By Zia Ahmad
For the benefit of studious readers Marx lays down a couple of pertinent principles:
1. An attention to the material conditions of people’s lives and social relations among people. The attention to the material condition bit is self explanatory and the latter half of the statement can be considered as one’s relation to people of other socio-economic class as well as his own.
2. A belief that people’s consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects these material conditions and relations. Again a simple enough idea that presupposes a person’s awareness of his place in any given society in relation to his material condition and interaction with other members of the society.
3. An understanding of class in terms of differing relations of production and as a particular position within such relations. This point takes a logical cue from the previously stated points in regards to achieving the ability to see a whole social class. A better view can only be taken when one has gained an awareness of his own place in society or the respective social class as stated before. Just as one’s own view is taken in relation to material condition and interaction with people, the social class is to be seen in terms of human and technical interaction at work, or production, and how particular position is to be seen amidst such interlocking relations.
4. An understanding of material conditions and social relations as historically malleable. In other words, after achieving awareness of material condition and social relations, one should see it in a larger historical perspective and understand it as something flexible and prone to shape itself easily in reaction to any given set of circumstances.
5. A sympathy for the working class or proletariat. Perhaps the cornerstone of Marxism. All things Marxist compel us to identify with the common man.
6. And a common belief that the ultimate interests of workers best match those of the humanity in general. What is good for the common worker is good for the entire human race.
So through the above mentioned points we come to understand that Marxism encourages its disciple to gain a clear understanding of his social position which is informed by his station in the socio-economic ladder of a society and the nature of his interaction with people from contrasting spheres of the society.
Inherent in the understanding of one’s standing in the society is the awareness of the division of a society into different social classes. According to the Marxist gospel, definition of a social class is reflected by relations of production or in other words where people in general identify themselves in the entire production process. If the people are involved at the bottom rung or front line of the production process, forming the basic labor part of the process, the group is effectively known as the working class. This class, in turn, is supervised by various levels of managers and supervisors that go on to form the middle class and the hierarchy finds the owner or proprietor at the top which gives room for the upper class. This rough definition of class is to be well understood by the keen Marxist disciple in light of the human interactions one has with people at all levels of the production process and how his own particular position is defined in perspective.
The keen Marxist disciple is encouraged to broaden his horizons and see history itself as an ebb and flow of class struggles and conflict with other classes. All the great causes that were responsible for shaping history, the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, are formed in this context. And at the center of all the defining moments in history since the dawn of man is the working man himself. The eternally oppressed working man has shaped history as we know it and the perpetual drive towards the pinnacle of human well being is equated with the well being of the working class.
From the summary of Marxist principles, the keywords that should come in indispensable for the keen Marxist disciple are production, class, material condition and the working man (The Proletariat). These key concepts inform the whole of Marxist agenda in a set of various perspectives and combinations.
Now that one is versed with the pertinent concepts of Marxism it would be wise to peer over and have a glance at some of the basic ideas that form the grounds for Marxism to gain much credence and acceptability by reactionary elements.
