Marxist analyst of the capitalistic world

Marxist analyst of the capitalistic world

In the Marxist analyst of the capitalistic world, he explains the loss of power by the labor market. He describes the laborers as having an essential aspect of labor but lacks the resources. Therefore, people with resources such as companies and factories and land were able to control the market. Therefore, the rich would control the labor despite needing the workers to run the process. The change of money to commodities and vice versa is critical in the establishment of the capitalistic market. In Black Reconstruction, Du Bois analyzes the different ways in which the projections and social analysis of Marx apply in American, especially in African American society. The author looks into the aspect of labor versus the imbalance of power and how it impacted the African American workers. Du Bois analyzes the different ways in which the Black and white workers have transitioned into society and the effect of social constructs on the success of both groups. The book goes into describing the different ways in which society has allowed race-based prosperity was a reality in America, thus limiting the progress of the black society systematically. Through chapters 1 to 16, the author analyzes the transition of the workers in the era of slavery and the route back towards slavery based on social oppression and injustices.

In chapters 1 and 2, the author looks into the analysis of the black and white workers through the understanding of privileges and challenges. The black laborer is distinguished from the white laborer based on psychological freedom. The author explains that although the majority of the black workers in the south often lived better than workers in the slums of New York and Philadelphia, the difference between the workers was the psychological concept of freedom. As the author explains, “We must remember the black worker was the ultimate exploited; that he formed that mass of labor which had neither wish nor power to escape from the labor status, in order to directly exploit other laborers or indirectly, by alliance with capital, to share in their exploitation” (15). The African American workers did not have the opportunity to develop in the 19th-century economy as opposed to the white workers that had the opportunity to explore the opportunities in the new world. The author explains that although the poor white and black workers had a common enemy in the white planters, the aspect of the race led the white workers to find fault in the blacks rather than the system (27). As a result, the challenges of the workers were somewhat controlled by the people with the power in the capitalistic market based on resources and the money.

In the following chapters, the author explores the role of the planters who were at the center of the capitalistic market. The planters are the people that owned both labor and land hence power to influence the development of the market. As the author highlights, “Seven percent of the total population of the South in 1860 owned nearly 3 million of the 3,953,696 slaves. There was nearly as great a concentration of ownership in the best agricultural land” (32). The same structure of dominance was transferred into the legislative process that was dominated by the rich white population. The author continues to analyze the different ways in which slavery was used by the north and south in the process of the war. The war, which aimed at ensuring slavery continued in parts of the nation, led to the freeing of slaves. In the war, the author describes it as offering a chance for the slaves to be soldiers of their destinies (85). In what he describes as the coming of the Lord, the slaves were able to find their freedom through their engagement in the war.

The second part of the book looks into the effects of freeing the black workers and the creation of systemic discrimination. In chapter 6,7, and 8, the author analyzes the aspects of the white legislators and the views against the freeing of the main source of labor for the developing nation. As the author explains, “This brought singular schism in the South. The white planter endeavored to keep the Negro at work for his own profit on terms that amounted to slavery and which were hardly distinguishable from it” (130). In that, the white farmers insisted on the development of the system that ensured the continued free labor and exploitation of the black workers. In the years that followed, the black workers were forbidden from participating in the capitalistic market by various laws such as the laws that stopped them from selling goods in the markets without notes by employers. In Looking Forward, the author looks into the clash of the main philosophies that governed the development of the economy and the rise in pursue of wealth (183). The capitalistic society created the aspect of growth and dominance through hard work as a reality. Therefore, the average worker became motivated to change their own destiny through hard work.

The third part of the book addresses the aspect of capitalism in relation to African Americans finding their place in society and continued discriminative laws. Rights to property and education were at the center of the debate on the rights of a black person in the American economy. As the author explains, “The bargain of 1876 was essentially an understanding by which the Federal Government ceased to sustain the right to vote of half of the laboring population of the South, and left capital as represented by the old planter class, the new Northern capitalist, and the capitalist that began to rise out of the poor whites” (630). The laws in the country worked to minimize the possibility of the African American workers to improve their position in society as the poor white man got his place in the capitalistic market. The development of the black workers were deterred by the segregation in the schools, laws on voting, thus representation in the congress and limitation to find capital in the financial system. Therefore, as the white workers had the privilege to rise in the capitalistic market, the black community seemed to be stuck in the same aspect of oppression as the slavery era.

The chapters in the text illustrate the passive nature of the black worker in the American economy. The capitalistic market, in which the united states was founded on, did not have the place for African Americans. The market is highlighted in the text as being dependent on the aspect of power. The power is derived from the concept of owning both labor and resources, such as land. In the north, the capitalists had the power to purchase the goods from the south; thus, their money was converted commodity them back to money. In the south, the power of the planters was derived from the ability to convert commodity to money then back to commodity. Marxism highlight the process of the capitalistic market being based on MCM and CMC. In the years of oppression, the black farmers had lacked the money and commodity. After the war and emancipation, the laws developed continued to limit their ability to engage in the market. The laws ensured the African Americans in the market had no power to purchase or produce, thus limiting their involvement as aspects of production rather than the power of production through labor provision.

On the other hand, the poor white workers were given the opportunity for development through the advancement of laws that allowed the possibility of attaining property and good education. The white workers were able to develop their position in society through the establishment of factors in production. The race allowed the workers to have a position in the development hierarchy. As the author highlights, “the endeavor really and honestly to remove the cause of strife—to give the black freedman and the white laborer land and education and power to conduct the state in the interests of labor and not of landed oligarchy” (634). The nature of society allowed the white laborers to own land and other sources of wealth attainment. Education was also major equipment for the white laborers. The white laborers were identified as full humans in the constitution; thus they developed different structures that enabled their development in the market. The society created a monopoly of the market through the limitation of the power of production.

Du Bois analyzes the development of labor in American society, starting from the provision of labor by the white and black workers to the power in the capitalistic market. American society is expressed as being oppressive to the black laborer and eventually, the development of laws that tied their progress further in society. The black workers had a disadvantage in the capitalistic market as they failed to have the factors of production, such as land and labor, which the white laborers had the ability to achieve. Chapter one to sixteen of the text highlights the aspect of the capitalistic market criticized by Marx and its expression in the American market. The African Americans did not stand a chance to have equal outcomes based on the lack of both money and commodities. The author analyzes the reasons why the market was oppressive to the members of the black community and how modern society seemed to be back to slavery.