Marxism

A. Notion of Marxism

Marxism is a social theory that originated as a response to the social problems engendered by the capitalist mode of production: Imperialist war, massive impoverishment, racism, oppression, alienation, the destruction of the environment, and the like. “Marxism began with Karl Marx, the nineteenth-century German philosopher best known for Das Kapital (1867; Capital), the seminal work of the communist movement.” (Murfin & Ray: 1998).

According to Suseno, “Marxism is the term for ideology about the relation between economic, social and political concept” (Suseno, 2001:5).”Marxism is an ideology that studies the social, economical, historical, revolutionary problems based on the social conflicts in the society” (marxis.org: 2000).

B. Major principles of Marxism

1. Dialectical materialism

Dialectics is a method of thinking and interpreting the world of both nature and society. It is a way of looking at the universe, which sets out from the axiom that everything is in a constant state of change and flux.

2. Historical Materialism

Historical materialism is a term that contains all of Marx views about society and history. History itself is a description of past experience, while materialism means that only materials are important.

3. Class Struggle

As a part of Marxist theory, class struggle focuses on the struggle of the oppressed class against the oppressor. One basic reason of this part is in economic, because economic determination makes the level of social class.

4. Revolution

It means that the revolution happens after the struggle of class, exactly the struggle of the proletariat, and then they change the social structure from the old into the new one. In this case the proletarians become the ruling class.

5. Alienation

Marx sees that human alienated from his society because of his work in capitalist economy (Suseno, 2001: 88). Alienated in work is the basic of all human alienation. Because according to Karl Marx, work is fundamental human activity. In work, human makes himself to be real (Suseno, 2001: 89).