Marxism is both a revolutionary movement against capitalism and a political theory.

There are three parts to Marxism:

Karl Marx was a revolutionary, socialist, economist and political scientist. Marx examined society from many different angles. He studied the world, nature and history, and began to discover the laws that govern societal and economic evolution. Just as Charles Darwin discovered the way nature adapts and changes over time, Marx discovered and extensively documented how societies adapt and change over time and the laws that govern that change. That’s the materialist view — historical materialism.

Having recognized that the economic system is the foundation on which the political superstructure is erected, Marx devoted his greatest attention to the study of this economic system. Marx’s principal work, Capital, is devoted to a study of the economic system of capitalism.

Marx was more than a thinker or an academic. He was also an activist, the co-author with Frederick Engels of the “Communist Manifesto.” That is the class struggle.  The Communist Manifesto concludes “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”  which was amended by the Communist International at the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1920 to “Workers of the world and oppressed peoples, unite!” to reflect the changed character of capitalism, which had been transformed into monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

Dialectics and historical materialism
All of our lives we have been told that selfishness and greed are the fundamental driving forces of human nature. Marxists understand that society has not always been driven by individual self-interest and greed, that greed is not a part of human nature, and that society can be changed for the better. All of this can be demonstrated by using dialectics, a scientific method of thinking to evaluate the world in which humans live. [read more]

Capital
Capital, says the capitalist, is money used in the production of more money. The teachers of capitalist political economy put it more “scientifically.” They explain that capital is factories, machinery, raw materials, and money to pay wages. [read more]

Capitalism
The bosses like to call it “free enterprise.” But for the millions locked into hard, boring jobs with no relief except unemployment, the present system is neither free nor enterprising. What makes capitalism tick — and why does it so often leave people with either war or economic catastrophe? [read more]

Class struggle
“The workers have nothing to lose but their chains.” “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” “Workers [and oppressed peoples] of the world unite!” [read more]

Imperialism
Capitalism must expand or die. When the capitalists of a particular country are compelled to expand beyond their own borders militarily and economically, this is called imperialism — the highest and last stage of capitalism. [read more]

Racism and oppressed nations
In an open colonial relationship, it is easy to recognize an oppressed nation. Imperialism, however, has complicated the definition of an oppressed nation by moving whole peoples from their original geographical locations and breaking down language and cultural differences. [read more]

Class solidarity
One of the greatest weapons that workers and oppressed people possess against the bosses and capitalists is our unity. [read more]

Exploitation
Everybody who works for a boss is exploited. If the boss couldn’t exploit you, the boss wouldn’t hire you. [read more]

Private property
Private property, to a communist, is not your shoes or toothbrush, or even your house. [read more]

Women’s oppression
The oppression of women in the 21st century is perhaps more multi-faceted and developed than it has been historically.  [read more]

LGBTQ+ Oppression
Until recent times, lesbians, gay, bi, trans, queer and two spirit (LGBTQ+) people were a mostly invisible minority. [read more]

Self-Determination
All workers, regardless of national background, have the same class interests. They all need to eliminate capitalist exploitation and replace the rule of the bosses with the rule of the workers — socialism. It is clear that this tremendous task can’t be achieved without the closest possible unity and trust among all workers. But when one or several sections of the working class are oppressed over and above the class as a whole, when in fact they belong to a people who constitute an oppressed nation, then the problems of unity are complicated.  [read more]

Culture
Culture is all-encompassing. It is part of the superstructure. The thoughts, ideas, actions, language, arts — every human endeavor or expression is connected to a society’s culture. [read more]

How the State Arose
When Marxists speak of the state it is not in the sense that many in the U.S. are accustomed to; it is not in reference to, for instance, the state of New York, Ohio or California. What is meant is the repressive apparatus of the government. [read more]

The State Today
The U.S. has developed one of the most expensive states in human history. The federal budget for the military alone exceeds $2.7 trillion, not counting the hidden budgets of paramilitary organizations like the CIA. [read more]