Karl Marx

Subject: Karl Marx Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:22 pm

Karl Heinrich Marx

Birth: May 5, 1818 (Trier, Germany)
Death: March 14, 1883 (London, England)

The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker.

The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion to the devaluation of the world of men. Labour produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity -- and does so in the proportion in which it produces commodities generally.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844)

Subject: Re: Karl Marx Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:33 pm

Karl Heinrich Marx

Marx held that the foundations of reality lay in the material base of economics rather than in the abstract thought of idealistic philosophy.
"History is economics in action."

Marx was a revolutionary who advocated "merciless criticism of everything existing" and was the co-originator of the theories of "Communism."

In the autumn of 1843, Marx went to Paris in order to publish a radical journal. It was in Paris in September, 1844 where he first met life-long friend and associate Frederick Engels,Marx and Engels were both active in various revolutionary groups and together worked out the theory and tactics of "Revolutionary Proletarian Socialism" or "Communism."

Marx was banished from Paris in 1845 as a dangerous revolutionary. He went to Brussels, Belgium. In the spring of 1847 Marx, along with Engels, joined a secret society called the "Communist League." At the league's request they authored the " Communist Manifesto," which outlines the theory of the class struggle, and of the revolutionary role of the proletariat. Due to his revolutionary activities, Marx was banished from Belgium in February 1848, finally ending up in London in 1849 where he lived until his death.

Subject: Re: Karl Marx Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:47 pm

Karl Heinrich Marx

Karl Marx, Quotes

* Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.

* Democracy is the road to socialism.

* For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

* Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

* Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

* Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Subject: Re: Karl Marx Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:00 pm

Karl Heinrich Marx

Karl Marx, Quotes

" Religion is the opium of the masses."

"Revolutions are the locomotives of history."

"The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs."

"Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains."

"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them."

"The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism."