LIBERALISM

SOCIALISM

• A WAY OF ORGANIZING A SOCIETY IN WHICH MAJOR INDUSTRIES ARE OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY THE

GOVERNMENT RATHER THAN BY INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE AND COMPANIES

• A TRANSITIONAL STAGE OF SOCIETY IN MARXIST THEORY BETWEEN CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM AND

DISTINGUISHED BY UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS AND PAY ACCORDING TO WORK DONE

COMMUNISM

• POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN WHICH MAJOR PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES IN A SOCIETY – SUCH AS

MINES, FACTORIES & FARMS – ARE OWNED BY THE PUBLIC OR THE STATE (GOVERNMENT) AND WEALTH IS

DIVIDED EQUALLY AMONG CITIZENS OR ACCORDING TO NEED.

• TERM REFERS TO THE IDEAL TYPE OF SOCIETY ENVISIONED BY KARL MARX – CLASSLESS SOCIETY.

• ATTEMPTS AT FORMING COMMUNIST STATES WERE MADE IN RUSSIA, CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE

20TH CENTURY.

• FORM OF SOCIALISM

• MAJOR FORCE IN WORLD POLITICS FOR MOST OF 20TH CENTURY.

POPULISM

• BASED ON TYPE OF AGRARIAN SOCIALISM – CENTRED AROUND THE PEASANT & THE MIR (VILLAGE)

• THE POPULISTS OR NARODNIKS – YOUNG INTELLECTUALS – AIMED TO SOCIALISE RURAL SOCIETY & FREE PEASANTS

FROM OPPRESSION OF THEIR MASTERS.

• ADVOCATED POLITICAL CHANGE THROUGH REVOLUTION – OVERTHROW OF THE TSARIST REGIME & ITS

REPLACEMENT WITH A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

• ‘PEOPLE’S WILL’ = ONE SECTOR OF POPULIST MOVEMENT – RE-FORMED INTO SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

EARLY YEARS OF 20TH CENTURY.

• GAINED WIDESPREAD POPULAR SUPPORT FROM BOTH PEASANTRY & INDUSTRIAL WORKING CLASS – FOCUS STILL

ON PEASANTS THOUGH.

MARXISM

MARXISM• BASED ON WRITING OF KARL MARX & FRIEDRICH ENGELS.

• BASIC ELEMENTS CONTAINED IN THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, PUBLISHED IN 1848.

• BELIEVED ULTIMATELY THAT OPPRESSED CLASSES WOULD REVOLT AND OVERTHROW RULING CLASSES TO CREATE A

CLASSLESS / COMMUNIST STATE.

• ENCOURAGED WORKERS TO SEIZE POWER BY REVOLUTION.

• OUTLINED COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY WHICH TRANSFORMED

COMMUNISM FROM A THEORY INTO A STRONG POLITICAL MOVEMENT.

• FOCUSED ON THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY.

• REJECTED EXISTING CAPITALIST SOCIETY WHICH MARX BELIEVED WAS INEVITABLY DOOMED BY ITS OWN

STRUCTURE.

• DEMISE OF CAPITALISM = INEVITABLE

MARXISM

• HIS ‘SCIENTIFIC’ VIEW OF HISTORY WAS ATTRACTIVE – SIMILAR TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES OF DARWIN.

• ACCORDING TO MARX, HISTORY WAS EVOLVING IN A SERIES OF STAGES TOWARDS A PERFECT STATE –

COMMUNISM.

• EACH STAGE CHARACTERIZED BY STRUGGLE BETWEEN DIFFERENT CLASSES.

• STRUGGLE OVER WHO OWNED THE ‘MEANS OF PRODUCTION’ (RESOURCES USED TO PRODUCE FOOD, GOOD & SO ON)

AND SO CONTROLLED SOCIETY.

• IN EACH STAGE, MARX IDENTIFIED A RULING CLASS WHO OWNED MEANS OF PRODUCTION & EXPLOITED AN OPPRESSED

CLASS – ‘HAVES’ & ‘HAVE NOTS’

• HE SAW CHANGE AS BEING BROUGHT BY A REVOLUTIONARY CLASS WHO WOULD DEVELOP AND CONTEST POWER WITH

EXISTING RULING CLASS.

REVOLUTIONS FROM A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE

MARXISM

• MARX SAW HISTORY IN TERMS OF CLASS STRUGGLE – “THE HISTORY OF ALL HITHERTO EXISTING SOCIETY

IS THE HISTORY OF CLASS STRUGGLE.”

• A CLASS WOULD EVENTUALLY BE FACED WITH THE NEED TO REVOLT BECAUSE IT HAD BEEN EXCLUDED FROM

THE ‘MEANS OF PRODUCTION’ AND A FAIR SHARE OF THE PROFITS OF THEIR LABOUR.

• MARX SAW THINGS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF 19TH CENTURY – A TIME WHEN CLASS STRUGGLE AND

DIFFERENCES DOMINATED SOCIETY.

• ARGUED THEIR EXISTED A ‘SCIENTIFIC’ PROCESS OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION.

• MEANT THAT, FOR EXAMPLE, FEUDAL SOCIETY WOULD EVENTUALLY TRANSFORM INTO CAPITALIST SOCIETY WHICH

WOULD, INEVITABLY TRANSFORM INTO SOCIALIST SOCIETY.

• HIS IDEAS MOTIVATED MANY REVOLUTIONARIES AND REVOLUTIONS.

MARXISM – THE SPIRIT OF CHANGE: RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION

• SURPLUS VALUE OF LABOUR

• COMPETITION

• CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

• MARXIST THEORY OF HISTORY

• DIALECTIC MATERIALISM

• STAGES OF HISTORY

• INEVITABILITY OF COMMUNISM

• DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT

SO, WHAT’S THE POINT OF MARXISM?IN THE LAST STAGE OF HISTORY—THE ONE IN WHICH MARX AND ENGELS THOUGHT THEY

WERE LIVING—THE PROLETARIAT, OR WORKING CLASS, IS PITTED AGAINST THE

BOURGEOISIE, OR CAPITALIST CLASS. AS THE BOURGEOISIE CONTINUES TO

ACCUMULATE WEALTH BY EXPLOITING THE PROLETARIAT, THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE

TWO CLASSES INCREASES, EVENTUALLY MAKING THE CONDITION OF THE PROLETARIAT

SO DESPERATE THAT IT MUST RESORT TO VIOLENT REVOLUTION. THE RESULT WILL BE THE

OVERTHROW OF THE BOURGEOISIE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PROLETARIAN

DICTATORSHIP. EVENTUALLY THE PROLETARIAN STATE WILL “WITHER AWAY” BECAUSE IT

WILL BE UNNECESSARY, AND A FULLY COMMUNIST SOCIETY, IN WHICH THERE ARE NO

CLASS DIVISIONS, WILL EMERGE.

LENINISM• VLADIMIR LENIN WAS INFLUENCED BY & FOLLOWED MANY OF THE IDEAS OF KARL MARX.

• HOWEVER, HE ALSO ADDED TO AND MODIFIED THE THEORIES OF MARXISM, SOCIALISM & COMMUNISM TO EXPLAIN WHAT

HE BELIEVED SHOULD BE DONE IN RUSSIA.

• HIS REVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHIES ARE REFERRED TO AS MARXISM-LENINISM.

• HE BELIEVED THERE NEEDED TO BE A SMALL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY OF PROFESSIONAL, DEDICATED REVOLUTIONARIES TO

LEAD THE REVOLUTION. THIS PARTY WOULD ACT AS THE VANGUARD OF THE WORKING CLASS WHO WOULD NOT ATTAIN A

REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT THE PARTY’S GUIDANCE.

• BELIEVED THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR SENTIMENT.

• BELIEVED CAPITALISM WAS A BANKRUPT SYSTEM WHICH WOULD COLLAPSE IN A SERIES OF WARS BETWEEN CAPITALIST

COUNTRIES OVER RESOURCES & TERRITORY. THIS WOULD LEAD TO CIVIL WARS AND CLASS CONFLICT, WHICH WOULD

THEN FACILITATE THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION.

• BELIEVED THIS REVOLUTION WOULD START IN A RELATIVELY UNDEVELOPED COUNTRY AND THEN SPREAD TO OTHER COUNTRIES.

• BELIEVED REVOLUTION WOULD START IN RUSSIA.

SO, LENINISM…1. REVOLUTION WOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED BY SMALL GROUP OF PROFESSIONAL, DEDICATED REVOLUTIONARIES. THEY

WERE NEEDED TO DEVELOP THE REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS OF WORKERS AND FOCUS THEIR ACTIONS.

2. BELIEVED REVOLUTION WOULD OCCUR DURING A PERIOD OF CONFLICT BETWEEN CAPITALIST POWERS AND THAT IT

WOULD OCCUR IN A WEAK / UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRY (LIKE RUSSIA) AND THEN SPREAD TO MORE

INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES.

3. DID NOT THINK MIDDLE CLASSES IN RUSSIA WERE STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY THROUGH A BOURGEOIS-

DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION. BELIEVED WORKING CLASS COULD DEVELOP A REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT OF IT

OWN WITH POOR PEASANTS WHO HAD A HISTORY OF MASS ACTION IN RUSSIA – THE BOURGEOIS AND SOCIALIST

REVOLUTION COULD BE ROLLED INTO ONE.

VLADIMIR LENIN• WHO WAS HE?

• WHERE WAS HE BORN?

• WHAT TYPE OF FAMILY AND CLASS WAS HE BORN IN TO?

• WAS HE EDUCATED?

• WHY WAS HE OPPOSED TO THE TSARIST REGIME?

• WHAT DID HE BELIEVE SHOULD BE DONE TO OVERTHROW THE TSARIST REGIME?

• WHAT DID HE THINK SHOULD REPLACE THE TSARIST REGIME?

• WHAT WAS HIS ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION?

• HOW DID HIS VIEWS DIFFER FROM THE IDEAS OF KARL MARX?

• WHAT IS LENINISM?

• WHAT WAS LENINISM LIKE AFTER THE REVOLUTION?

LEON TROTSKY• WHO WAS HE?

• WHERE WAS HE BORN?

• WAS HE EDUCATED?

• WHY WAS HE OPPOSED TO THE TSARIST REGIME?

• WHAT DID HE BELIEVE SHOULD BE DONE TO OVERTHROW THE TSARIST REGIME?

• HOW DID TROTSKY AGREE AND/OR DISAGREE WITH LENIN?

• WHAT DID HE THINK SHOULD REPLACE THE TSARIST REGIME?

• WHAT WAS HIS ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION?

• WHY DID HE NOT BECOME THE LEADER OF RUSSIA AFTER LENIN DIED?

JOSEPH STALIN

• WHO WAS HE?

• WHERE WAS HE BORN?

• WHAT TYPE OF FAMILY AND CLASS WAS HE BORN IN TO?

• WAS HE EDUCATED?

• WHAT WAS HIS ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION?

• HOW / WHY WAS HE ABLE TO BECOME THE LEADER OF RUSSIA AFTER LENIN?

• WHAT IS STALINISM?

BIBLIOGRAPHY / REFERENCES:

• COMMUNIST RUSSIA UNDER LENIN AND STALIN

• THE SPIRIT OF CHANGE: RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION

• RUSSIA & THE USSR 1905-1941

• RUSSIA AND REVOLUTION: KEYNOTES