a sociaist serf however is highly improbable, because the ideology of
socialism hadn’t been thought of. We are all products of the time in which we
live. Today, we can’t think in terms of a new ideology or theory which won’t
be developed until a thousand years from now. So we have free will, but
only within definite limits.
The problem from the point of view of Marxist theory is that, as Marx and
Engels put it, the political-ideological “superstructure” reacts upon the
economic base of society. People can try to change the existing social
relations and sometimes succeed. For example, the British deliberately kept
the price of land high in Australia to promote the development of capitalist
agriculture:
“extreme facility of acquiring land, by which every man
has been encouraged to become a Proprietor, producing
what he can by his own unassisted efforts . . . [but] what is
now required is to check this extreme facility and to
encourage the formation of a class of labourers for hire
…”
(Colonial Secretary Lord Goderick, quoted in “No Paradise
for Workers” by Ken Buckley and Ted Wheelwright).
This is just one example of how the development of ideas reacts with the
economic base of society. Ideas, inventions, are crucial to the development
of new productive techniques, which in turn help to transform production
relations. New ideas about equality and social justice create movements
which fight against the prevailing system. As Marx put it, ideas, when
mobilising millions, themselves become a material force.
This is especially true of the struggle for socialism. The capitalist revolution
was fought out with the feudal lords on the basis of a religious ideology.
Socialist revolution is the first revolution in human history based on a totally
conscious attempt to transform the social relations of production and bring
them under the control of the producers themselves. The way in which
production relations, the state, politics and ideology fit together will be
completely transformed.
The literature on this topic is vast, so the choice of further reading is
arbitrary. To erally get into the topic it is worth reading ‘What Happened in
History?’ And at least the first 50 pages of ‘The German Ideology’. In
addition to the works listed below, ‘The Communist Manifesto’ by Marx
and Engels, also now available as a Penguin Classic, is important to read.
Recommended reading
Basics
1.’What happened in History?’ C. Gordon Childe, Penguin Books
2.’The German Ideology’, Marx and Engels, Lawrence and Wishart
3.’Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’, Engels,
Penguin
4.’Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859′ Marx (This is
in most one-volume selections of Marx-Engels).
More difficult work
1.’Freedom and Determination in History according to Marx and
Engels’ Joseph Ferraro, Monthly Review Press
2.’Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence’ G A Cohen
3.’Making History’ Alex Callinicos, Polity Press
4.’Marxism and Anthropology’ Marc Bloch, Oxford University Press.
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