Marxism and Revolution

Marxism and Revolution

Karl Marx, also known as the father of modern day sociology, is also known as the creator communism. Communism is the ideology in which there is no form of private property, and there is a classes, moneyless, and stateless social order.  Marx beliefs were adopted by many countries in Latin America. You can see examples of Marxism in much of South America, and including Cuba as well. It was the basis for the Cuban Revolution, and the idea that would later influence well known revolutionaries Fidel Castro, and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. These two men got along so well because they believed that something was wrong with the way things were being run in their countries and they believed that Marxism could in fact fix it.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, sociologist, and revolutionary socialist during the 1800’s. He came up with the idea that classicism was the ultimate destruction of society, and therefore he developed an ideology that would improve humanity, he called it Marxism, or Communism. Although he had many other professions, he was known more for his contributions to the idea that in order to reach peace within a society we have to abolish, the social structure that was already in place. Although he was born into a middle class lifestyle, he saw that there was something wrong with the way that the rich stayed rich, and the poor will always stay poor. He believed that as long as people ignored the fact that others below the ideal social class were suffering, society would never progress as a whole.

Even after the Europeans had already left most of Latin America, we could still see the effects of the Spanish, French, Portuguese…etc. The way Latin America was being run was not far from the way that colonial Latin America was, the indigenous people were still being oppressed. Not only by and Europeans, but by their own people who were just a lighter shade, or born into middle class families. This is exactly what Karl Marx talks about in his book the Communist Manifesto http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html. He doesn’t understand why if we are all the same and living in the same country, why do we treat each other as less than human? His ideology was more influential in Latin America than anywhere else, because Latin America was a rich colony, abundant in natural resources. But was exploited and eventually seized under European, and American ideologies.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara both saw the way things were being run in most Latin America. They couldn’t help but to adopt the idea of Marxism. They, along with a lot of Latin-American believed that the social structure was flawed, and for that the only right answer was revolution. Only something as enormous as revolution could change the status quo of most Latin America. Fidel Castro and Che, were strong believers of Marxism, and adopted his many ideas. A lot of the information you can get from articles or websites here http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-revolution.htm.