foreign has swept through the world and captured the minds and hearts of human beings as only the great religions Christianity and Islam have done in human history no other philosopher or social scientist has ever had a worldwide International organized following what is the strange commanding power that lies within the thought of Karl Marx [Music] since the publication of capital volume 1 in 1867 the ideas of Karl Marx have guided revolutionary movements across the entire world and laid the groundwork for a scientific understanding of history and Society this short video attempts to scratch the surface of Marx's ideas by providing a broad sketch of his theory through a discussion on his key arguments and Concepts references to Marx's text mentioned here can be found at the links in the description below Marx was a thinker who wore many hats he was a journalist historian political Economist scientist sociologist labor activist but most importantly he was a socialist revolutionary that sought to change the world the complexity of his thought is shaped by the many different points that he positions himself within the social totality that he is analyzing what he is able to see and comprehend through one perspective or one point may be different or even contradict what he's able to see at another Point within the same social totality the sheer depth and scope of Marx's analysis is derived from his ongoing struggle to work out a scientific interpretation of the various contradictions he's confronted with in his analysis this type of systematic scientific investigation into the social world is a method of inquiry that is now referred to as dialectical or historical materialism the concept of dialectic was borrowed from jorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who basically argued that world history unfolded through a struggle between ideas for Hegel Society was in a continual process of working out contradictions between prevailing ideas that negate Clash contradict struggle develop and change with each other the struggle between ideas creates contradictions that Society tries to work out but in the process new contradictions arise and the history of human society continues to change and develop Hegel referred to this movement as Geist or the spirit of History which ultimately unfolded with a purpose towards progress Hegel argued that the progressive element of Geist the spirit of history or historical dialectic was in the movement towards Freedom that reaches its final stage in the reconciliation between the subject and object where all distinctions between man and external nature are dissolved the concept materialism was taken from Ludwig foyerbach's criticism of Christianity and God Marx praised foyerbox materialism for demonstrating how religious idealism had its foundation and roots in objective material reality foierbach argued that the Christian notion of God was an embodiment of all the Divine qualities of humanity projected from the earth into the heavens he argued that God did not make man but that man created God as his own perfect self-image the image of an all-powerful all-knowing all-caring beautiful truthful and Sublime image of man in order for man to find God he must first recognize himself in God as the ideal perfect image of himself religion therefore separates all the finest qualities of humanity and places them outside of humans as something external to them and in this way foyerbach argued God Is Man's alienation from himself Marx was greatly inspired by both of these thinkers and turned them against each other by arguing that while Hegel had correctly identified the dialectical process of History he misplaced the development of contradictions in the production and struggle of ideas the reflection of reality rather than reality itself on the other hand while foyerbach correctly identified the material basis of ideas and understood that ideas were only mere reflections of objective reality he did not give his materialism a historical social or dialectical character Hegel needed foyerbox materialism and foyerbach needed hegel's historical dialectic in short the marriage between hegel's concept of history and foyerbox concept of materialism would Inspire Marx's method of historical or dialectical materialism and his General approach to his ruthless criticism of everything existing namely political economy in his analysis Marx placed Primacy on the process of production because he understood that it was the process by which society produces the material conditions of its own existence he recognized that human societies must form a metabolic relationship with nature and develop Cooperative forms of social production in order to First simply exist as human beings satisfy their basic material needs for food water clothing shelter and so on they shape their material life the productive and material life of a society determines how that Society will develop its unproductive activities in the sphere of culture religion politics Leisure or any other non-economic activity or Institution therefore the manner in which a society satisfies its material needs shapes and determines the conditions under which different cultural ideological religious artistic or political possibilities may or may not emerge this is why Marx Loosely referred to the economy as the base of society while describing other social processes such as politics religion and culture as the ideological superstructure of society superstructure initially emerges from the base of society but becomes relatively autonomous and enacts its own influence back onto it for most of anthropological history the economic base of society was dominated by a mode of production that Marx's collaborator Frederick Engels referred to as primitive communism he used the term communism to highlight the fact that these prehistoric social formations were classless stateless and moneyless societies where private property did not exist in these societies everyone had free open and Democratic access to the fruits of nature production and distribution of goods was highly egalitarian and community members formed organic bonds that were highly ritualistic cooperative and mutualist Marx sees the history of class struggle beginning with the emergence of slavery at approximately 6000 BCE moving through the feudal Epoch and into capitalism between the 15th and 18th century each stage in the history of human society is defined by how the forces of production or Technologies and human labor are organized through the relations of production as the Technologies and Technical knowledge of a society develop the forces of production change and eventually create contradictions within the prevailing relations of production which then go through a process of revolution throughout this history relations of production give rise to class differences based on how labor and property are distributed across Society slavery as a mode of production begins in Mesopotamian and Sumerian societies around 6000 BCE and eventually emerges across almost the entire world slavery is the first mode of production where private property and a class system emerge under slavery the laborer is the property of the master the master purchases the slave owns the slave and can sell or dispose of the slave like any other good the slave class owns no property provides all the social labor and receives only a portion of the total value it creates the master class owns all the property does none of the labor but appropriates the value produced by the labor of the slave class under this Arrangement the slave class is in constant struggle against the relations of production that exploit their labor which eventually gives rise to irreconcilable antagonisms and contradictions that need to be resolved through a revolution that brings about a transformation in the mode of production after thousands of years the slavery mode of production generally collapses and gives rise to the feudal mode of production around the 5th Century unlike the social formation of the ancient city-state the feudal era comes to fruition in the countryside and creates a stark division between the Town and Country under feudalism the upper class is no longer defined through property ownership in the form of slaves but property ownership in the form of land the worker is therefore no longer a slave owned by the master but a peasant or surf who having no land of their own must work on the land owned by someone else a landlord the peasant class owns no property does all the labor but receives only a portion of the total value its labor creates the landlord class owns all the property does none of the labor but appropriates the value produced by the peasant class conquests of Empire the emerging Bourgeois class and small-scale Industry give expression to the contradictions between the forces and relations of production under the feudal era by the end of the 15th century feudalism begins to crumble and slowly gives rise to capitalism the embryo of the capitalist mode of production begins with Merchant capital in Italy during the time of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century but it's not until the end of the 18th century that capitalism is recognized as a fundamentally distinct mode of production under capitalism the ruling Bourgeois class is no longer defined by productive relations based on the ownership of the worker or land but in the ownership and control over the means of production under this mode of production the working-class proletariat does not own the means of production does all of the work but is compensated with only a portion of the total value it produces on the other hand the Bourgeois class owns all of the property does none of the work but appropriates the value produced by the labor of the proletariat capitalism is a distinct mode of production that is characterized by a number of historical developments that emerge and correspond with each other including Mass commodity production private ownership over the means of production exchange relations a social division of labor wage labor the generalization and crystallization of world money among other things as well certain aspects of the capitalist system such as money or private property predate capitalism by Millennia but other aspects of capitalism such as mass commodity production are characteristic of the capitalist system itself capitalism is a system founded on a mode of production based on Capital which can Loosely be defined as Commodities such as raw materials tools or labor power that are set into motion to produce value in other words a capitalist will purchase Commodities in order to sell them for more than what they cost which as a process looks like this money is used to purchase Commodities such as the means of production and labor power they are mixed together through the production process to create a new commodity C Prime which is then sold for the initial amount of money put forward plus accumulated money money labor power means of production or Commodities in general are not capital in themselves they only become Capital like in the example here when they produce Commodities that sell for more than what they cost the increase in money that the capitalist ends with compared to what he started with is what Marx referred to as Surplus value capital and surplus value are two key components that are introduced in Marx's analysis of the capitalist system they are Concepts that help demystify the mysterious way in which capital presents itself as a Goose that lays golden eggs a form of value that produces value [Music] in Marx's magnum opus Capital volume 1 he begins by noting that under capitalism Commodities have a form of value that contain a dual characteristic all Commodities have a use value that is every commodity has a concrete usefulness in satisfying a human need when consumed but all Commodities also have an exchange value meaning that every commodity can be theoretically exchanged for any other commodity money in particular capitalists have no regard for the use value of Commodities but are simply concerned with the exchange value of the commodity a capitalist who owns a chain of bakeries for example could be intolerant to gluten and it wouldn't matter because he does not consume the bread he produces but produces it with the sole purpose of selling it this condition where goods are produced for their exchange value is the basis of what Marx called commodity fetishism Marx highlights how labor power is also commodified and comes to take on a dual characteristic as a commodity as well labor is useful in combining itself with nature to produce use values or commodities but it also has an exchange value because it can be sold in circulation for a wage the bourgeoisie who owns Capital purchases or rents the labor power of the proletariat in the form of wage labor the proletariat class does not own capital and therefore has nothing to sell in circulation except for its labor power the wage labor system is therefore premised on the proletarian class separating or alienating its labor power from its own autonomous control it is commodified and sold to a capitalist who takes over control of all the conditions of their labor the process of selling or alienating one's labor to a capitalist is what Marx referred to as alienated labor Marx argued that alienated labor alienates the worker from four fundamental aspects of what it means to be human number one it alienates the worker from the product of their creation labor is realized in its objectification into material form the human species is the only species where individuals do not solely produce for themselves but create Technologies inventions and culture that implicate shape and change all of humanity but through the process of alienation Capital expropriates the product of labor from the laborer the products that embody the workers labor becomes something separate from or alien to the worker the more the laborer produces the more they become alienated from the material world they themselves create workers may even go hungry in the wealthiest of societies that throw surplus food into the trash number two it alienates the workers from the labor process for the worker the labor process is no longer a means of social production producing for the whole of society the whole of human needs or the whole of human culture the worker is no longer a free creative social creature but becomes coerced into labor to secure individual means of subsistence labor becomes external to the worker it belongs to a capitalist who decides everything about the labor process what to make how to make it where to make it when the worker can start when the worker must stop when the worker must return to work when the worker can eat when the worker can talk when how much how often and how long they will be paid when they will be laid off when they will be fired and so on in short the Ingenuity and creativity of the labor process could be Humanity's greatest realization of itself but it comes under the sway and control of capital number three it alienates the worker from themselves and their species being Marx understood that human beings emerged from the natural world like all living beings where therefore part of nature but what makes humans distinct from all other animals is the capacity to consciously and willfully manipulate nature humans are the only creatures that have the ability to create abstract models of production consciously organize social labor and then materialize an abstract model through the labor process these conscious creative social and productive aspects of humanity are what Define humans as a species when humans use these capacities to produce from nature they change nature and in doing so change their own nature As Natural creatures this metabolic interaction between humans and nature is the natural state of being for the human species what Marx called species being but Capital robs the worker of their creative capacities robs the worker of their social labor and robs the worker of their social bonds thereby disrupting the basic needs of the species sinking the worker to the level of a commodity and alienating the worker from their species being number four IT alienates workers from each other and Humanity as conscious creative social creatures humans naturally relate to each other through productive relations but under the capitalist mode of production where productive relations form class relations between Bourgeois property owners and propertyless proletarians the relations of humanity become antagonistic and hostile this antagonism occurs through the entire realm of circulation as every buyer seeks a lower price while every seller seeks a higher price of whatever commodity is being exchanged social antagonisms are also created within classes in the form of competition the Bourgeois class competes for Surplus value while the proletarian class competes for wages in short the totality of social relations is facilitated and produced through the interests of capital it is important to note that alienation is not merely an individual Affliction like depression or anxiety nor is it an inclination or feeling that one has towards the circumstances surrounding their labor alienated labor is a structural condition and process that shapes and gives a unique characteristic to labor under the capitalist mode of production just as slave labor is the form labor takes under slavery alienated labor is the form that labor takes under capitalism to more closely understand the capitalist production process let's take a look at a relatively benign example of a small capitalist in the business of baking bread the labor process can be understood through the following equation embodied labor plus living labor equals total labor embodied labor represents the Commodities the capitalist brings to the production process ingredients tools Machinery a building and so on if the capitalist is in the business of producing and selling bread he will purchase flour pots yeast an oven a dough mixer Etc these materials tools and machines are also known as embodied labor because they were produced and therefore embody previous human labor someone made these things before they arrived in the capitalist Bakery in addition to embodied labor the capitalists will also purchase human labor power or living labor from circulation like any other commodity labor is commodified exchanged alienated and thrown into circulation for a capitalist to purchase the capitalist manager will inspect resumes conduct interviews and offer a wage price for the recruitment of Labor power the employee or living labor is then mixed with the embodied labor through the production process the worker mixes the ingredients works the dough Cooks the bread packages it up and in the end living labor mixes with embodied labor to produce total labor in the form of bread this is the material process of production but now let's take a closer look at the immaterial process of production the valorization process let's say that the value of embodied labor in the production process is one dollar in other words it cost the capitalist Baker one dollar worth of flour yeast machine usage and so on after the worker has finished mixing their labor with this one dollar worth of material they turn around and sell the final product for three dollars now if the bread sold for three dollars and was produced with one dollar worth of embodied labor how much value is living labor adding to Total labor the answer is two dollars the worker has mixed one dollar worth of materials with two dollars worth of Labor to produce a three dollar loaf of bread now at this point the capitalist Baker is faced with a problem if the laborer is adding two dollars worth of value to the creation of the bread how much should the laborer be compensated while it might be clear to some that if the laborer is adding two dollars worth of value perhaps they should be compensated two dollars worth of value for their work however if the laborer is compensated the entire two dollars of value they produce that would leave nothing left over for the capitalist except for the one dollar he started with here it's important to remember that the capitalist Baker is not in business in order to feed people he is in business to generate Surplus value without which there is no point in selling bread but since he cannot extract value from the portion added by embodied labor he must find a way to extract it from living labor at the end of the production process the capitalist is left with total labor he takes a portion of this to replenish his embodied labor and then gives his worker only a portion of the value created by living labor he keeps the rest for himself as Surplus value in other words the capitalist divides the value created by living labor into two parts the wages the laborer receives and the remainder which he keeps for himself in the form of surplus value if the laborer who added two dollars of value to the bread is only compensated one dollar then the capitalist receives one dollar in Surplus value in fact the less the capitalist Baker is forced to pay his workers the more he can keep for himself in the form of surplus value if he can lower wages to 50 cents rather than one dollar he will gain a greater surplus of a dollar fifty therefore the capitalist Baker maximizes his Surplus value by paying his workers the bare minimum that the prevailing circumstances will permit this process of the capitalist expropriating the value produced by labor is what Marx referred to as exploitation Mark saw that each individual capitalist was under extraordinary pressure to generate as much Surplus value as possible by exploiting their workers to the utmost he understood that exploitation was therefore not simply created through capitalist greed but by an Impulse to contend with other capitalists under what he called the coercive laws of competition under these coercive laws of competition if a capitalist Baker decided to eliminate or even lessen the exploitation of Labor eventually competitors who continue to exploit their labor will win out in the competition they will be able to hire more employees purchase more materials open new shops lower their prices raise their quality and Inch by Inch by Inch take over the bread Market therefore Surplus value that is generated is reinvested back into the production process in the form of capital as a means to generate greater amounts of surplus value which in turn becomes a larger magnitude of capital that is reinvested back into the production process to generate even more Surplus value and so on and so on this expanding cycle of surplus value being reinvested as capital to generate ever-increasing magnitudes of surplus value is what Marx referred to as capital accumulation the overall tendency for every capitalist to grow Beyond its competitors generates a cycle of expanded reproduction in short every capitalist Enterprise must not only reproduce the production process but expand the production process or else be overtaken by larger competitors there are two ways that the capitalist can manipulate labor to increase Surplus value he can manipulate labor time and generate absolute Surplus value or he can manipulate labor Power by increasing the productivity of a given period and thereby increase the amount of relative Surplus value let's use an example to take a closer look at the difference between absolute and relative Surplus value in the production process as we have seen the value that is produced by the laborer is divided into two parts wages and surplus value therefore labor time is also divided into two parts time that the laborer produces value in the form of wages what Marx called necessary labor and the time the laborer spends in the production of surplus value what Marx called Surplus labor the capitalist can increase the production of surplus value by adding time to the workday work week work year or work life adding labor time means that the current rate of exploitation is maintained but is simply prolonged if a worker produces one hundred dollars worth of bread in 10 hours and is paid fifty dollars for their labor this means that the worker was producing the value of their wages in five of those hours and producing Surplus value for the other five now if the capitalist decides to increase the workday to 12 hours the worker is now producing 120 dollars worth of value and taking a wage of sixty dollars Marx therefore referred to labor time in terms of absolute Surplus value to highlight how the ratio between necessary labor and surplus labor remains constant or absolute with the increase or decrease in labor time on the other hand the capitalist also seeks to optimize relative Surplus value by producing more Goods within the same amount of Labor time for example if the capitalist Baker introduces more efficient Machinery into the production process he may demand that workers produce more output in the same amount of time for the same rate of pay now let's say under these conditions that labor is producing 160 dollars worth of bread in 12 hours but the wage does not increase and remains at sixty dollars now the worker is producing the value of their wages in four and a half hours and producing Surplus value for the remaining seven and a half hours when the workday produces more Goods without any increase in pay the ratio or division between necessary labor and surplus labor becomes increasingly disproportionate Marx referred to this as relative Surplus value because the intensification of exploitation generates a greater magnitude of surplus labor relative to necessary labor there are only so many hours in a day that the capitalist can fill with labor time but there are plenty of opportunities to increase relative Surplus value by introducing Machinery to the production process a capitalist Baker who purchases an upgraded dough mixer will be able to produce more than the one who uses the slower older less efficient technology capitalists who do not employ machines are eventually battered down by the coercive laws of competition and larger capitalists take them over therefore upgrading the machines or Technologies at the point of production is a necessity rather than a choice when it comes to machines it's no different than any other commodity their price is lower than their value to make the distinction between price and value clear let's first consider the price or cost of the machine independently of its value Bourgeois political economy takes up the view of the capitalist and from this point of view it is not necessary to make a distinction between price and value Bourgeois political economy following the perspective of the capitalist sees price as a direct expression of value in other words they are the same thing all prices are values when a capitalist is deciding whether or not to employ Machinery at the point of production he performs a simple utilitarian cost benefit calculation a capitalist will seek to purchase a machine for a lower price than what it will produce for him in extra profit for example if a worker produces one hundred thousand dollars in a year but can produce two hundred thousand dollars in a year with the aid of a three hundred thousand dollar machine that has a lifespan of five years then this means that the machine is adding one hundred thousand dollars to the production process every year and will therefore add five hundred thousand dollars throughout its lifetime since the machine only costs three hundred thousand dollars but transfers five hundred thousand dollars to the production process the capitalist calculates that the price of the goods being produced by the machine is greater than the cost of the machine itself for the capitalist this is a crucial calculation that is known as the amortization period or the depreciation of the price of the machine over time from the capitalist point of view he spends two hundred thousand dollars and realizes five hundred thousand dollars as if the machine itself is producing value and is thus the origin of value creation but Marx demonstrates that it only appears that the machine is producing value because the Bourgeois perspective fails to distinguish between price and value if we take this distinction into consideration when we look at the production of machines like the production of any other commodity under the capitalist mode of production we can see that the price of the machine is less than its value in other words the machine is made through a production process where embodied labor like metal and screwdrivers and drills and nuts and bolts were mixed together with living labor to produce a final product in the form of a machine the capitalist who oversees the production of machines is in the business of producing machines to realize Surplus value therefore he exploits his workers in the sense that he doesn't pay them a wage that reflects the value of the machine they create but only pays them a portion it is only by paying labor a portion of the value it produces that a machine can contain more value than what it is sold for and the capitalist who sells it can still realize a profit for example if laborers produce a machine worth one million dollars of value but are exploited and therefore only paid one hundred thousand dollars the capitalist can sell the machine for four hundred thousand dollars and still generate a profit or Surplus value even though the price of the commodity being sold is far lower than the actual value contained in it now let's say another capitalist purchases this machine for four hundred thousand dollars to employ it in the production process throughout the machine's lifetime it will transfer its one million dollars of total value into the production process if the machine costs four hundred thousand dollars but it transfers one million dollars to the production process this means that the capitalist who employs the machine will reap the remaining six hundred thousand dollars Beyond its cost this is key to understanding the role of machines in production and key to understanding why labor power will always be necessary to production machines do not create produce or necessarily add value to the production process it only appears that they do when we have a misconception of value and prices as being the same thing now let's keep this fact in mind as we carry on to a discussion of what the broader implications are at the structural and systemic level of increasing the use of machines and Technologies at the point of production throughout all of history humans have used different types of tools to Aid in the production of goods the purpose of a tool is to allow labor to be performed with less effort or less time there would be no point in using a tool if it had the opposite effect of making the same task more difficult and lengthier therefore tools are fundamentally introduced to alleviate the amount of socially necessary labor time required in the production process but throughout the history of capitalist Society Machinery has never had the outcome of reducing labor time on anyone other than those who are entirely replaced by the machines everyone else simply adapts to the integration of new technology and Carries on with the same degree of effort and the same relative amount of Labor time foreign to the Industrial Revolution it was unheard of for workers to rebel against the implements used in the production of material life but under capitalism this is exactly what happens the working class begins to see machines as a threat to their livelihood as they not only completely replace many laborers at the point of production and cut them off from earning a wage but it also reduces workers into mechanical implements that perform repetitive monotonous motions every day for hours on end Marx points out that it is not the machines in themselves that are a threat to the workers but the productive relations under which they are employed historically tools have liberated the worker from the burden of excessive toil and machines hold tremendous potential in liberating the working class from a life defined by exploitation this is why it is up to the workers to decide when to overthrow this system and take hold of the means of production they are the ones that will be squeezed out and force the system to change more on this later but for now let's take a closer look at the process that leads up to this point in the process of capital accumulation machines slowly come to replace laborers at the point of production Marx expressed this in the formula constant Capital plus variable Capital plus Surplus value equals total value output where constant capital is the raw materials tools and machines variable capital is the cost of Labor power and surplus value is the value produced beyond the cost of constant and variable capital when machines are introduced into the production process it adds to the amount of constant Capital required not only in terms of the cost of the machine but also increased costs for larger quantities of raw materials machines produce more Goods which means more raw materials with the introduction of Machinery a large portion of surplus value is going back into the production process while a smaller amount of variable capital is required therefore constant Capital slowly takes over or chews up variable capital and surplus value a process that marks referred to as the organic composition of capital the underlying contradiction here is that while Capital draws its Surplus value from living labor it also diminishes the relative proportion of variable Capital required in the production process in other words in the pursuit of surplus value Capital squeezes out the source of surplus value this is what Marx referred to as the tendency for the rate of profit to fall in our formula constant Capital plus variable Capital plus Surplus value equals total value output we need to realize that Surplus value derives from living labor which is the cost of variable Capital but increasing constant Capital also diminishes variable capital and surplus value relative to constant Capital as the pi gets bigger everyone gets a bigger slice but the proportion going to constant capital is always increasing in relation to variable capital and surplus value Capital always seeks to expand the production process and therefore has a general tendency towards overproduction and the tendency to maximize relative Surplus value through the use of machines only accelerates this process as this process continues to unfold machines and Technology at the point of production continually replace living labor and produce ever increasing amounts of commodities eventually capitalist crises of overproduction occur when Capital has produced too many Commodities in relation to the needs of society the system therefore requires the outward expansion of capital in foreign trade where greater quantities of products can be sold in foreign markets in the pursuit of expanded reproduction and the forceful creation of the World Market capitalist social relations have become generalized at the global level creating a world after its own image as constant Capital continually subsumes variable capital and surplus value eventually irreconcilable contradictions will be reached and generating Surplus value will become impossible if this process is allowed to unfold it will eventually reach a point where machines almost entirely replace the need for living labor at the point of production variable Capital will become so marginal that the relations of production will no longer be able to meet social needs and will no longer distribute the wages necessary for the working class to consume its means of subsistence as variable Capital diminishes so does the amount of relative Surplus value eventually production will no longer require such large magnitudes of socially necessary labor time and the relations of production will need to go through a process of revolution even if socialism is not fully automated it will require such a minimal amount of socially necessary labor time the capitalist productive relations would nonetheless become obsolete there are of course steps that Capital can take in order to ensure that this point does not arrive any sooner than necessary the most important of which is often referred to as primitive accumulation this concept was introduced by classical political economy to denote a historic period where the process of capital accumulation began but Marx rejects the concept of primitive accumulation as neither a historic category nor a peaceful process of capital accumulation he instead argues that this idea of so-called primitive accumulation is in reality an ongoing process of capital uprooting people and social relations and proletarianizing them by turning them into propertyless wage laborers this process of primitive accumulation more properly called colonialism occurred at the origins of capitalism but also continues to this day in the form of neocolonialism and imperialism within the global image of colonialism we see the forging of class relations at the level of geography some nations take on the characteristic of the bourgeoisie While others become the global proletariat contemporary Marxism often refers to this as the north-south or core periphery divide While others Define it in terms of first world and third world struggles what they all capture however is the class dimension of the world system namely that Europe and its settler colonies extract wealth from the globally exploited and pour it into their own economies as the process of expanded reproduction becomes Global capitalist crises also become Global and the Persistence of imperialist Wars the intensification of global class inequality and the devastation caused by ongoing ecological destruction gives continued expression to the contradictions of This Global class relation Marx understood that the capitalist mode of production rapidly generates forces of production that come into conflict with capitalist relations of production as constant Capital continued its subsumption of variable capital and surplus value eventually irreconcilable contradictions would be reached that would no longer be possible to maintain within capitalist relations of production in order to facilitate the birth of the new world Marx therefore saw it necessary to move beyond the Bourgeois politics that shape and reinforce processes of global capital accumulation This Global dictatorship of capital realized in the modern State filled with representatives of the Bourgeois class is what Marx called a committee for managing the Affairs of the bourgeoisie the state is a classed state which is why working class state power has never been achieved and maintained within the parameters of bourgeois parliamentarianism the bourgeoisie never has and probably never will give workers sufficient political power to dismantle the Bourgeois State and establish a worker State what Marx called the dictatorship of the proletarian class Marx argued that communism is the only political movement that is fundamentally distinct from all forms of Bourgeois politics communism is not a refermist or parliamentary movement but a revolutionary movement it is a movement that seeks to reconstruct the entire apparatus of the state and Society from the ground up it is the only political party that maintains an internationalist perspective that seeks working-class solidarity between All Nations and exploited peoples of the world communism like all aspects of Marx's Theory needs to be understood as a process that develops changes confronts struggles experiences achievements as well as setbacks Marx describes the lower phase of Communism as a condition where workers have achieved control over the state but must still work to build the new world within the broader confines or shell of the old capitalist world the lower stage of Communism may exist for a long time perhaps even centuries after all it took centuries for feudalism to replace slavery or for capitalism to replace feudalism therefore within the shell and contradictions of the old capitalist world the Communist Party must maintain a revolutionary program that can not only sustain itself but become strong enough to defend and Aid in the Revolutionary transformation of society the general principle of the lower stage of Communism is from each according to their ability to each according to their contribution the higher stage of Communism will only be achieved when socialism has become generalized on a world scale it is a stage where Commodities are no longer produced for exchange value but for their usefulness in satisfying human and social needs where labor is not alienated and exploited but conscious intentional and collectively determined where machines liberate workers from drudgery rather than enslave them and where the wealth of society is enjoyed by all democratically cooperatively and peacefully the general principle of the higher stage of Communism is from each according to their ability to each according to their need in The Communist Manifesto Marx and angles lay out a general outline of how a socialist state would transition from the lower to higher stage of Communism it includes the abolition of property in land a progressive or graduated income tax abolition of All rights of inheritance confiscation of property of all Rebels state monopolization of credit by means of a Central Bank State centralization of communication and transport equal liability of all to work gradual abolition of the distinction between Town and Country free education for all children in public schools and the abolition of child labor in factories in the higher stage of Communism the means of production are held in common and the social product is democratically produced and distributed without exchange relations by virtue of dissolving the value form of the commodity and class distinctions the state as a repressive instrument of class war eventually becomes Obsolete and Withers away thus ushering in the highest stage of communism a classless stateless moneyless society under such conditions human potential will be Unleashed and creativity May flourish where the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all on a more abstract generalized level communism is Humanity's reunification with its species being the elimination of alienated and exploited labor the abolition of the value form the overcoming and transcending of the dialectic of world history the collapse of the subject object distinction and the realization of freedom in this world not in the next in The Communist Manifesto Marx and angles call on the proletariat to become conscious of itself as a class and to fight for its class interests working people of the world have nothing to lose but their chains they have a world to win workers of all countries Unite