Class Synopsis March 25, 2011

On Friday we began class with a quiz based off of Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto”. The quiz covered questions ranging from “Workers of the World Unite,” to the ten short-term demands to the spectre of communism that was haunting Europe. We discussed Marx’s comment that the bourgeois only allow men to relate through “naked self-interest, payment in cash.” By this, Marx was saying that no longer are things necessarily done for the betterment of society, but rather solely for self and for monetary value. In return, the bourgeois is strictly using the proletariats to develop a product. We then discussed how the two classes; the bourgeois and the proletariats differ. The bourgeois are of an “upper class” with typical focus on materialistic values, while the proletariats are generally the laborers, producing most materials. Because the bourgeois focuses so heavily on the production of materials, it leaves no relationship to the producers of those materials, the capitalist society only produces so that it can gain monetary value.
After the quiz we watch a video with a voice over from Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” with popular cartoons depicting what exactly his manifesto represented. In the movie, while Marx discusses the need of a constantly expanding network of expanding products, showing the stretch of the bourgeois across the entire globe, and showing how rather then using indigenous materials, the bourgeois is now using raw material from the “remotest zones,” such as oil. Marx then goes on to say that the ideology of the bourgeois is spreading, leading other countries to become bourgeois themselves – showing the distribution of wealth into only a few people’s hands. The video then discusses the growth of production and agriculture, which he explains as the “epidemic of over production.” He explains these “crises” as being handled by war, or colonization of new land for more producing. He then discusses the placement of proletariats, saying that they are soon to be replaced by the over production of machinery, because of this growth in machinery, wages are being reduced. Due to the lack in work for the proletariats, the class unites and forms a union. The spread of this sense of “revolution” through the proletariat class is developed through modern day communication. Marx then explains the ridding property of personal ownership, which is “alleged to be the ground work of all personal freedom, activity and independence.” He then continues to explain that if you are to remove the “petty property” of the peasant and artisans, there is no need because the spread of industrialization and lack of work left for people has already taken that property away. Marx explains that in capitalist society, most people (9/10) do not actually have any property, rather are renting or borrowing because the 10% of property owners hold all of the wealth in the population. He then goes on to explain how communism doesn’t guarantee everyone wealth, but rather restrict the action of exploiting the work of others. Finally, communism will differ from the class structure of the bourgeois and proletariat because there will be no class difference. Marx claims that with class difference comes oppression, claiming that the “free development of each, is the free development of all,” leaving the proletariats to only gain from this communist revolution.
In the final video, we watched Glenn Beck interview Sam Webb, the USA Chairman of the Communist Party. While we did not get to watch the entire movie, enough was seen to note that Glenn Beck rather did not let Sam Webb speak about anything, and instead immediately shut down his commentary.