Question

Marx believed that to free themselves from the capitalist exploitation, workers had to construct a ______ society where all property was socially controlled.
1. revolutionary socialist
2. capitalist
3. radically socialist
4. socialist cooperative

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : radically socialist

• Socialists had different visions of the future. Some believed in the idea of cooperatives. Robert Owen (1771-1858), a leading English manufacturer, sought to build a cooperative community called New Harmony in Indiana (USA).
• Other socialists felt that cooperatives could not be built on a wide scale only through individual initiative: they demanded that governments encourage cooperatives.
• In France, for instance, Louis Blanc (1813-1882) wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace capitalist enterprises. These cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced goods together and divided the profits according to the work done by members
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) added other ideas to this body of arguments.
• Marx argued that industrial society was 'capitalist'.
• Capitalists owned the capital invested in factories, and the profit of capitalists was produced by workers. The conditions of workers could not improve as long as this profit was accumulated by private capitalists.
• Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property. Marx believed that to free themselves from capitalist exploitation, workers had to construct a radically socialist society where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society.
• He was convinced that workers would triumph in their conflict with capitalists. A communist society was the natural society of the future.