find the means to achieve them, rather, it is a matter of devoting the conscious revolutionary movements into participating in “an already developing class
movement” that happens in the current time, and to define themselves the goals and to realize the goal by using their weapons “inherent in the class’s historical situation”
Honderich ed. 559. So, instead of orthodox and static, revolutionary movements must see the reality surrounding them and find the way to achieve the goals. And in
the struggle to achieve that ends, they must not be independent from their historical situation.
With regards to religion and God, which is the central controversy of Marxist doctrine, Marx argues in his Contribution to the Critique of Hegels Philosophy of
Law, that “[t]o abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness” Marxist Internet Archive. Since Marxism is a materialistic
belief, the idea of God and religion play a parasitic role to building the society of workers.
Marx believed that in classless community, or the eventual communist society, the private ownership of means of production and commodity production is
abolished. He believed that in a communist society, all form of human alienation is non existent. Yet, he never stated that this eventual society is a static society and
unchanging, instead, it is the truest beginning of the human history that is governed by conscious human development.
2.2.2. Marxist Theory of Social Class
Class in Marxist perspective means a group of people who share common relations to labor and means of production. Marx says in his Wage Labour and
Capital that:
These social relations between the producers, and the conditions under which they exchange their activities and share in the total act of
production, will naturally vary according to the character of the means of production. Marxist Internet Archive
The idea of class in Marxist perspective is radically different from that of bourgeoisie social theory or capitalism. In capitalism class is “abstract universal” that is defined
by the common attributes of its members and is also defined by “categories and conceptions that have an existence prior to and independent of the people who make
up the class.” For example, people who earn less than 20,000 a year constitute a lower class. However, the idea of class in Marxist view is that it “includes the
development of collective consciousness in a class – arising from the material basis of having in common relations to the labour process and the means of production”
Marxist Internet Archive. Classes only appear at a particular stage of the development of the productive
forces and the social division of labor. In the stage in which there is social surplus of production, classes are emerged, since one class can benefit by the exploitation of
others. And as this stage is happening, the class antagonism or class struggle is inevitable. Therefore, according to Marx, the conflict begins where one class starts to
benefit by the expropriation of other classes. This conflict is geared by the social PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
surplus of production. This becomes the central issue of Marxist’s radical antagonism about bourgeoisie and proletariat. As Engels points out, Marx’s most important
doctrine is the Inherent Class War between two irreconcilable groups, namely, the Bourgeoisie the capitalist employers and the Proletariat the workers Sahakian and
Sahakian 79. This inevitable antagonism is stated by Marx in his Communist Manifesto:
The increasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the
collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes.
Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations trade unions against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of
wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest
breaks out into riots. Marxist Internet Archive In resolving this antagonism, and since the two groups have diametrically-
opposed interests, one of the group, the bourgeoisie, must be eliminated. The reason is that he Bourgeoisie are responsible for a number of social evils: they have
exploited the employee by giving less than they deserve, they have treated the workers as a commodity in market, whose price is dependent upon the market
fluctuation rather than upon the worth they have produced; and finally they have commercialize most occupations, including marriage Sahakian and Sahakian 79.
Marx argues that communism is the answer. And a communist society will only be achieved after the period of dictator proletariat. Through the stage of single
class society, the dictator proletariat, the classless society would be achieved, the communist society. In conclusion, Marxist’s aim is to bring about a classless society,
which is based on “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange” Barry 156.
2.2.3. Marxist Theory on Class Consciousness
