Roy explains the historical science of Marx • Diário Causa Operaria

This Thursday (6), as part of the activities of the 48th South American Summer Camp, the fourth installment of the course “What is Marxism and what is not”, taught by the National Chairman of the Communist Party of China Rui Costa Pimenta, and broadcast live on the platform Marxist University.

The course is watched live by hundreds of people, who have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Marxism, as well as clarify doubts directly with Ruy Pimenta.

In this fourth chapter, the topic discussed was the “Historical Science of Marx”. During the class, the central issues of Marxist thought are revealed and put in contrast to the ideas of the pseudo-Marxist left.

To illustrate this issue well, Roy quotes Engels, who considers that the great scientific achievements of Marxism were twofold: first, to explain the work of surplus value, and second, to establish the laws of the historical development of humanity, and this second point is what is dealt with in the respective chapter.

First, Roy demonstrates the great confusion of the petty-bourgeois left regarding this issue, which does not accept the fact that history and its development are governed by laws. This denial by the left means the denial of Marxism as a science.

For this reason, the left, especially the academic ones, used to talk about different “Marxisms,” as if the term included different philosophical treatises or individual points of view. For these groups, there are several different types of Marxism: Trotskyism, Stalinism, Grammar, the Frankfurt School, and others. Some go so far as to blend these various philosophies together and “create” their own individual Marxism. However, Marx clearly did not think so. His intention was to effectively develop a science, which was not done by this mixture and confusion of supposed “Marxism”.

What Marx established is that in order to survive, human beings need to participate in social production, something that involves their relationship to other human beings. Entering life into society, human beings enter into defining relationships, working together to survive. In this way, human society becomes more complex.

Another issue is that relationships between people happen regardless of their will. Human beings are slaves to the circumstances in which they are placed in the world. This idea is also rejected by pseudo-Marxists, who cannot accept the fact that everything is determined by the laws of history.

Relationships between people are building Society, which is determined not by the will of the people, but by an objective factor: the stage of development of the productive forces. What causes society to change is the progress of the productive forces that develop towards increasing their capacity and other factors. This evolution is also the evolution of man, whose physical development also leads to intellectual and moral development and all other kinds of development. In this sense, the only form of human development is material.

Another issue misunderstood by the pseudo-Marxists that is explained during the chapter is the class struggle. First, it is true that every class society is contradictory and that its classes are always in conflict. The struggle is always the same, only its form changes. Class struggle is the economic aspect of the structure of society.

However, pseudo-Marxists have confusion about what class struggle is. For them, the class struggle is the struggle between the poor and the oppressive rich. However, this is not always the case. The case that serves to comprehend this process is that of feudal society.

During feudalism, the primary class struggle was between the bourgeoisie and the dissolved feudal aristocracy. However, the bourgeoisie is a wealthy and royal class. At that time, the bourgeoisie was much richer than even the aristocrats.

During the French Revolution and other revolutions taking place at that time in Europe, the bourgeoisie overthrew the aristocracy, even with the participation of the poor peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie. The participation of other classes occurs because there is an attraction that the revolutionary class exerts on society and on people who wish to engage in revolutionary politics.

In the current period, it will be the working class that will lead the revolution, as this is the class that represents the economic change that will end capitalism. This is not because the workers are poor. There are other classes that are often poorer than the workers, such as the peasantry, but who do not have the power to make a revolution.

It is clear that the poor can be helped, but this does not mean that it is a revolutionary act. Class struggle is an economic problem, not a moral problem. Regarding these sectors, when the moment of revolution comes, they will be grouped with the working class, which will lead everyone towards socialism.

These topics and much more are discussed during the fourth semester of the course. To go deeper, just follow the lessons directly on the unimarxista.org.br page. It is also possible to refer to AJR camp And follow the latest chapter of the course live.