What is Marxism? Part 2: A method

Marxism is not only an analysis of capitalism but also a method for understanding how human society develops and changes over time. This method, historical materialism, begins from the idea that the way we organise the production of material life plays a fundamental role in shaping social structures, institutions, and ideas.

Rather than starting from abstract explanations, this approach focuses on material conditions. Human beings must produce things (food, clothing, shelter etc.) in order to live, and the way this production is organised then leads to specific relationships between people or groups. These relationships, in turn, form the basis upon which political systems, legal frameworks, and cultural norms develop. The economic structure of society is not the only factor that matters, but it provides the foundation within which other aspects of life in society take shape.

Marxism understands history as being made up of different modes of production, each defined by a particular combination of productive forces and social relations. The productive forces include tools, technologies, and human labour power (capacity, skills, knowledge), while the social relations refer to the ways in which the relationships between people are organised around production, including who has ownership and control. Capitalism represents just one mode of production, just one way of organising economic life. Different historical periods, such as hunter-gatherer society, pastoral herding, or feudalism, were characterised by a very different organisation of these elements of economic life.

Where a mode of production is based on private property (meaning individual ownership of the means of production), these societies will always be divided into classes based on differing relationships groups have to the means of production (whether they own or control it, or whether they are separated from but still dependent on it). These classes have differing and very often opposing interests. Under feudalism, for example, the central division was between lords and serfs, while under capitalism it is between capitalists and workers. The tension between these classes gives rise to what Marx described as class struggle, which he identified as a central driving force in historical development.

Change in society occurs when the internal tensions within a system become too great to sustain. The development of new productive forces may come into conflict with existing social relations, limiting further growth and generating pressure for transformation. At the same time, conflicts between classes emerge and intensify as their interests diverge more sharply. These pressures can lead to significant change in society, even the transformation of the system itself into something new.

Capitalism is a historically specific system then, not a natural or permanent feature of human society. It emerged through a long process of change from earlier forms of social organisation; involving the expansion of markets, the development of industry, and the separation of most people from direct access to land and tools. Recognising the historically specific existence of the system is crucial, because it tells us that capitalism, like previous systems, is subject to change.

Fundamentally Marxism points then to this possibility of future transformation. The development of capitalism has created unprecedented productive capacity, meaning we now have the capability to securely meet the needs of everyone, it is only the control of the means of production by a minority and the subsequent organisation of production on the basis of profit which keeps this from being realised. Along with this capitalism has also created a large and interconnected global working class, the majority of the world's population, whose position of separation from ownership and control of the means of production gives them an objective interest in changing the nature of social relations. These conditions together open up the very real possibility of reorganising society along different lines.

As a method, Marxism seeks to uncover underlying patterns, identify sources of conflict, and analyse our contemporary society within a broader historical process. In doing so, it avoids reducing the analysis of society to purely moral judgments or abstract ideas, instead grounding it in the material conditions of human life.

Marxism offers not only a way of interpreting the world, but a framework for understanding how and why it changes.

Read Part 3: A Political Movement