Marxism is a theory based on the ideas of the philosopher Karl Marx Marx was born in Germany in 1818 and died in London in 1883 he's buried in Highgate Cemetery in North London Marxism is what is known as a conflict theory because it states a society is in conflict with each other and Marxism claims that this conflict is between the rich and the poor now Marxism as we understand it as sociologists is a political and economic philosophy a view of the way things are now and suggestions as to where society is headed the danger is that we start to view it based on what we understand about its relationship to communism and the politics and oppression of the old Soviet Union Marx never saw communism in this way he saw it as liberation and as a leveler a way of creating a fairer society and of a way of getting the best out of all people not just those with money and power to really understand Marxism we need to start with its opposite capitalism capitalism represents the type of society you and I live in today in Marx's terms it's an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production what this means is that our society today is based on a few people who own factories businesses shops and other corporations these corporations aren't owned by the people who work for them the employees or jointly by the employees and the owners but by the owners only Marx was formulating his theories during the Industrial Revolution a time when Britain and other countries were going through a very dramatic change the old feudal system when lords of the manor owned the land meant that the ordinary people had freedom and rights to all land it was held in common when the government passed the number of enclosure acts in the 1700's and 1800's ordinary people no longer had the right to live on this land and many of them were forced to pack up and move to the towns and the cities which were beginning to grow due to the increase in factories and texts Milt's whereas previously people were free to keep their own animals and grow their own crops on common land once they reach the cities they had to find work in the factories in the employment of the factory owners the work was hard and often dangerous and the pay was very poor many factory owners didn't want to pay high wages because this would mean less profit for them so children were often used as cheap labor the Industrial Revolution promoted a capitalist way of thinking what we call a capitalist ideology and also created two distinct groups of people the factory owners who were middle-class Marx called these the bourgeoisie and the workers were working-class Marx called these the proletariat Marx was on the side of the proletariat because he saw them as being treated unfairly by the factory owners not only did mark see them as being treated unfairly or being oppressed he also saw the system has one that tried very hard to make sure that the poor stay poor and the rich continued to get richer so Marx is a views capitalist society is being based on a system that encourages inequality because the rich will always need someone to do the work they don't want to do it's called a conflict theory because society is in conflict the proletariat versus the bourgeoisie however Marx also suggested that at some point the working class would realize that they had the power to change things through education and personal development some members of the proletariat would begin to understand the system better and devised ways of changing it Marx believed that such radical change could only come about through revolution when the workers rise up and overthrow those who are treating them unfairly in place of capitalism a new system would be established in which all people were treated equally and all the factories and businesses were owned by everyone in other words they were communally owned Marx called this system communism