The Classics of Marxism: Volume One¶
Core Argument¶
This volume presents four foundational Marxist texts—The Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, The State and Revolution, and The Transitional Programme—to establish the materialist conception of history as the only scientific method for understanding and transforming society. The central thesis, developed across the selections, is that the mode of production of material life conditions the entire social, political, and intellectual process, and that class struggle arising from contradictions between productive forces and relations of production drives historical development. Capitalism, the last antagonistic form of class society, generates periodic crises, immiseration, and war, creating both the material conditions and the revolutionary agent—the proletariat—for its own supersession.
The volume argues that Marxism is not a dogma but a living theory that must be applied concretely to each historical conjuncture. The texts demonstrate that the state is not a neutral arbiter but an instrument of class rule, that the working class cannot simply take over the existing state machinery but must smash it and replace it with a workers' state, and that socialism is not an ethical ideal but the necessary outcome of capitalism's internal contradictions. The editorial introduction situates these classical texts within the present crisis of capitalism, arguing that the collapse of reformist illusions since 2008 has made Marxism more relevant than ever, and that the task of revolutionary leadership remains the decisive missing element for socialist revolution.
Overview¶
The volume opens with a substantial extract from a foundational Marxist text on production, which establishes the theoretical framework for everything that follows. This chapter grounds all social life in the process of production, arguing that individuals enter into definite relations of production that correspond to a given stage of the productive forces, and that these relations constitute the economic base on which legal and political superstructures arise. The chapter traces the succession of economic epochs—Asiatic, ancient, feudal, and modern bourgeois—each defined by its own distinctive relations of exploitation, and argues that when productive forces come into conflict with existing relations of production, an epoch of social revolution opens. This theoretical introduction serves as a polemic against idealist conceptions of history that treat ideas, political forms, or the state as primary drivers of historical change.
The editorial introduction situates the four classical texts within the present historical moment, arguing that capitalism's internal mechanisms generate the crises of rising poverty, inequality, war, and climate change that characterise the current period. It presents Marxism as the rational, scientific explanation of these crises and introduces each text in its historical context: The Communist Manifesto as the first systematic statement of historical materialism and the revolutionary role of the proletariat; Socialism: Utopian and Scientific as the definitive account of how Marx transformed socialism from a utopian dream into a science; The State and Revolution as Lenin's restoration of the revolutionary Marxist theory of the state against the distortions of the Second International; and The Transitional Programme as Trotsky's strategic bridge between immediate struggles and the conquest of power.
The Communist Manifesto presents the history of all hitherto existing society as the history of class struggles, arguing that modern bourgeois society has simplified class antagonisms into two directly hostile camps: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie has played a historically revolutionary role, constantly revolutionising the instruments of production and creating a world after its own image, but the productive forces it conjures up periodically revolt against bourgeois property relations, producing commercial crises of overproduction. The proletariat, reduced to appendages of the machine, develops from scattered individuals into a national class organised as a political party, and its victory is inevitable because the bourgeoisie is unfit to rule. The Manifesto concludes with the famous declaration that communists openly proclaim their ends require the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific traces the development of socialist thought from the utopian systems of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen through Marx's two great discoveries: the materialist conception of history and the revelation of surplus value. The utopian socialists, while recognising the irrationality and injustice of bourgeois society, did not represent the proletariat as a class but sought to impose new systems from without. Marx's discoveries transformed socialism into a science by showing that history is the history of class struggles rooted in the economic structure, and that capitalist exploitation consists in appropriating unpaid labour even when labour-power is bought at its full value. The objective conflict between socialised production and private appropriation manifests as periodic commercial crises, and the solution is society's direct and conscious taking possession of the productive forces through proletarian revolution, after which the state dies out and government of persons is replaced by administration of things.
The State and Revolution restores the revolutionary Marxist theory of the state against the distortions of Kautsky and the Second International. Lenin argues, following Marx and Engels, that the state is not a neutral arbiter but the product of irreconcilable class antagonisms, a special coercive force standing above society to legalise and perpetuate class oppression. The bourgeois state does not wither away; it is abolished by revolution. What withers away is the proletarian semi-state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, which expands democracy to the majority while suppressing the exploiting minority. Marx's analysis of the Paris Commune corrected The Communist Manifesto: the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery but must smash it and replace it with fuller democracy—all officials elected and revocable, paid workmen's wages, the standing army abolished. Between capitalist and communist society lies a political transition period whose state can only be the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Transitional Programme addresses the crisis of revolutionary leadership in the period of capitalism's decay. Trotsky argues that the objective prerequisites for socialist revolution have reached their highest point, yet opportunist parties block the proletariat at every turn. The Fourth International must advance a system of transitional demands—a sliding scale of wages and hours, workers' control of industry, expropriation of key branches, armed workers' detachments—that bridge today's struggles to the conquest of power. These demands supersede the old minimum programme because systematic reforms are impossible under decaying capitalism. The programme culminates in the slogan of soviets, which arise in revolutionary stages to create dual power, and the formula of permanent revolution for backward colonial countries.
Chapter Guide¶
- Production — The mode of production determines the entire structure of society, and contradictions between productive forces and relations of production open epochs of social revolution.
- Introduction — The present crisis of capitalism makes Marxism more relevant than ever, and the four classical texts provide the scientific method for understanding and abolishing the system.
- The Communist Manifesto — The history of all society is the history of class struggles, and the bourgeoisie has forged its own gravediggers in the proletariat, whose victory is inevitable.
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific — Marx's two great discoveries—the materialist conception of history and surplus value—transformed socialism from a utopian dream into a science.
- The State and Revolution — The state is an instrument of class rule that must be smashed and replaced by a workers' state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, which will wither away with the abolition of classes.
- The Transitional Programme — A system of transitional demands is necessary to bridge immediate struggles to the conquest of power, as systematic reforms are impossible under decaying capitalism.
Key Concepts¶
Materialist conception of history — The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life; consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, not vice versa.
Class struggle — The driving force of historical development, manifested in the antagonism between exploiting and exploited classes, simplified under capitalism into the bourgeoisie and proletariat.
Dictatorship of the proletariat — The transitional state form between capitalism and communism, in which the working class holds political power and suppresses the exploiting minority while expanding democracy to the majority.
Withering away of the state — The process by which the proletarian semi-state becomes unnecessary and disappears once classes are abolished and people grow accustomed to observing social rules without coercion.
Surplus value — The unpaid labour appropriated by the capitalist from the worker, the source of profit and the mechanism of exploitation even when labour-power is bought at its full value.
Transitional demands — Demands that bridge the immediate struggles of the working class to the conquest of political power, superseding the old minimum programme under conditions of decaying capitalism.
Permanent revolution — The strategy for backward countries in which the bourgeois-democratic tasks of national liberation and agrarian reform are carried out under proletarian leadership, passing directly into socialist revolution.