Socialism

Socialism It is the political, economic and social doctrine that aspires to the radical reform of society, through the priority solution of the problems that affect the great majority of the population , that is, to the working or proletarian class; prioritizing, by virtue of the working class, its interest over private or particular interest.

Bases of Socialism

The basic points of Socialism are the following:

1. Transformation of capitalist private property, that is, of the means of production (capital, factories, land, machinery, raw materials, etc.), into collective property, incorporated into the working community.
2. Equitable distribution of both work and its fruits, among the workers, that is, among the working class.
3. Work planning with eminently scientific and technological criteria and, at the same time, human.
4. Establishment of a government led by the proletarian class.

Causes of Socialism

The main causes that gave rise to the appearance of socialist ideas were:
– The machinism that, at the same time that it enslaved the worker at work, also caused their unemployment.
– The inhumane exploitation of the working class in the most varied forms (low wages, excessive working hours, unfavorable working conditions, etc.
– The state of complete abandonment in which the workers or proletarians found themselves, without a present or an assured tomorrow.
– The extreme insensitivity of the capitalists or bosses, who acted solely out of an insatiable thirst for exaggerated profit.
According to socialists the cause of misery is that wealth is poorly distributed among men :some have too much, others do not have enough, others more, not even what is necessary to survive; society is poorly organized, the State must remake it in order to reduce inequality. Consequently, a social revolution is needed.

AppearanceofSocialistIdeas

The creation of large factories has given rise to large industry, that is, industrialism, which has brought together workers in large centers, giving rise to a social class, the proletariat (workers). This condition has resulted in serious drawbacks that are difficult to remedy. On the one hand, the worker is reduced to the daily or weekly wage agreed with the employer, a wage that he consumes for daily needs, without ever being able to count on a surplus that allows him to attend to other unavoidable needs that eventually arise.
Capitalism (entrepreneurs, industrialists), on the other hand, has established an abyss between the two:with difficulty it is convinced of its obligations, and of what it would be convenient for it to do to improve the respective conditions, because the antagonism created prevents seeing the solution; and from there originates the series of conflicts that constantly afflict society, and that constitute a danger to public peace and tranquility. Economists and philosophers studied this reality that affects society. Thus, Socialism arose.

Classes of Socialism

Socialism evolved through two stages:

Utopian Socialism

The utopian socialists (thinkers, businessmen, etc.), were those who believed that the reform of society could be achieved without resorting to violence or class struggle, but by peaceful means, by conviction and conscience of the interested parties:Capital and Labor, the employer and the worker .
Aware of reality, they harshly attacked Capitalism, to whose system they attributed the great ills that afflicted contemporary society, to the proletarian class, and, therefore, they were in favor of the abolition of private ownership of the means of production. Possessed of great sensitivity, humanitarian spirit and generosity, also enemies of hatred and revenge, they dreamed of organizing an ideal society, inspired by common welfare, based on the promotion of cooperative work and associations of businessmen and workers; but, as it was an aspiration difficult to achieve, its supporters received the name of utopian . Although we also believe that not even Scientific Socialism itself, despite its validity of more than a century, has yet achieved all its fundamental objectives.
Among the main utopian socialists stand out:the English Robert Owen and the French:Enrique Saint Simón, Carlos Fourier, Luis Blanc, and Pedro Proudhon.

Scientific Socialism

Consecrated as true Socialism, it aspires to the radical transformation of society, based not on romantic and chimerical aspirations, but, fundamentally, on precise laws that govern the historical development of humanity. That is to say, that the long predominance of Capitalism in the life of the people, it is affirmed, will necessarily and inevitably be followed by the hegemony of the working class, of the working class, of the proletarian class.
It is called scientific socialism that Karl Marx founded around 1848, not on the basis of individual generosity and charity, but starting from a certain internal law of historical development, according to which the proletariat has the leading role (main actor) in the next stage of Western history, after the bourgeois (Capitalist) period.

Carlos Marx

Karl Marx, German thinker of Jewish origin, is the creator of Scientific Socialism. He was born in 1810 in the city of Tréveris and died in London in 1883. As a profound student of the social reality of his time, his very new conceptions of capital, work and wealth revolutionized the knowledge of Economics and Politics, at the same time that they exerted an enormous influence on almost all the working masses of the Contemporary World.
In his monumental work: Capital , called the Bible of Socialism , Marx reached the following conclusions:

1. Wealth is only the product of work; the value of objects depends on the work that has been necessary to produce them.
2. Consequently, capital itself has no value, and is dead labor that can only acquire new life by sucking like a vampire.
3. There is no value except thanks to the work of the worker, and therefore, since he is the only one who produces value, he and not the capitalist should receive the benefits. Therefore the workers, according to Marx, instead of receiving wages, should share the profits of the industry among themselves.
4. Work is a commodity , subject to trade and exploitation by businessmen.
5. The only origin of wealth (within the Capitalist Society), is in Capital Gains, that is, the money that results from not paying the worker properly. The accumulation of capital gains gives rise to private wealth.
6. The government must be in the hands of the proletariat.

In the Communist Manifesto , Marx concluded by giving the slogan to the world proletariat:Workers of the World, Unite! . From then on that was the war cry of Marxism, that is, of Socialism.

Ideological bases of Marxism

The foundations of Marxism or Scientific Socialism were exposed in the Communist Manifestation , written by Marx and Engels in 1848, which can be summarized in the following principles:

1. Historical materialism, for which the development of history is determined by economic factors.
2. The class struggle, which considers the entire history of humanity as the result of class confrontation; in the capitalist stage this struggle is waged between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
3. The new socialist society will emerge from the triumph of the proletariat, which will establish a classless society, in which private property will be abolished and socialized. the means of production and exchange.