On Historical Materialism

LLCO.org

Historical materialism is an approach to the study of society developed by Marx. Marx traced social change, behavior and culture back to their material origins. In order to understand society, potential group behavior and culture, one must know how power and the economy are organized. Society must be understood as a structure of power relations and productive forces. Historical materialism not only explains society, it can also help us in our organizational work and even in our personal lives. At the end of the Manifesto, Marx traces the errors within the movement of his time back to their class origins. In ‘On the Correction of Wrong Views in the Party’, Mao shows how disagreements within revolutionary work have their origin in the class. We can go further. The problems in our personal lives and our individual behavior can also be traced back to the material conditions in society. Indiscipline, depression, the whole range of emotional reactions can all be traced back to social conditions for the most part.

Leading a revolution means that we have to revolutionize ourselves. It means we have to overcome social manipulation. For the majority of the Third World, it means uniting in the interests of the social forces around them. For the exploited and oppressed in the Third World, it means developing class consciousness. In contrast, for the few in the First World who stand up for humanity, it means radically detaching themselves from their own class interests. It means breaking away from First World society, from its avarice, selfishness and laziness. There is an old revolutionary saying: ‘Fight against yourself, fight revisionism’. We have to get rid of our old self. We must create a new one. We must become guiding lights! We must be prepared to die for the revolution, but also to live for it!