What is marxism?

Marxism is a set of ideas developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. It analyses history as a struggle between social classes and argues that capitalism exploits workers by taking the value they create as profit. Marxists believe capitalism will eventually be replaced by socialism and then communism.

Marx lived much of his adult life in London and wrote his major work, Das Kapital, in the British Museum reading room. His ideas rest on historical materialism, the view that economic forces shape politics and culture. In each era, a ruling class owns the means of production and a working class must sell its labour to survive. This class divides society.

Under capitalism, Marx argued, owners pay workers less than the value they produce and keep the rest as profit. He believed this would cause repeated crises, growing inequality and eventually revolution. Workers would then take control of production. Marxism is both a method of analysis and, for many followers, a political programme. Marx also expected capitalism to concentrate wealth in fewer hands.

Marxism inspired communist revolutions and parties around the world, as well as many trade union and socialist movements. It also shaped academic fields such as sociology, history and literary criticism. Critics point to the failures and repression of states that claimed to follow Marx. Supporters argue his analysis of inequality and economic crisis remains relevant today. His work is still widely read.

Where you've seen it

The Soviet Union (1922 to 1991), Maoist China, Cuba, North Korea and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

In the UK today

No major UK party is communist. Small communist parties stand in elections, and Marxist ideas still shape some academic, union and activist debates.