Surely Karl Marx is remembered, not so much for his socialist and revolutionary ideas, but rather for the direct influence that his theories exerted on governments around the world. This philosopher, economist and sociologist created a current of thought that inspired revolutions in favour of equality in a large part of the planet.

Undoubtedly, as a historical figure he leaves no one indifferent: political scientists, humanists, politicians, academics. Political movements such as those linked to collectivist feminism, anti-racism and environmentalism, as well as communists and some anarchists in general, have based their work on his. Next we will give a brief review of the legacy and life of Karl Marx .

The Life of Karl Marx: His Thought

Karl Marx was a philosopher, thinker and economist influenced by authors such as Hegel, Feuerbach, Proudhon and Engels , the latter being his main colleague when developing his work. He was a scholar who broke all the standards of political-economic doctrines, whose hegemony was held by industrial and pseudo-feudal capitalism, due to the exploitation suffered by the workers.

Marx made a strong criticism of the capitalist system , which he understood as a dynamic of relations and appropriations that had as an effect that power and wealth were concentrated in few hands through generations, and he denounced the irregularities of this system. In his view, under a false sense of freedom to choose, the poorest populations are forced to sell their labor force in exchange for a small part of what they generate, which means that they can never negotiate as equals with those who provide them with work, since the latter is always in a situation of superiority by owning land, factories and machinery.

Its ideology is based on the common interest, solidarity among the working class (the one that does not possess the means of production (such as the so-called factories, machines, etc.) and thus to end the plundering of a few in their desire to control the wealth and resources of an entire country. This way of understanding social relations was first expressed in the Manifesto of the Communist Party , in other books of his authorship later on, and especially in his work The Capital .

Father of modern communism

Communism with Marxist roots was the culmination of Marx’s thoughts and claims which, according to some experts, were misunderstood by his sympathizers. In fact, Karl Marx himself would later say that he himself was not “Marxist”.

The fact that this thinker encouraged the workers’ revolution against the owners of factories and machines in a context of severe poverty in Europe led to his being heavily persecuted and banned from many countries.

Exiled in London in the mid-nineteenth century, and with serious difficulties in making money because of the political pressure against him, Karl Marx met with workers with the same desire for revolution , founding what would become known as “The League of the Righteous”. Already in 1948, together with Friedrich Engels, he would publish what would be the founding charter of the organization: The Communist Manifesto.

Basically, the communist movement is governed by three pillars: the class struggle, the socialization of the means of production and, above all, the objective of putting an end to the State , which it conceived as an apparatus created to subdue the working class through laws that favor the rich. Contrary to what some people believe, Marx did not defend the elimination of private property in general, only that of the means of production, that is, the objects used to generate profits.

In addition, this thinker pointed out that communism is opposed to nationalism , being considered by Marx a mental frame in which people are arbitrarily divided without real justifications beyond feelings of identity and belonging to a collective. Thus, Marx defends a political struggle of transnational character, expressing the famous phrase of “Workers of the whole world, unite!

His legacy in politics

Marx died poor, since it was impossible for him to work because of the pressure of politicians and businessmen who controlled the (few) areas where he could go, and he was economically dependent on his colleague Friedrich Engels . However, in the intellectual field he was very successful, and his influences reach until today.

On the other hand, we have some examples of the establishment of communism in half of the countries of Eastern Europe, as well as in Southeast Asia, Latin America and some countries in the Middle East.

Some examples of countries whose foundation was influenced by Karl Marx’s work:

  • The USSR
  • The People’s Republic of China until the death of Mao Zedong.
  • Josip Broz “Tito” Yugoslavia.
  • The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
  • Cuba, after the Cuban revolution.
  • Salvador Allende’s Chile before the Pinochet coup.
  • The People’s Republic of Bulgaria by Georgi Dimitrov

As far as the social movements are concerned , the struggle for the limitation of working hours, the right to strike, the creation of a minimum wage and of systems of education and public health are also political and social elements in whose appearance the work of Karl Marx has a role.