The Marxists: Why Karl Marx Was the Most Influential Thinker of All Time

Intro [Music] [Music] [Music] in [Music] for Marx was a liberal because a child of the Enlightenment for Marx the only thing that matter was Freedom there is no seeming alternative to capitalism people just look at Stalin and Ma and say the alternative doesn't work Revolutions KL Marx philosopher journalist and Economist still seems highly relevant 200 years after his birth today in the age of global ization critique of capitalism and discussions of social inequality are once again flaring up Marx himself demanded that philosophers should not only interpret the world but also change it he could not imagine how radically and how differently his successors would put it into [Music] [Music] practice [Music] people in many parts of the world have invoked KL Marx proclaimed Revolutions in his name and transformed societies most of these experiments are now in the past but capitalism the great foe has proved to be more viable than Marx thought cap [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for [Music] [Music] the Industrial Revolution is the pivotal theme of the 19th century it will radically change people's lives with groundbreaking inventions but also with c catastrophic working conditions in the new factories riots over hardship Rock many European countries in a somewhat contemplative Tria KL Marx's Life [Music] Begins [Music] k Ma [Music] marks spent his childhood in Tria his father a Jewish lawyer is not permitted Early Life to continue his profession in Prussia as such the family converts to protestantism at the age of 19 KL Marx began Law School in Bon but moves to Berlin one year later he takes an interest in philosophy and finally sets his focus on it [Applause] entirely the confrontation with the philosopher Hegel and his doctrine of dialectics forms the corner Cornerstone of his future theories Marx's subsequent analysis industrialization has brought about a new economic system capitalism and a new social class the proletariat this new class would inevitably free itself from oppression and through Revolution form a new Society the revolution however was slow in coming ited happened only long after Marx's death and of all places where he least expected it back in Russia with the Revolutionary Lenin at its [Applause] head [Applause] for the first world war was the first Total War which demanded not only mobilization of an army but mobilization of the civilian population to meet the needs of the war effort and this was something the Taris system simply could not cope with increasingly food was short the only party that is calling clearly for an end to the war is the Bolshevik party up to that stage they've been a small radical well-known party but not at the center of political events using this Rising tide of anti-war feeling Lenin begins to argue that the Bolshevik party must seize power in the name of the Soviets Marx is often said to be a determinist in the sense that he thought that socialism would come about fairly inevitably from the contradictions of capitalism Lenin was much more of a voluntarist I.E he believed in willpower and Lenin didn't think that capitalism alone would create Revolution so lenon developed this very particular conception of the party in which professional revolutionaries would lead the masses without lening there wouldn't have been a bolik revolution [Music] Lenin's Hope was that the Russian example would be taken up by the German Workers and that the two countries in Alliance could make a revolution and overcome Russia's problem which was its intense poverty and its intense social and economic backwardness Germany was absolutely Central in the perspective of the Bolsheviks for the first few years they tried three times and they failed and I think they failed not because of poor tactics but because they were up against a much much stronger [Music] Political Journalism opposition as a student in Berlin KL Marx gains a reputation among his fellow students as a critical Young philosopher he is considered leftwing which makes him a target for the Prussian secret police after completing his Doctorate his convictions deny him an academic career and so in early 1842 the oppositional newspaper the in Cologne hires him Marx uses the newspaper to provide information about the desperate misery of the working class many of his texts are banned by censorship but in his brief time as an editor Marx makes enormous progress in political journalism in [Music] Marx profet Marx Eon Mar the propaganda later glorifies the allegedly beneficial implications of the revolutions these posters do not tell us that Millions were killed in the Soviet Union under Stalin and in China under ma zidong this idea of propaganda reaches its extreme with Malong where the emphasis is very very much much on the will of the Communists today there are many people who would say China has already ceased to be socialist it is now a capitalist economy in a capitalist world with a regime that is communist in name only I'm not sure that we've seen the end of this story and maybe in 2050 there will be a Chinese state that still calls itself socialist The Chinese Revolution fore for Fore [Music] it's often said that the Chinese The Chinese Revolution was a peasant revolution Revolution was a peasant Revolution and that is basically true ma sought ways of engaging peasants through for example using traditions of [Music] [Music] Opera and so although ma like marks before him is very conscious of the limitations the constraints of economic The limitations of economic backwardness backwardness he thinks that it's possible to mobilize people if you tap in to their idealism their hopes in order to break through the chains of backwardness the problem about socialism in backward countries was that although it aspired to give people decent conditions of life it effectively meant squeezing the population for the resources that were needed to build a strong industrial and Military [Music] [Applause] The problem with socialism state marus foree Marxism in China at the same time the Chinese government is investing a great deal of money to popularize Marxist ideas in the form of books New Media and even its own television [Music] show fore [Music] for The Chinese Government that's for in Tria it isn't only support that one feels for the city's famous son opinion is also quite divided on whether the gift from China should actually be [Music] accepted can okay okay [Music] okay [Music] r [Laughter] okay [Music] [Laughter] okay at the beginning of 1843 Prussian censorship puts a complete Paris ban on the hinish saitong newspaper KL Marx goes to Paris following an offer of work in the same year he marries his childhood sweetheart Jenny Von vesten Paris was a magnet for free spirits in the mid 19th century here one discussed socialist and communist thoughts and issues such as the abolition of private property in Paris Marx gets to know the philosopher and revolutionary Friedrich Engel better his reports about The Misery of the working class in England make a lasting impression on him he turns his back on journalism and settles for political economics instead in this period he writes on the class struggle and the self- liberation of the proletariat for the first time in Civil Society all members are formally free and have the same rights in actual fact though proletarians can only choose to whom they sell their labor that is with which chains they can be manacled although a worker is paid for his labor he does not produce things for his own benefit but rather for that of the employer he makes grain for the other's Mill he finds himself in a vicious circle his labor power means that the private property of the the capitalists is constantly increasing leading to ever greater exploitation society as a whole thus becomes increasingly divided into two large hostile camps the Bourgeois and the Alstom [Music] proletariat [Music] even today when jobs are threatened Marx almost always comes into play one example is workers at alstom who are defending themselves against redundancy plans on their side the French Communist [Music] Party [Applause] [Music] mer man em Dev The French Communist Party [Music] eurocommunism developed in Western Europe under the effects of the Cold War this Innovative socialism was to be independent of Soviet Doctrine and democratically legitimized in many countries it was met with an enthusiastic following especially in Italy and France while communist parties in Western Europe increasingly distan themselves from the Soviet Union people in the gdr were forced to seek solidarity with Moscow full of Pathos and propaganda the party used authoritarian means to interpret its Marxist Heritage in which Descent of Freedom had no place Place [Music] status feel [Music] [Music] for V [Music] shs [Music] [Music] Prof for C kn [Laughter] [Music] up [Applause] for for for for The Communist League in 1845 Prussia demanded that France extradite K Marx out of necessity he travels to Brussels with Friedrich Engles by his side they want to prepare the groundwork for a proletarian party and in doing so contact vilhelm vling who in 1836 had founded the league of the just Marx and Engles change its name to the Communist league and are requested to write the party program in the Revolutionary year 1848 The Communist Manifesto is [Music] published a spectre is rising over Europe the Spectre of Communism all the powers of Old Europe have Allied themselves in a holy hunt against it may the ruling classes tremble before a Communist Revolution the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains they have a world to gain proletarians of all lands [Music] unite 1959 with a small group of Fidel Castro revolutionaries a young charismatic man upends the dictatorship in Cuba shortly thereafter Fidel Castro builds a socialist republic in close proximity to the United States years later the Youth of the Western World stand opposed to their parents' generation Castro and chivara become the idols of the 68 student [Music] movement [Music] for for l for and spring The 68 Student Movement [Music] wow the side that hello what a wonderful word for [Music] Exile in London [Music] in the year in which the Communist Manifesto is published Marx is expelled from bruss russels and returns to Germany where he is put on trial for agitating Rebellion he's acquitted but loses his German citizenship and becomes stateless the family goes into exile to London at that time London is a Melting Pot for refugees from all over the world Marx and his family live in abject poverty in the refugee misery of the migrant quarter the married couple lose three of their six children to sickness the Savior comes once again in the form of Friedrich angles thanks to an inheritance the family are able to move into a Bourgeois home from this point on Marx spends much of his time in the reading room of the British museum working on his major work which was published in 1867 Capital Marx tells his publisher I don't believe anyone has ever written as much about money who has so little of it in the UK unfortunately I think we associate it more with Marks and Spencers which is a retail brand but because the culture I don't think is developed to know as much about car marks as we should I think there's a little plaque on a house uh that that is here but um I don't believe he wasn't British though at all was he was he he might might have been German or something like that I think yeah well ism is clearly a uh very much a political philosophy that aspects of which are still subscribed to by people like Jeremy Corbin and that sort of thing in this country um um clearly it's opposed to capitalism and here we are right in the center of capitalism in Europe it's a real issue I think there's a lot of um overseas investment Chinese Russian money you can drive around areas of North L London and they they're pretty much deserted which is a huge shame and the indigen population has been forced to move to uh the kind of periphery of London if you want a different life unfortunately you have to move out and you can get a better house bigger house better life maybe outside London but it's going to cost you lot of hours of commute so yeah as an investment banker I was very successful at one point that my P was the third best financial analyst in the city I have to confess that this was more to do with taking people out to expensive lunches and giving them cocaine and taking them to strip joints than it was about my intelligence and spread sheets so it was a meaningless load of nonsense but basically dedicated to taking a little bit of money every time a trade was made not producing anything KL marks would definitely agree that it it Formed it for me it Formed alienation I wasn't making anything I was just like a parasite I don't see what happened in banking as irrational with the financial crisis those guys who invented these false products that exploded at a later date they were very rational because they would get a bonus every year before they were found out yes it's cheating on society but you know the problem is when I wrote my book city boy which is a massive warning about not to do what I did and become a banker every single email I've got many thousands of emails are from people some from Germany young men saying I read your book could you get me a job in a bank please they think who cares if you're cheating Society if you're earning that kind of money everyone views KL marks quite simply as a discredited ideology you know capitalism one but he still had a lot of interesting things to say about the system we currently live in the the alienation it causes how it has possibly the seeds of its own destruction but one possible mistake he made thinking that just because you're a member of the working class you will automatically have solidarity with everyone else and you will soon then realize that these capitalists are exploiting you and there will be a world global Revolution and so forth whereas the reality is that there are many other things that give that can divide people so race religion you know other aspects your football team which city you're in with your country I can't really see anything that is going to replace Place capitalism anytime soon we're all stuck with Capital it although many people can no longer afford to live in their own City London is still considered the victor of neoliberalism the symbol for capitalism's dark side has become a different Capital Athens with the financial crisis of 2008 Greece slid into a deep depression and became the play thing of international donors since then the country has been in a permanent state of emergency capitalism brought excellent New Joys and Pleasures but a great deal of pain and poverty and despondency that we had never experienced in the past the global proletariat has increased it has not Shrunk the problem is for the West that the jobs that migrated left behind a part of uh Europe that has become steeped in despondency in uncertainty in joblessness in lack of prospects it's a distributional issue but that was always the problem with capitalism it generates simultaneously immense wealth and new forms of deprivation growing up in Greece during the dictatorship which banned marks uh gave me a great uh incentive to find out about marks because you know how it is with young people you say to them under no circumstances read ghetto and then the only thing you want to do is read ghetto beyond that I was extremely eager to understand capitalism there is a very interesting dichotomy in uh liberal capitalist societies According to which the political sphere is democratized and the economic sphere is completely hierarchical and feudal Marx's View was that you cannot have democracy with a split whenever a technological innovation creates economies of scale there is a tendency that uh the owners of this technology are going to use it in order to monopolize power over the rest of us and to deny us the benefits of that knowledge it happened in the Second Industrial Revolution it's happening a lot more now with Google Facebook and the artificial intelligence internet based uh Technologies it is crucial that instead of losing this fantastic opportunity through monopolization Humanity learns finds ways of democratizing the the tools that uh effective we produced Quantitive easing jointly [Applause] foret by Google [Music] people in power do whatever is necessary to maintain the status quo which they benefit from they'll do what we call quantitive easing they'll just print money they'll put interest rates down to this they'll adapt and do something with taxes whatever's necessary to maintain the Human selfishness system in 1881 KL Marx's wife Jenny dies of cancer in London the loss hits marks hard and he dies only 2 years later in his desk chair in the London apartment in his funeral speech his lifelong friend angles says his name will live on throughout the centuries and so will his [Music] work people often say that uh the problem with Marx and Marxism is that it misunderstands human nature that human beings are selfish by uh temperament that uh human beings will always want to compete with one another and so on um I think uh optimistically positively that if you look as a historian at past societies although you can see human selfishness human competitiveness in all periods that nevertheless people's um General ability to live with one another to communicate with one another are shaped by social and economic conditions and although I don't think socialism would eliminate human competition human selfishness I think it would um create the conditions in which people could be more Cooperative than than they are within our current Society for [Music] indry L prod by comp Marx [Music] 4 [Music] e