• Communism is not a principle of justice.

• "The idea of equal right and fair distribution are obsolete verbal rubbish" (Marx/Engels, p. 169). Marx is critical of juridical equality. • Justice is "merely remedial, palliatives for dealing with material,

social, cultural and epistemological problems that can be

overcome, thereby rendering the remedies unnecessary" (Marx, p. 175)

• Justice is not going to abolish the inherent contradiction between capital and proletariat. Justice is an ideology.

2. The Critique of Rights

• The contribution principle: "It tacitly recognizes unequal

individual endowment and thus productive activity as natural

privileges. It is, therefore, a right of inequality, in its content, like every right. Right by its very nature can consist only in the

application of an equal standard. Nothing more is seen (...),

everything else being ignored" (Marx/Engels quoted on p. 169). • The contribution principle views people as workers only, but

ignores the fact that different workers vary both in their talents and in their needs.

2. Critique of Rights cont.

Rights fail to live up to the ideal of real equality and therefore cannot stop the progress of history.

1. Rights allow only for a limited number of the morally relevant standpoints.

Example: Human rights (1) haven't stopped globalization and (2)

according to Marx, shouldn't have stopped it. For Marx, rights cause poverty and harm humanity, since they hinder the spread of

capitalism and, hence, impede the revolution to come .

2. Critique of Justice

• Justice is appropriate only if we are in the

'circumstances of justice.' Communism is overcoming the circumstances of justice.

• Communism eliminates (1) conflicting goals and (2) limited material resources.

• "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" (Marx, Critique the Gotha Program).

2. Communism Eleminates

Conflicting Goals

One possible interpretation:

Communism overcomes conflicting conceptions of the good. If we fulfill each other's needs out of love, or out of a harmony of interests, the concept of rights becomes superfluous.

Another interpretation:

Communist relations are free of antagonism "not in the sense of individual antagonism, but of one arising from the social

2. Communism Eliminates Material

Scarcity

• The highest development of the productive forces "is an absolutely necessary practical premise (of communism) because without it want is merely made general, and with destitution the struggle for necessities and all the filthy business would necessarily be reproduced" (Marx/Engels, p. 172).

• Therefore capitalism is a necessary phase in world history.

• See Marx's endorsement of colonialism: "England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan, was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social

state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution" (Marx, The British

3. Communist Justice

Communism is about the abolition of private property. Why? The fundamental problem is the following:

Wage-labor relationships result in the problem of exploitation and alienation.

Exploitation

• In order to get a taste and feeling of what Marx could have in mind writing on exploitation read daily Il manifesto, Naomi's Klein No Logo, all the political writings of Noam Chomsky and watch the films by Ken Loach and Michael Moore.

• http://www.pbs.org/pov/madeinla/video_classroom4.php# .VRAwRdKG-So

• http://www.journeyman.tv/66450/short-films/sweatshop-chi c.html

3. Exploitation

The theory of 'surplus value':

1. Labor and labor alone creates value.

2. The capitalist receives some of the value of the product. Therefore:

3. The laborer receives less value than he creates.

4. The capitalist receives some of the value the laborer creates. Therefore:

3. Exploitation

• People are forced to enter into wage relationships in order to earn a living.

• Capitalism escapes from social regulations, such as

standard minimum wage rates and labor rights. Capitalism puts poor as much as rich countries through the process of globalization into a ferocious race to the bottom.

• Capitalism brings about growing inequalities in the course of time (see also Th. Piketty, Capital).

3. Problems with Exploitation

• The 'labor theory of value' is contestable. With the exponential growth of the tertiary sector and the transition to a society of consumers in

Western countries, the cost of the actual production of a product tends versus zero. Take the example of a pair of Converse All Stars. We buy them at a price of 70 Euros. The actual cost of the production might not exceed 5 Euros. The rest we pay for branding and image.

• It assumes the self-ownership of labor. And from there follows a

libertarian conclusion: "If we force workers to pay taxes to support the infirm, then we are forcing them to work without pay" (Kymlicka, p.

3. Problems of Exploitation cont.

• The real social problem seems to lie with those who are excluded from the labor market: disenfranchised women, unemployed. "Being forced to sell one's labor may be better than being forced not to (women), or

being unable to (unemployed), or eking out a

marginal existence from crime, begging, or living off whatever land remains common property

3. The Broader Scope of Exploitation

in terms of unequal access to the means of production.

• For Roemer the 'ethical imperative' of exploitation theory is not to eliminate surplus value, but to 'abolish differential

ownership of the alienable means of production.

• Arneson: Most of the surplus taken from workers under capitalism is illegitimate, since it winds up in the hands of those who benefit from unequal distribution of talents and wealth.

3. Problems of the Broader Scope of

Exploitation

1. The idea of exploitation is derived from a prior and broader principle of distributive justice.

2. Marxism tends to collapse into liberal egalitarianism.

3. Wage-labor relationships are no longer inherently unjust. Conclusion: The broader scope of exploitation might stand in contradiction with communism (the problem of

3. Alienation

• Wage-labor alienates us from our true

'species-nature' and our capacity as freely creative cooperative production (perfectionism).

• The worker is a mere commodity, the exercise of labor-power is mindless and devoid of any intrinsic satisfaction.

• In communism people will value unalienated labor as an overriding good.

3. Problems with Alienation

• I might want to trade off alienated labor with more leisure, consumption and more time for friends and family.

• It values production higher than reproduction (the problem of feminism with Marxism).

• We cannot draw moral consequences from our

biology. There are many values that may compete with unalienated production.

3. Needs as a Principle of

Distributive Justice

For Marx, equal need satisfaction is a solution to the defects of the contribution principle.

People's needs include 'a rich individuality which is all-sided in its production as in its consumption (Marx, p. 187).

Problem: Marx doesn't provide a criteria to distinguish between the various needs.

4. Social Democracy and Social

Justice

• Socialism does not intend to abolish private property, but it shares with communism the goal of a classless society.

• A society of social equals is "a community in which people's dealing with and emotional attachment to others are not

inhibited by the barrier of class" (Miller, p. 196).

• Walzer: market inequalities should not influence other spheres of justice, such as equality in the public sphere.

4. Socialism vs. Liberalism

• Inequalities undermine a sense of 'fellowship'

underlying a society of equals, they undermine the community.

• Inequalities do not count as such. They are only unjust when they affect social equality.

• Liberalism promotes the wrong ethos of equality. It engages citizens in 'shameful revelation' (Wolff, p. 198).

5. The Politics of Marxism

• Workers bring about social change and the revolution. Class conflict is endemic to wage relationships, which is endemic to capitalism, so the wage relationship is the linchpin around which revolutionary struggle occurs. • Kymlicka: contemporary struggles are not about wage

relationships, but characterized by identity conflicts - racial groups, gays and lesbians, immigrants etc.. The interests of the needy and the exploited might conflict.