# Marxism Marxism is the political-economic-philosophical-analytical framework substantially-articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) across multiple substantively-foundational texts — *[[The Communist Manifesto]]* (1848), *[[Das Kapital]]* Volume 1 (1867), *Das Kapital* Volume 2 and 3 (posthumously edited and published by Engels, 1885-1894), *The German Ideology* (1846, published 1932), *Grundrisse* (1857-1858 notebooks, published 1939-1941), and adjacent texts. The framework substantially-articulates an integrated analytical infrastructure across multiple substantively-distinct analytical-and-political-philosophical registers: (1) **philosophical materialism** — substantially-Hegelian-derived analytical framework treating material-and-economic-relations as substantially-foundational to social-and-political phenomena; (2) **historical materialism** — analytical framework treating historical-political development as substantially-driven by class-economic-relations and modes-of-production transformation; (3) **political economy critique** — substantial analytical critique of capitalism as exploitative, alienating, prone-to-crisis, and substantively-unsustainable; (4) **revolutionary-political-strategic framework** — analytical framework treating proletarian-revolution as substantively-necessary for post-capitalist political-economic transformation; (5) **post-revolutionary political-philosophical framework** — analytical articulation of post-capitalist political-economic possibility (the "withering away of the state," classless-and-stateless communist political-economic endpoint). The framework matters for the KB substantially across multiple analytical-political-registers: 1. **Foundational ideological-philosophical tradition.** Marxism is one of the principal foundational political-economic-philosophical-analytical traditions of the 19th-and-20th-century. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with substantial portion of contemporary political-philosophical analytical-literature. 2. **Foundational tradition for [[Communism]] / [[Socialism]] political-economic frameworks.** Marxism substantially-underpins the [[Communism]] and [[Socialism]] political-economic-frameworks. Tracking Marxism is essential to engaging with the broader communism-and-socialism analytical-literature. 3. **Foundational tradition for [[Cultural Marxism]] conspiratorial-framework target.** Marxism is the principal target of the contemporary [[Cultural Marxism]] conspiratorial-framework. Tracking Marxism is essential to engaging with the Cultural-Marxism conspiratorial-framework analytical-literature. The conspiratorial-framework substantially-mischaracterizes the actually-existing Marxist analytical-tradition. 4. **Foundational tradition for [[Frankfurt School]] and [[Critical Theory]] analytical-traditions.** Marxism is the principal foundational tradition for the Frankfurt School and broader Critical Theory analytical-traditions. Tracking Marxism is essential to engaging with the broader contemporary critical-theoretical analytical-literature. 5. **Foundational tradition for contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse.** Substantial contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse operates substantially-within or substantially-engages-with the broader Marxist analytical-tradition. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with the broader contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse. ## Theoretical Framework **Historical materialism.** The framework's principal foundational analytical-claim — historical-political development is substantially-driven by class-economic-relations and modes-of-production transformation. The framework substantially-distinguishes itself from idealist-historical-analytical traditions (Hegelian and adjacent traditions); the framework substantially-positions material-economic-relations as substantively-foundational to social-and-political phenomena. **Class struggle.** The framework substantially-articulates political-history as substantially-history of class-conflict between substantially-distinct economic-classes. The framework substantially-identifies the principal class-conflict-axis in capitalist society as bourgeoisie-vs-proletariat (capital-owning-class vs. labor-selling-class). The class-struggle framework substantially-extends across multiple historical-economic-formations: slave-vs-master in slave-economic-formations, serf-vs-feudal-lord in feudal-economic-formations, proletariat-vs-bourgeoisie in capitalist-economic-formations. **Labor theory of value.** The framework's substantively-economic-theoretical core — value is substantially-produced by labor; capitalist exploitation operates substantially through capital's appropriation of surplus-value from labor's value-production. The framework substantially-derives from classical-political-economy labor-theory-of-value ([[Adam Smith]], [[David Ricardo]]); Marx substantially-extends and substantially-revises the framework. **Alienation.** The framework substantially-articulates capitalism as substantively-alienating across multiple substantively-distinct registers — labor-process-alienation (worker alienated from product of labor), species-being-alienation (worker alienated from human creative-capacity), social-relation-alienation (worker alienated from other workers and from broader human-social-environment). The framework substantially-articulates substantial humanist-philosophical content alongside substantial-economic-theoretical content. **Revolutionary transformation.** The framework substantially-treats revolutionary-transformation as substantively-necessary for post-capitalist political-economic transformation. The framework substantially-rejects substantial-reformist political-strategic-frameworks (substantial-Marxist-internal-political-theoretical contestation over reform-vs-revolution analytical-strategic question across the post-Marx Marxist-tradition). **Dictatorship of the proletariat.** The framework substantially-articulates "dictatorship of the proletariat" as transitional political-form between capitalism and communism. The framework substantially-distinct from the (much-later) actually-existing-communist regime political-implementation; the framework substantially-articulates a substantively-revolutionary post-capitalist political-form that the framework substantially-anticipates will substantially-transition toward classless-and-stateless-communist political-economic endpoint. ## Post-Marx Marxist Traditions **Leninism ([[Vladimir Lenin]], 1870-1924).** Substantial early-20th-century Russian Marxist-revolutionary analytical-tradition. Lenin substantially-revised-and-extended Marxist framework for early-20th-century revolutionary-practice: vanguard-party analytical-framework (substantial revision-and-extension of Marx's class-struggle framework), imperialism-as-highest-stage-of-capitalism analytical-framework, democratic-centralism organizational-framework, and adjacent analytical-and-strategic revisions. **Stalinism (Joseph Stalin, 1878-1953).** Substantial mid-20th-century Soviet political-implementation. Stalin substantially-revised toward "socialism in one country" framework (substantial revision of pre-Lenin substantially-internationalist analytical-framework); substantial post-1922 substantially-bureaucratic-centralist political-economic implementation; substantial 1928-onward collectivization-and-industrialization political-economic implementation. **Trotskyism ([[Leon Trotsky]], 1879-1940).** Substantial mid-20th-century anti-Stalinist Marxist-revolutionary analytical-tradition. Trotsky substantially-articulated "permanent revolution" framework (substantial revision of pre-Stalin Marxist analytical-framework); substantial anti-bureaucratic political-critical-tradition; substantial post-1929 exile-and-assassination political-trajectory. **Maoism (Mao Zedong, 1893-1976).** Substantial mid-20th-century Chinese Marxist-revolutionary analytical-tradition. Mao substantially-revised toward peasant-revolutionary framework (substantial revision of urban-proletarian-focused Marxist analytical-framework for substantially-agrarian Chinese political-economic-environment); substantial post-1949 political-implementation; substantial 1966-1976 Cultural-Revolution political-trajectory. **Western Marxism / Frankfurt School.** Substantial 20th-century Western European-and-adjacent-American Marxist analytical-tradition. The tradition substantially-extends Marxist analytical-framework to substantively-cultural-and-philosophical-and-aesthetic registers ([[Theodor Adorno]], [[Max Horkheimer]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], Walter Benjamin, [[Jürgen Habermas]], and adjacent figures). See [[Frankfurt School]] entry for analytical-content. **Eurocommunism.** Substantial post-WWII Western European Communist-Party theoretical-development. The tradition substantially-articulated substantially-democratic-political-process analytical-framework for socialist political-economic transformation (substantial distinction from Leninist-and-Stalinist analytical-traditions). The tradition substantially-active across Italian-Spanish-French Communist-Party political-coalition-tradition through approximately 1990. **Analytical Marxism.** Substantial late-20th-century Anglo-American academic Marxist analytical-tradition. The tradition substantially-applies analytical-philosophy-methodological-framework to Marxist analytical-tradition (G.A. Cohen, Jon Elster, John Roemer, Adam Przeworski, and adjacent figures). The tradition substantially-academic and substantially-distinct from substantively-political Marxist analytical-traditions. ## Contemporary Status **Academic-analytical Marxist tradition.** Substantial contemporary academic-analytical Marxist tradition operates across multiple substantively-distinct disciplinary contexts (political-economy, sociology, history, philosophy, literary-criticism, cultural-studies, and adjacent disciplines). The contemporary academic-analytical Marxist tradition substantially-distinct from political-Marxist-coalition-organizational traditions. **Political-Marxist-coalition-organizational tradition.** Substantial contemporary political-Marxist-coalition-organizational tradition operates substantially-internationally across multiple substantively-distinct political-coalition contexts. The contemporary tradition substantially-distinct from earlier-20th-century mass-political-coalition-organizational tradition; the contemporary tradition operates substantially-marginally relative to mainstream-political-coalition-organizational-environments in most substantively-developed-capitalist political-economic contexts. **Substantial American right-coded political-rhetorical-deployment.** Substantial contemporary American right-coded political-rhetoric deploys "Marxism" / "Marxist" against mainstream-Democratic political-coalition personnel, against progressive political-coalition personnel, against academic-and-cultural-progressive infrastructure, and against substantively-non-Marxist progressive political projects. The deployment substantially-operates as right-coded political-rhetorical-pejorative rather than substantively-analytical claim. The deployment substantially-aligns with the broader [[Cultural Marxism]] conspiratorial-framework. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Foundational political-economic-philosophical tradition.** Marxism is one of the principal foundational political-economic-philosophical-analytical traditions. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary political-philosophical analytical-literature. **[[Cultural Marxism]] conspiratorial-framework analytical-context.** Marxism is the principal target of the contemporary Cultural-Marxism conspiratorial-framework. Tracking the actually-existing Marxist analytical-tradition is essential to substantively-analytically-engaging with the Cultural-Marxism conspiratorial-framework's substantial-mischaracterizations. **Contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse context.** Substantial contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse operates substantially-within or substantially-engages-with the broader Marxist analytical-tradition. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with the broader contemporary American left-political-economic analytical-discourse. **[[McCarthyism]] / [[Fellow Traveler]] historical-political-context analytical-resource.** The substantial American 20th-century anti-Marxist political-rhetorical-environment provides one of the principal contemporary historical-political-context analytical resources. Tracking Marxism is essential to engaging with the broader American anti-Marxist political-rhetorical-and-political-historical environment. ## See Also - [[Communism]] — the principal regime-type political-economic framework - [[Socialism]] — the broader political-economic framework - [[Frankfurt School]] — adjacent Western Marxist analytical-tradition - [[Critical Theory]] — adjacent broader analytical-tradition - [[McCarthyism]] — the principal American historical anti-Marxist political-rhetorical-environment - [[Cultural Marxism]] — the contemporary conspiratorial-descendant framework - [[Fellow Traveler]] — adjacent Cold-War-era anti-Marxist political-rhetorical-vocabulary