Aidonian's blog

175 year ago Karl Marx released his Communist manifesto. This book has become notorious for many reasons, one that brought forth a political party called Communist party.

What Marx did with his manifesto and his Capital books was to show to the world how capitalism works, how it came to replace feudalism and changed society forever. Compared with Capital books, the Communist Manifesto is a small book.

What is the manifesto?

Marx in this book laid out how society was before and how it is now and how it can become better by taking the means of production away from the capitalists. In a ideal world, the boss pays his workers fair wages for their work so they can live of their wages. What happens is that that is not the case. The worker sometimes get barely enough to get by. To increase production women and children were also employed. Education was for the wealthy. The rest just had to get by and try to survive. Mortality rate was around 46. Children could die in factories. All in all, not a great time to be alive. The capitalist did more than that. Theydrove the farmers of their lands and into the cities where their labor could compete against the others. All the capitalist wants is to increase production and profit and cut down on production costs, including wages. The whole society was organized to the will of the capitalists. The church helped them to tell the workers to accept their fate and not question it. Which is why Marx was against organized religion like the church because they acted against the interest of the common people.

The manifesto tells us that all workers have to organize as a whole, set aside our differences (ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality) Its the only way that the wealth produced by the workers gets to where it needs to go instead of being hoarded by capitalists. They will do anything to protect their wealth and their profit, but they will do anything to make sure that their profits keep rising. That includes using politicians to that end.

While capitalists organized society to suit their needs. Communists have to do that as well. The USSR showed it, China, Cuba, Vietnam followed course in their own way. Each country created their own version of marxism.

It wasn’t perfect. Mistakes were made to say the least. We can learn about these mistakes and try to do better. Cuba shows that, that even after the death of the leader, the country keeps going. Which can not be said about Yugoslavia. One of the reasons why Cuba still exists after death of Fidel Castro is how it was organized politically. People have a say in how things how are done and politicians can be held accountable to the people they serve. Unlike in capitalist democracy where you vote every now and then and nothing short of scandals of illegal things can bring a politician down before the end of their term, in Cuba politicians can be held accountable by people if they are not pleased by their work. Which is fairer and more honest than what we have here.

While we can learn from the USSR and their rights and wrongs, we have to point out that due to their existence, capitalists were forced to make concessions’ so the workers were calmed down. During their existence, their have been crisis after crisis and during these workers start to protest against their miserable working conditions that governments and capitalists were forced to make concessions to stop the threat of revolution. All social advantages made during the last 100 years were possible because of the existence of the USSR. Its after the collapse of the USSR that capitalists sought to undo the social advantages made who benefited the working class.

When Marx spoke about when the worker gets his wages, he will have people waiting for him to take his money. This was true then as it is now. Right now, when somebody gets his wages, he will most likely worry about making it to the end of the month with it: energy costs, fuel costs, rent, food,….

We pay way to much for some things that are basic necessities’ like water, energy, living. Why? Because the people who control it want to make more profit each year. Capitalists want eternal growth in profit, which can not be done. For instance: if a company makes 2 millions dollars last year, than according to their logic, this year they have to make double, not 2,5, not 3, but 4 millions and the year after that 8 million dollars. That’s insane. That’s not feasible for long term. We have come to a point where this economic system is destroying this planet and to safeguard their profits, they don’t want to change. Long term goals don’t interest them as much as short term gains. That is also what is destroying our politics as well: short term gains over long term ones.

Socialism is the key to succes, the key to unlock the potential for every human being, for the welfare of all, gender equality. By socialism I don’t mean the social democrats who want to finetune the system. But rather that we need a different kind of economic system that puts the people first, rather than the profit. As it is now the case. The road to get there is not easy. The last 15 years we have seen 3 crisis within our system and we are starting to get to the point where capitalists have to use extreme measures to maintain their hold on society like they did in the 20’s and 30’s of the 20th century in Italy, Spain and Germany where fascism rose up and was able to dominate Europe. We see that happening now with far right leaders coming to power: Bolsonaro, Italy. This happens when the workers can’t be placated anymore by giving them gifts, that the inequality has gotten so big, that the people will stand up against it. That is why they turn to fascism as a means to hold on the power and to divide and conquer of the people. Where Marxists work with the people to free them, fascists do the opposite. Marxists are the allies of the working class, of feminism regardless of class and standing. Marxists see the world for how it is and are against any kind of divisions like nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender because what unites us is that we all work for a living regardless what we do for a living.