Lawrence Cahoone, Ph.D. of Holy Cross College Lectures On "Marx's Critique Of The Economic Revolution"

Here's an interesting lecture on Karl Marx by Lawrence Cahoone, Ph.D. of Holy Cross College titled "Marx's Critique Of The Economic Revolution".

Some of the things you will learn about Marx is he did not hold a high view of peasants or the unemployed (lumpenproletariat) whom he viewed as conservative forces. Instead, Marx chose to pin his energies on the factory workers(the proletariat) whom he felt had revolutionary potential. Hence, "Workers Of The World Unite" was one of the best known slogans invented by Marx.

Marx was not anti-Industrialist. What he was for was more efficient Industrialism. Marx was not anti-labor, but he was very concerned as to who should own the product of labor.

One result of Capitalism which irked and angered Marx: alienation, which he attacked in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. In these papers, Marx said Capitalism made workers "Entfremdung" . . . or "alien to, not friendly to, themselves".

Alienation means something which should be a part of a worker is taken away from them and made into a "power" which opposes them. Marx felt that when a worker sold his labor to a factory owner (bourgeois), that the worker was selling something valuable of their essence . . . their capacity for creative work. Then at the end of the worker's labor, the bourgeois owns the product of the labor.

There's more discussed in this lecture such as Marx's thoughts on the Ruling Class ("Government and Law serve no other function than the interests of the Ruling Class").

Especially interesting are the readings from "The Communist Manifesto".

Whether you are a Socialist, Capitalist, Anarchist, Libertarian, Communist, whatever, you will enjoy this short lecture on what Marx believed.