Marx and Engels on the Stock Market Crash
The working class always suffers the most under capitalism
In 2019, Warren Buffett claimed that no economic textbook could have predicted the strange economy of the time. But Marx was able to accurately describe the capitalist system in the 1800s. Today, as we observe a stock market crash brought on Trump’s tariffs, Marx is being proven right once again. While we might be tempted to celebrate since most of the stock market is owned by the capitalist class, it is the working class that will bear the brunt of this economic down turn.
As Marx wrote in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, “If the wealth of society declines the worker suffers most of all, and for the following reason: although the working class cannot gain so much as can the class of property owners in a prosperous state of society, no one suffers so cruelly from its decline as the working class.” History has shown just how true this is. During the great recession of 2008, it was the working class who suffered with wage cuts and job losses. During the great depression, it was the working class who were forced out of their homes.
Marx goes on to explain that even during the best of times under capitalism, the working class never prospers.
Thus in a declining state of society – increasing misery of the worker; in an advancing state – misery with complications; and in a fully developed state of society – static misery.
Since, however, according to Smith, a society is not happy, of which the greater part suffers – yet even the wealthiest state of society leads to this suffering of the majority – and since the economic system (and in general a society based on private interest) leads to this wealthiest condition, it follows that the goal of the economic system is the unhappiness of society.
The goal of capitalism is the profit of the few at the expense of the many. The wage laborer is forced to sell their labor power to survive, not to thrive. This is the nature of the capitalist system. As Marx would go on to explain in Capital:
Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.
Capitalism itself cannot solve this contradiction. Inequality is at record high levels. Even with the stock market falling, the capitalist class is doing fine. Warren Buffet recommends to keep buying stocks during economic downturns, which is only feasible for the wealthy. It is the working class who suffers and it is up to the working class to solve the problem by becoming the gravediggers of capitalism. The only solution to the miseries created by the capitalist system is proletarian revolution. As Engels wrote in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific:
The proletariat seizes the public power, and by means of this transforms the socialized means of production, slipping from the hands of the bourgeoisie, into public property. By this act, the proletariat frees the means of production from the character of capital they have thus far borne, and gives their socialized character complete freedom to work itself out. Socialized production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible. The development of production makes the existence of different classes of society thenceforth an anachronism. In proportion as anarchy in social production vanishes, the political authority of the State dies out. Man, at last the master of his own form of social organization, becomes at the same time the lord over Nature, his own master — free.
But this does not just happen on its own. It requires an organized proletariat. As shown in the Communist Manifesto, “This organization of the proletarians into a class, and, consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself.” The party provides leadership and guidance to the proletariat and fights alongside them in the class struggle.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.
The conditions are ripe for revolution, but there is a lack of organization and leadership among the proletariat. This was shown by the recent “Hands Off” protests against Trump. They were organized by MoveOn and Indivisible, both entities that support the Democratic Party. Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi spoke at these events. There was nothing radical about these protests that support the imperialist organization of NATO and failed to mention the genocide in Gaza. As Trotsky wrote in 1938, “The world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat.” As long as leaders tie themselves to the interests of capital and capitalist parties, we can have no successful revolutionary movement.
Comrades, it is up to us to build the revolutionary party today. We desperately need Marxist leadership. Join the Revolutionary Communist International and organize for a communist future. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a world to win!
sweet. thanks for the refresher and update.