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123-647: (Redirected from Democratic People ) Democratic People's Party may refer to: People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan , now abolished Democratic People's Party (Germany) Democratic People's Party (Ghana) Democratic People's Party (Mauritania) Democratic People's Party (Montenegro) , a member of the Democratic Front coalition Democratic People's Party (Namibia) Democratic People's Party (Northern Cyprus) Democratic People's Party (Nigeria) Social Democratic Party (Portugal) , known as
246-522: A socialist revolution in contemporary society is inevitable. While the inevitability of an eventual socialist revolution is a controversial debate among many different Marxist schools of thought , all Marxists believe socialism is a necessity. Marxists argue that a socialist society is far better for most of the populace than its capitalist counterpart. Prior to the Russian Revolution , Vladimir Lenin wrote: "The socialisation of production
369-519: A Marxist would conclude that capitalism exploits and oppresses the proletariat; therefore, capitalism will inevitably lead to a proletarian revolution . In a socialist society, private property —as the means of production—would be replaced by cooperative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits but on the criteria of satisfying human needs—that is, production for use . Friedrich Engels explained that "the capitalist mode of appropriation, in which
492-479: A backlash against Marxist thought in post-communist states, such as Poland . However, it remains prominent in the sociological research sanctioned and supported by communist states, such as in China . Marxian economics is a school of economic thought tracing its foundations to the critique of classical political economy first expounded upon by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxian economics concerns itself with
615-526: A certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or—this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms—with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution ." These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society which are, in turn, fought out at
738-454: A commitment to Islam within a secular state. Once in power, however, it became clear that the PDPA was dominated by an urban intelligentsia and lacked any real social base in the overwhelmingly rural and Islamic communities of Afghanistan. The party launched a programme ranging from land redistribution to emancipation and education of women, which violated traditional customs, religious laws, and
861-551: A concrete study of the actual conditions in Europe. According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary socialist Vladimir Lenin, "the principal content of Marxism" was "Marx's economic doctrine." Marx demonstrated how the capitalist bourgeoisie and their economists were promoting what he saw as the lie that "the interests of the capitalist and of the worker are ... one and the same." He believed that they did this by purporting
984-610: A decade. Since the parties division in 1967 both sides had held contact with Soviet government. Both parties were consistently pro-Soviet. There are allegations that they accepted financial and other forms of aid from the Soviet embassy and intelligence organs. However, the Soviets were close to King Zahir Shah and his cousin Daoud Khan—the first Afghan President—and it could have damaged their relations. There are no facts proving that
1107-413: A labourer—is synonymous with surplus labour, and capitalist exploitation is thus realised as deriving surplus value from the worker. In pre-capitalist economies , exploitation of the worker was achieved via physical coercion . Under the capitalist mode of production, workers do not own the means of production and must "voluntarily" enter into an exploitative work relationship with a capitalist to earn
1230-501: A materialist theory of history, Marx did not claim to have produced a master key to history and that the materialist conception of history is not "an historico-philosophic theory of the marche générale , imposed by fate upon every people, whatever the historic circumstances in which it finds itself." In a letter to the editor of the Russian newspaper paper Otechestvennyje Zapiski (1877), he explained that his ideas were based upon
1353-509: A number of Afghan military officers supporting the Khalq faction of the PDPA wing, Hafizullah Amin stayed out of prison long enough to organize an uprising with the group. On the eve of the coup, the Afghan police did not send Amin to immediate imprisonment, as it did with the three Politburo members and Taraki on 25 April 1978. His imprisonment was postponed for five hours, during which time he
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#17327658229501476-403: A post-capitalist society—positive humanism, socialism, Communism, realm of free individuality, free association of producers, etc. He used these terms completely interchangeably. The notion that 'socialism' and 'Communism' are distinct historical stages is alien to his work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death." According to orthodox Marxist theory, overthrowing capitalism by
1599-622: A presidential one-party system of government in January 1977. The new constitution alienated Daoud from many of his political allies. The Soviet Union set in Moscow played a major role in the reconciliation of the Khalq faction led by Taraki and the Parcham faction led by Karmal. In March 1977, a formal agreement on unity was achieved, and in July the two factions held their first joint conclave in
1722-640: A rebel-led state. The party was banned on May 6, 1992, by the Jamiat-i Islami Government. Since 1919, the Soviet Union had strongly influenced Afghan politics, economy and military (see Soviet–Afghan relations before 1979 ). The thousands of Afghan academic students and military trainees in the USSR were compelled to study Marxism–Leninism and the international communist movement; some of them became communists. Nur Muhammad Taraki ,
1845-576: A school of thought, Marxism has had a profound effect on society and global academia. To date, it has influenced many fields, including anthropology , archaeology , art theory , criminology , cultural studies , economics , education , ethics , film theory , geography , historiography , literary criticism , media studies , philosophy , political science , political economy , psychoanalysis , science studies , sociology , urban planning , and theatre . Marxism seeks to explain social phenomena within any given society by analysing
1968-590: A similar problem; the party organization laying dormant. To solve this problem, the PDPA sought to improve the cadres' education by enrolling them to educational institutions within the PDPA, public universities or giving them educational opportunities in the Eastern Bloc or the Soviet Union. The Social Science Institute of the PDPA had a capacity of 2,500 students, and by the end of the 1980s it had given degrees to over 10,000 individuals. Despite all this,
2091-564: A socialist bent". The PDPA's party constitution leaked in 1978 explicitly mentioned Marxism-Leninism as the future of Afghanistan and by the end of 1978, Amin declared the Saur revolution as the "continuation of [the] Great October Revolution ", leaving no doubts about the PDPA's orientation. After the April 1978 PDPA coup d'état , PDPA general secretary Taraki stated that the PDPA were nationalists and revolutionaries but not communists, and declared
2214-692: A word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." Marx considered recurring class conflicts as the driving force of human history as such conflicts have manifested as distinct transitional stages of development in Western Europe . Accordingly, Marx designated human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production: While historical materialism has been referred to as
2337-577: A year and a half after the coup no restrictions had been placed on religious practice. In the 1979 Soviet Operation Storm-333 , the Soviet special force Spetsnaz stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin. The death of Amin led to Babrak Karmal becoming the new Afghan leader and General Secretary of the PDPA, and marked the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan War . According to photographic evidence,
2460-441: A year later, the membership was estimated to stand between 10,000 and 15,000. By 1984, the party had between 20,000 and 40,000 members (this figure included both ordinary and probationary members), as a result of concerted membership drives in government institutions, state-owned enterprises , and the military. However, at the 1st PDPA Conference, Karmal claimed that the party had 62,820 ordinary and probationary members; this number
2583-408: Is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces." Because the ruling class controls the society's means of production, the superstructure of society (i.e. the ruling social ideas)
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#17327658229502706-453: Is a study of educational reform in the U.S. and its relationship to the reproduction of capitalism and the possibilities of utilising its contradictions in the revolutionary movement. The work of Peter McLaren , especially since the turn of the 21st century, has further developed Marxist educational theory by developing revolutionary critical pedagogy, as has the work of Glenn Rikowski, Dave Hill, and Paula Allman. Other Marxists have analysed
2829-401: Is bound to lead to the conversion of the means of production into the property of society. ... This conversion will directly result in an immense increase in productivity of labour, a reduction of working hours, and the replacement of the remnants, the ruins of small-scale, primitive, disunited production by collective and improved labour." The failure of the 1905 Russian Revolution , along with
2952-403: Is certain and that is that I am not a Marxist." The discovery of the materialist conception of history, or rather, the consistent continuation and extension of materialism into the domain of social phenomenon, removed two chief defects of earlier historical theories. In the first place, they at best examined only the ideological motives of the historical activity of human beings, without grasping
3075-405: Is claimed to have been assassinated by the government and its associates. While the government rejected any claims of having assassinated him, the PDPA members apparently feared that Mohammad Daoud Khan was planning to exterminate them all. Shortly after a massive protest against the government during the funeral ceremonies of Khaibar, most of the leaders of PDPA were arrested by the government. With
3198-402: Is determined by the best interests of the ruling class. In The German Ideology , Marx says that "[t]he ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is, at the same time, its ruling intellectual force." The term political economy initially referred to the study of the material conditions of economic production in
3321-490: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages People%27s Democratic Party of Afghanistan The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan ( PDPA ) was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election , reduced to two seats in 1969 , albeit both before
3444-449: Is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything. — Cuban revolutionary and Marxist–Leninist politician Fidel Castro on discovering Marxism, 2009 This new way of thinking was invented because socialists believed that common ownership of the means of production (i.e. the industries , land, wealth of nature, trade apparatus and wealth of
3567-482: Is fighting alongside our brother parties, foremost among them the Leninist party of the Soviet Union." In a 1978 party pamphlet, the PDPA described itself as a "vanguard of the working class" and General Secretary Taraki as an "experienced Marxist–Leninist ". These descriptions led Western authors to label PDPA as either of "clear Marxist orientation", "an avowedly pro-Soviet socialist movement", or reformist "with
3690-448: Is introduced. Because the surplus produced by the workers is the property of the society as a whole, there are no classes of producers and appropriators. Additionally, as the state originates in the bands of retainers hired by the first ruling classes to protect their economic privilege, it will wither away as its conditions of existence have disappeared. According to The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx , "Marx used many terms to refer to
3813-416: Is necessary to understand his later works properly. Contrary to the official dialectical materialism of the Soviet Union and interpretations of Marx rooted in the structural Marxism of Louis Althusser , Marxist humanists argue that Marx's work was an extension or transcendence of enlightenment humanism . Whereas other Marxist philosophies see Marxism as natural science , Marxist humanism reaffirms
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3936-465: Is not prerequisite. In addition to criticism, Marx has also praised some of the results of capitalism stating that it "has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together" and that it "has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal arrangements." Marx posited that the remaining feudalist societies in the world and forms of socialism that did not conform with his writings would be replaced by communism in
4059-561: Is often critical of reformist positions such as those held by social democrats . Libertarian Marxist currents often draw from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' later works, specifically the Grundrisse and The Civil War in France ; emphasising the Marxist belief in the ability of the working class to forge its destiny without the need for a vanguard party to mediate or aid its liberation. Along with anarchism , libertarian Marxism
4182-766: Is one of the main currents of libertarian socialism . Libertarian Marxism includes currents such as autonomism , council communism , De Leonism , Lettrism , parts of the New Left , Situationism , Freudo-Marxism (a form of psychoanalysis ), Socialisme ou Barbarie and workerism . Libertarian Marxism has often strongly influenced both post-left and social anarchists . Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism have included Maurice Brinton , Cornelius Castoriadis , Guy Debord , Raya Dunayevskaya , Daniel Guérin , C. L. R. James , Rosa Luxemburg , Antonio Negri , Anton Pannekoek , Fredy Perlman , Ernesto Screpanti , E. P. Thompson , Raoul Vaneigem , and Yanis Varoufakis ,
4305-509: The CPSU , said: The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help. Additionally, some Afghan soldiers who had fought for the socialist government began to defect or leave the army. In May 1986, Karmal was replaced as party general secretary by Mohammad Najibullah , and six months later he was relieved of
4428-514: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) later that year. The PDPA was known in Afghan society at that time as having strong ties with the Soviet Union . Eventually, the PDPA was able to get three of its members into parliament, in the first free elections in Afghan history ; these three parliamentarians were Karmal, Anahita Ratebzad , Nur Ahmed Nur . Later on, Taraki established the first radical newspaper in Afghan history under
4551-764: The Hezb-e Watan in 2004 and again in 2017. In the period April 1978 – September 1979 the Central Committee contained 38 individuals, of these, 12 were either purged, imprisoned or executed on the orders of Taraki after the Saur Revolution. With Taraki's ouster and execution in 1979, another member was removed. During Hafizullah Amin 's short rule, September–December 1979, the Central Committee had at most 33 members, 12 of which were appointed by him. Upon Babrak Karmal 's ascension to power 25 members were either executed or purged on his orders (76% of
4674-518: The Marxist–Leninist ideology that had been held previously by the PDPA. In 1991, the USSR dissolved . All support for the government stopped. In April 1992, the PDPA regime in Afghanistan collapsed after the sudden change of allegiance of General Abdul Rashid Dostum following President Najibullah's resignation. Post-Najibullah interim leader Abdul Rahim Hatif agreed on 22 April 1992 to
4797-504: The National United Party of Afghanistan , which sought to unite former PDPA members, was registered. Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism , to analyse class relations, social conflict , and social transformation . Marxism originates with
4920-464: The "sum total of the forces of production accessible to men determines the condition of society" and forms a society's economic base. The base includes the material forces of production such as the labour , means of production and relations of production , i.e. the social and political arrangements that regulate production and distribution. From this base rises a superstructure of legal and political "forms of social consciousness " that derive from
5043-666: The 1940s, the Western Marxist school became accepted within Western academia, subsequently fracturing into several different perspectives, such as the Frankfurt School or critical theory . The legacy of Critical Theory as a major offshoot of Marxism is controversial. The common thread linking Marxism and Critical theory is an interest in struggles to dismantle structures of oppression, exclusion, and domination. Due to its former state-supported position, there has been
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5166-679: The 1950s. From its inception in 1965 until at least 1984, the PDPA labeled themselves "national democratic", not communist; however, in its view of international relations, the PDPA was clearly pro-Soviet oriented. The party also publicly asserted that their desired changes could be achieved peacefully, however their ultimate goal was a revolution, and they were aware that it could only be accomplished through violence. The secret party constitution of 1965 called for "expanding and strengthening Afghan-Soviet friendly relations". A party history in 1976 stated, "The party struggles against imperialism, particularly American imperialism and its ally, Maoism, and
5289-406: The Central Committee now containing 52 full members and 27 candidate members. Of these 52 members, only three had held offices continuously through Taraki's, Amin's and Karmal's rule; they were Abdur Rashid Arian , Mohammed Ismail Danesh and Saleh Mohammad Zeary (often referred to as a Khalqist). The Politburo and Secretariat were elected by a plenum of the Central Committee, exactly as how it
5412-509: The Defense and Judicial Commission, responsible for military policy. From 1982 onward, the PDPA experienced an organizational expansion into the countryside. For instance, in 1982 there existed 144 district and sub-district party committees, by mid-1984 it had increased to 205. Out of Afghanistan's fifty-five border districts, fifteen of them lacked a primary party organization (PPO), another nineteen had only one PPO in each district, and in
5535-551: The Democratic Peoples' Party from 1974 to 1976 Democratic People's Party (San Marino) Democratic People's Party (South Korea) Democratic People's Party (Turkey) Loktantrik Janata Dal (India) See also [ edit ] Democratic Party (disambiguation) People's Party (disambiguation) People's Democratic Party (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
5658-560: The Industrial Revolution which undermines the democratic agency of citizens. Marxists differ in their positions towards democracy. Types of democracy in Marxism include Soviet democracy , New Democracy , Whole-process people's democracy and can include voting on how surplus labour is to be organised. According to democratic centralism political decisions reached by voting in the party are binding for all members of
5781-692: The PDPA Politburo, this was reduced to seven by Amin (only four members from the Taraki period were retained under Amin), and it was increased back to nine by Karmal. 6 members from the Amin period were either executed or disappeared, and Karmal turned the Politburo into a Parcham-dominated body. In the immediate aftermath of the Saur Revolution, there was "almost an even balance" between the Khalqist and
5904-482: The PDPA after Soviet mediation, with the objective of preparing a coup against Daoud Khan 's regime. During the initial period of Khalqist rule from 1978 to 1979, PDPA portrayed itself as advancing a " socialist revolution " in Afghanistan. After the ouster and killing of Hafizullah Amin in a palace coup launched by Soviet military forces in December 1979, a Parchamite -dominated PDPA claimed that its government
6027-510: The PDPA established its own tea brand which would be handed out to government employees, contractors and factory workers under Parcham rule. The Khalq-Parcham rivalry remained in place. Clashes between members often resulted in fatalities, with rival gangs of each side firing at each other. Moscow came to regard Karmal as a failure and blamed him for the problems. Years later, when Karmal's inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev , then General Secretary of
6150-685: The PDPA was highly represented in the government cabinet, but many PDPA officials were later dismissed as relations between the party and President Khan worsened. In 1978, the PDPA, with help from members of the Afghan National Army , seized power from Daoud Khan in what became known as the Saur Revolution . The PDPA led by Nur Muhammad Taraki established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan , which would last until 1987. After National Reconciliation talks in 1987,
6273-461: The Parchamites in the body, but Khalqist representation was continuously increased under they formed a majority under Amin. The Politburo had one female member throughout its existence; Anahita Ratebzad . Unlike the Soviet practices the PDPA did not publish the list of Politburo members according to rank, but rather by alphabetical order. There is one exception however, and it was published in
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#17327658229506396-496: The Soviet intervention, the Soviets forced the PDPA to recruit more members; in 1981 the probationary period for a new member was reduced from one year to six months, and to join a person needed fewer party sponsors. The 1981–83 recruitment drive increased party membership; the majority of the new members worked either in state-owned enterprises, the military. The main problem was that most of these new recruits were "functional illiterate ", which in reality led to an overall decline in
6519-531: The Soviets provided financial help to either Khalqis or Parchamis. Taraki and Karmal maintained close contact with the Soviet Embassy and its personnel in Kabul, and it appears that Soviet Military Intelligence ( Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye – GRU) assisted Khalq's recruitment of military officers. In 1978 a prominent member of the PDPA on the Parcham side of the party, Mir Akbar Khyber ,
6642-511: The administration of General Secretary Joseph Stalin , a great emphasis was placed on the adoption of Marxist archaeology throughout the country. These theoretical developments were subsequently adopted by archaeologists working in capitalist states outside of the Leninist bloc, most notably by the Australian academic V. Gordon Childe , who used Marxist theory in his understandings of the development of human society. Marxist sociology, as
6765-464: The advent of Islamist participation in Afghan politics. The first signs of a rebellion appeared on 20 July 1978 in the far eastern provinces of Nuristan and Kunar . The new government launched a campaign of repression, which killed thousands, mostly at Pul-e-Charkhi prison . Estimates for the number executed at the prison, between April 1978 and December 1979, are as high as 27,000. Despite accusations and predictions by conservative elements,
6888-514: The analysis of crisis in capitalism, the role and distribution of the surplus product and surplus value in various types of economic systems , the nature and origin of economic value , the impact of class and class struggle on economic and political processes, and the process of economic evolution . Although the Marxian school is considered heterodox , ideas that have come out of Marxian economics have contributed to mainstream understanding of
7011-414: The awareness—of itself and the social world—that a social class possesses and its capacity to act rationally in its best interests. Class consciousness is required before a social class can effect a successful revolution and, thus, the dictatorship of the proletariat . Without defining ideology , Marx used the term to describe the production of images of social reality. According to Engels, "ideology
7134-430: The balance of power between Kabul and the rural localities. The radical reform program, class-struggle, anti-imperialistic rhetoric, the signing of a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union, increased presence of Soviet advisers in the country, and support of countries like Cuba and North Korea led to the international media and domestic opponents giving the label of "communist" to the PDPA. Pro-Najibists relaunched
7257-750: The book Handbook for Party Activists of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (published after the 6th Plenary Session of the 1st Central Committee in June 1981). The PDPA Central Committee had several specialized commissions which handled day-to-day affairs. For instance, the party had the International Relations Commission, responsible for PDPA's relations with other parties, the Organization Commission, responsible for personnel appointments nationwide, and
7380-417: The capitalist system. In Marxism, political economy is the study of the means of production, specifically of capital and how that manifests as economic activity. Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society
7503-415: The complex dynamics of modern society." Influenced by the thought of Karl Marx , Marxist sociology emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With Marx, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim are considered seminal influences in early sociology . The first Marxist school of sociology was known as Austro-Marxism , of which Carl Grünberg and Antonio Labriola were among its most notable members. During
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#17327658229507626-399: The concept that "the fastest possible growth of productive capital " was best for wealthy capitalists and workers because it provided them with employment. Exploitation is a matter of surplus labour —the amount of labour performed beyond what is received in goods. Exploitation has been a socioeconomic feature of every class society and is one of the principal features distinguishing
7749-644: The country to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) , and Qadir assumed the control of the country from 27 to 30 April 1978 as the Head of the Military Revolutionary Council . The divided PDPA succeeded the Daoud regime with a new government under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki of the Khalq faction. In Kabul, the initial cabinet appeared to be carefully constructed to alternate ranking positions between Khalqis and Parchamis. Taraki
7872-603: The country's government. The PDPA was subsequently dissolved, with some officials joining the new government , some joining militias, and others deserting. Nur Mohammad Taraki started his political career as an Afghan journalist. On 1 January 1965, Taraki, with Babrak Karmal , established the Democratic People's Party of Afghanistan . In the beginning the party ran under the name People's Democratic Tendency , since secularist and anti-monarchist parties were illegal. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
7995-574: The country. The Parchams supporters mostly came from urban citizens who supported social-economic reforms in the country. The Khalqs accused the Parchams of allegiance to King Mohammed Zahir Shah because their newspaper, the Parcham , was tolerated by the king and published from March 1968 to July 1969. Karmal sought, unsuccessfully, to persuade the PDPA Central Committee to censure Taraki's excessive radicalism. The vote, however,
8118-544: The creation of a "democratic national government" as well as the long-term goal of establishing a socialist state . The Khalq-Parcham organizational split erupted within the PDPA in 1967. While the Khalqists adhered to rigid Marxist–Leninist dogma and toed a militant revolutionary line, the Parchamis wanted to establish a "common front" with other left-wing parties. In July 1977, Khalq and Parcham factions re-merged into
8241-493: The doctrine that "man is the measure of all things"—that humans are essentially different to the rest of the natural order and should be treated so by Marxist theory. According to a 2007 survey of American professors by Neil Gross and Solon Simmons, 17.6% of social science professors and 5.0% of humanities professors identify as Marxists, while between 0 and 2% of professors in all other disciplines identify as Marxists. The theoretical development of Marxist archaeology
8364-425: The economic base that conditions both the superstructure and the dominant ideology of a society. Conflicts between the development of material productive forces and the relations of production provoke social revolutions , whereby changes to the economic base lead to the superstructure's social transformation . This relationship is reflexive in that the base initially gives rise to the superstructure and remains
8487-408: The end of class society, which Marx saw as the fundamental division of all hitherto existing history. Marx saw the fundamental nature of capitalist society as little different from that of a slave society in that one small group of society exploits the larger group. Through common ownership of the means of production, the profit motive is eliminated, and the motive of furthering human flourishing
8610-405: The failure of socialist movements to resist the outbreak of World War I , led to renewed theoretical effort and valuable contributions from Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg towards an appreciation of Marx's crisis theory and efforts to formulate a theory of imperialism . Karl Marx criticised liberal democracy as not democratic enough due to the unequal socio-economic situation of the workers during
8733-527: The first PDPA General Secretary in 1978, had worked and studied in India in 1932, had met members of the Communist Party of India there, and had become a communist . Hafizullah Amin , the second PDPA General Secretary, had seen his leftist beliefs strengthened during his studies in the United States in the late 1950s. Taraki and Babrak Karmal (the third PDPA General Secretary) were Soviet agents since
8856-496: The forms and pedagogical processes of capitalist and communist education, such as Tyson E. Lewis, Noah De Lissovoy, Gregory Bourassa, and Derek R. Ford. Curry Malott has developed a Marxist history of education in the U.S., and Marvin Gettleman examined the history of communist education. Sandy Grande has synthesised Marxist educational theory with Indigenous pedagogy, while others like John Holt analyse adult education from
8979-482: The foundation of a form of social organisation . Those newly formed social organisations can then act again upon both parts of the base and superstructure so that rather than being static, the relationship is dialectic , expressed and driven by conflicts and contradictions. Engels clarified: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave , patrician and plebeian , lord and serf , guild -master and journeyman , in
9102-405: The future in a similar manner as with capitalism. Marx distinguishes social classes based on two criteria, i.e. ownership of means of production and control over the labour power of others. Following this criterion of class based on property relations, Marx identified the social stratification of the capitalist mode of production with the following social groups: Class consciousness denotes
9225-552: The global economy. Certain concepts of Marxian economics, especially those related to capital accumulation and the business cycle , such as creative destruction , have been fitted for use in capitalist systems. Marxist education develops Marx's works and those of the movements he influenced in various ways. In addition to the educational psychology of Lev Vygotsky and the pedagogy of Paulo Freire , Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis' Schooling in Capitalist America
9348-667: The government started when Gulbuddin Hekmatyar withdrew his support for the government. Later in March 1990 Defense Minister and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Shahnawaz Tanai tried to seize power in a military coup . The coup failed and Tanai was forced to flee the country. Najibullah still hung on to the presidency, so in June 1990 he renamed the party the Homeland Party . The party dropped
9471-500: The greatest part of the PDPA". Earlier that year, in March, Soviet sources stated that the largest concentration of PDPA members were to be found in Kabul Polytechnic Institute (with an estimated 600 members) and at Kabul University (with an estimated 1,000 members). In 1983, Karmal claimed that party membership had grown 35% to 90,000, the following year it had allegedly grown 33% to 120,000 members. While
9594-563: The internal strife within the party, the party's representation in the Afghan parliament decreased from four to only two seats in the Afghan parliamentary election in 1969 . In 1973 the PDPA assisted Mohammed Daoud Khan with a seizure of power from Zahir Shah in a nearly bloodless military coup. After Daoud had seized power, he established Daoud's Republic of Afghanistan. After the coup, the Loya jirga approved Daoud's new constitution, establishing
9717-550: The latter claiming that Marx himself was a libertarian Marxist. Marxist humanism was born in 1932 with the publication of Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and reached a degree of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Marxist humanists contend that there is continuity between the early philosophical writings of Marx, in which he develops his theory of alienation , and the structural description of capitalist society found in his later works, such as Capital . They hold that grasping Marx's philosophical foundations
9840-426: The level of class struggle . Under the capitalist mode of production , this struggle materialises between the minority who own the means of production (the bourgeoisie ) and the vast majority of the population who produce goods and services (the proletariat ). Starting with the conjectural premise that social change occurs due to the struggle between different classes within society who contradict one another,
9963-561: The main problem facing the party was the unsafe conditions facing party members serving in the countryside; for instance, when the Ghazni Provincial Committee convened for a meeting the participants had to wait for three months to get home (waiting for an armoured column and a helicopter). The PDPA had 5,000 to 7,000 members upon taking power. However, author Bruce Amstutz believes that PDPA membership probably stood at around 6,000 when Karmal took power. A little over
10086-438: The majority of the Afghan population, particularly in rural areas; many Afghans saw them as un-Islamic and as a forced approach to Western culture in Afghan society. Most of the government's new policies clashed directly with the traditional Afghan understanding of Islam , making religion one of the only forces capable of unifying the tribally and ethnically divided population against the unpopular new government, and ushering in
10209-570: The material conditions and economic activities required to fulfill human material needs. It assumes that the form of economic organisation, or mode of production , influences all other social phenomena, including broader social relations, political institutions, legal systems, cultural systems, aesthetics and ideologies. These social relations and the economic system form a base and superstructure . As forces of production (i.e. technology ) improve, existing forms of organising production become obsolete and hinder further progress. Karl Marx wrote: "At
10332-467: The members). He reinstated 14 members (including himself), who had been purged by either Taraki or Amin, appointed 15 newcomers and retained 7 Amin appointees. The Central Committee now contained 36 members. A year later, in June 1981, 10 new members were appointed to the Central Committee (the body now containing a record high 46 members), in a bid to increase the representation of Parchamites. Two years later, in 1983, six more members were appointed, with
10455-405: The membership increase did make the PDPA look more powerful than it really was, the increase was concurrently followed with increased indiscipline amongst members (a majority joined because of sheer opportunism ). Before the 1973 coup led by Mohammad Daoud Khan , the vast majority of members either had "graduates of junior colleges or colleges", with many of them either being students or working in
10578-584: The name The Khalq ; the newspaper was eventually forced to stop publishing by the government in 1966. In 1967 the party divided into several political sects, the biggest being the Khalqs and the Parchams , as well as the Setami Milli and Grohi Kar . These new divisions started because of ideological and economic reasons. Most of Khalqs supporters came from ethnic Pashtuns from the rural areas in
10701-407: The necessities of life. The worker's entry into such employment is voluntary because they choose which capitalist to work for. However, the worker must work or starve. Thus, exploitation is inevitable, and the voluntary nature of a worker participating in a capitalist society is illusory; it is production, not circulation, that causes exploitation. Marx emphasised that capitalism per se does not cheat
10824-443: The number of people recruited by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to join the insurgency topped 100,000. The Soviet Union withdrew in 1989 , but continued to provide military assistance worth billions of dollars to the PDPA regime until the USSR's collapse in 1991. The Soviet troop withdrawal in late 1989 changed the political structure that had enabled the PDPA to stay in power all those years. Inner collapse of
10947-511: The objective laws governing the development of the system of social relations. ... in the second place, the earlier theories did not cover the activities of the masses of the population, whereas historical materialism made it possible for the first time to study with scientific accuracy the social conditions of the life of the masses and the changes in these conditions. — Russian Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin , 1913 Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses
11070-457: The official name of the country reverted to the Republic of Afghanistan (as it was known before 1978). Under the leadership of Mohammad Najibullah in 1990, the party was renamed the Homeland Party ( حزب وطن , Hezb-e Watan ) and much of the party's symbols and policies were altered or removed. The republic lasted until 1992, when mujahideen rebels seized the capital Kabul and took over
11193-482: The party was fully legal. For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline Khalq and moderate Parcham factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA. The party adhered to Marxist–Leninist ideology and toed a staunch pro- Soviet political line. The PDPA's secret constitution, which was adopted by the party during its founding congress in January 1965 but never publicly released to party cadres, described itself as "the vanguard of
11316-440: The party was organized in an estimated 2,000. Another daunting problem was that the central party leadership had little contact with lower-level organizations in the provinces or, in general, with the people. In 1987, during Najibullah's rule, village-level party secretaries were appointed to the Central Committee in a bid to strengthen central-local contact. Concurrently, a threefold increase in visits by central party personnel to
11439-530: The party. Classical Marxism denotes the collection of socio-eco-political theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . As Ernest Mandel remarked, "Marxism is always open, always critical, always self-critical." Classical Marxism distinguishes Marxism as broadly perceived from "what Marx believed." In 1883, Marx wrote to his son-in-law Paul Lafargue and French labour leader Jules Guesde —both of whom claimed to represent Marxist principles—accusing them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and denying
11562-434: The population's living standards due to its need to compensate for the falling rate of profit by cutting employees' wages and social benefits while pursuing military aggression. The socialist mode of production would succeed capitalism as humanity's mode of production through revolution by workers. According to Marxian crisis theory , socialism is not an inevitability but an economic necessity. The term Marxism
11685-530: The presidency. His successor as head of state was Haji Mohammad Chamkani . Karmal then moved (or, allegedly, was exiled) to Moscow. After the Soviet Union had leveled most of the villages south and east of Kabul, creating a massive humanitarian disaster, the demise of the PDPA continued with the rise of the Mujahideen guerrillas, who were trained in Pakistani camps with US support. Between 1982 and 1992,
11808-500: The product enslaves first the producer, and then the appropriator, is replaced by the mode of appropriation of the products that is based upon the nature of the modern means of production; upon the one hand, direct social appropriation, as means to the maintenance and extension of production—on the other, direct individual appropriation, as means of subsistence and of enjoyment." Marxian economics and its proponents view capitalism as economically unsustainable and incapable of improving
11931-482: The province during the winter months, since the mujahideen withdrew their troops from the area during those months. Another problem, in Faryab province the PDPA was inactive and the majority of the locals believed that Mohammad Daoud Khan , the president which the communists overthrew in 1978, was still ruling the country. Another case, that of Nangrahar province (in which the government was in complete control) faced
12054-494: The provinces occurred, in another bid to strengthen the party's contact with the PDPA's lower-level and non-members alike. A major problem throughout PDPA's rule was that the majority of mid-level cadres resided in Kabul , rather than the places they were responsible for. Of the 10,000 mid-level cadres in the mid-1980s, 5,000 of them resided in Kabul. For instance, in the period 1982–83 the governor of Faryab province only visited
12177-487: The public sector. After the 1973 coup, the Khalqist began recruiting members amongst the Officers Corps, which was proven successful by the takeover of 1978. However, in the aftermath of the coup, membership decreased notably (probably because of the increasing authoritarian policies of the government). By 1979, only the most blatant opportunists would be willing to join the party; the party was at its nadir. After
12300-414: The quality of party members. In April 1981, 25–30% of members were "workers, farmers, soldiers, and other toilers"; this increased to 38% (both ordinary and probationary members) in 1982 and in 1983, according to Karmal, 28.4% were ordinary members. In 1997, Watan Party of Afghanistan was formed, which made attempts to register the old name of the PDPA, but the party was refused registration. In 2003,
12423-403: The remaining twenty-one the party, while better organized, remained ineffective. Despite this, in the period 1982 to 1987 the PDPA did witness an organizational growth; witnessing a growth of PPOs form 443 to 1,331. However, the main problem facing the party was that it was not organized in the small villages scattering Afghanistan; out of an estimated 25,000 villages which existed in Afghanistan,
12546-415: The social classes. The power of one social class to control the means of production enables its exploitation of other classes. Under capitalism, the labour theory of value is the operative concern, whereby the value of a commodity equals the socially necessary labour time required to produce it. Under such conditions, surplus value —the difference between the value produced and the value received by
12669-603: The society) would abolish the exploitative working conditions experienced under capitalism. Through working class revolution, the state (which Marxists saw as a weapon for the subjugation of one class by another) is seized and used to suppress the hitherto ruling class of capitalists and (by implementing a commonly owned, democratically controlled workplace) create the society of communism which Marxists see as true democracy. An economy based on cooperation on human need and social betterment, rather than competition for profit of many independently acting profit seekers, would also be
12792-474: The study of sociology from a Marxist perspective, is "a form of conflict theory associated with ... Marxism's objective of developing a positive ( empirical ) science of capitalist society as part of the mobilisation of a revolutionary working class ." The American Sociological Association has a section dedicated to the issues of Marxist sociology that is "interested in examining how insights from Marxist methodology and Marxist analysis can help explain
12915-412: The sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand. Marxism uses a materialist methodology, referred to by Marx and Engels as the materialist conception of history and later better known as historical materialism, to analyse the underlying causes of societal development and change from the perspective of the collective ways in which humans make their living. Marx's account of
13038-613: The theory is in The German Ideology (1845) and the preface A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859). All constituent features of a society ( social classes , political pyramid and ideologies ) are assumed to stem from economic activity, forming what is considered the base and superstructure . The base and superstructure metaphor describes the totality of social relations by which humans produce and re-produce their social existence. According to Marx,
13161-407: The title Democratic People's Party . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Democratic_People%27s_Party&oldid=1215091961 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Political party disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
13284-432: The traditional black, red, and green. Traditional practices that were deemed feudal – such as usury , bride price and forced marriage – were banned, and the minimum age of marriage was raised. The government stressed education for both women and men, and launched an ambitious literacy campaign. Sharia Law was abolished, and men were encouraged to cut off their beards. These new reforms were not well received by
13407-484: The value of reformist struggle. From Marx's letter derives Marx's famous remark that, if their politics represented Marxism, ' ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste ' ('what is certain is that I myself am not a Marxist')." Libertarian Marxism emphasises the anti-authoritarian and libertarian aspects of Marxism. Early currents of libertarian Marxism, such as left communism , emerged in opposition to Marxism–Leninism . Libertarian Marxism
13530-538: The various schools of thought , which emphasise or modify elements of classical Marxism , several Marxian concepts have been incorporated into an array of social theories . This has led to widely varying conclusions. Alongside Marx's critique of political economy , the defining characteristics of Marxism have often been described using the terms " dialectical materialism " and "historical materialism", though these terms were coined after Marx's death and their tenets have been challenged by some self-described Marxists. As
13653-432: The worker. Alienation ( German : Entfremdung ) is the estrangement of people from their humanity and a systematic result of capitalism. Under capitalism, the fruits of production belong to employers, who expropriate the surplus created by others and generate alienated labourers. In Marx's view, alienation is an objective characterisation of the worker's situation in capitalism—his or her self-awareness of this condition
13776-522: The working class and all laborers in Afghanistan" and defined its party ideology as "the practical experience of Marxism–Leninism". While PDPA's internal documents incorporated explicitly Marxist terminology, the party refrained from formally branding itself as " communist " in public, instead using labels such as " national democratic " and " socialist ". PDPA's public platform document published in April 1966 asserted that its political objectives involved
13899-428: The works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought , and as a result, there is no single, definitive " Marxist theory ". Marxism has had a profound effect in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts. In addition to
14022-449: Was Prime Minister , Babrak Karmal was senior Deputy Prime Minister, and Hafizullah Amin was foreign minister . Once in power, the PDP embarked upon a program of rapid modernization centered on separation of Mosque and State, eradication of illiteracy (which at the time stood at 90%), land reform, emancipation of women, and abolition of feudal practices. A Soviet-style national flag replaced
14145-467: Was close, and Taraki in turn tried to neutralize Karmal by appointing new members to the committee who were his own supporters. After this incident, Karmal offered his resignation, which was accepted by the Politburo. Although the split of the PDPA in 1967 into two groups was never publicly announced, Karmal brought with him less than half the members of the Central Committee . As a result of
14268-583: Was done within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). As in the CPSU, the Politburo was the main executive and legislative body of the PDPA when the congress, conference nor the Central Committee were in session. All decisions of the Politburo were implemented by the Secretariat, a body concurrently in session with the Politburo. Throughout its existence, the body usually had between 7 and 9 members. During Taraki's rule, 10 members had held seats in
14391-497: Was exaggerated. The conference reported a growth of 21,700 members since August 1981. From then until a party meeting in 1983, leading party officials claimed the party had between 63,000 and 70,000 members. Half of the members in 1982, were in the armed forces (which was dominated by the Khalqists). In August 1982, Karmal alleged that the PDPA had 20,000 members within the military, and said that "the army party organization forms
14514-464: Was facilitating what it described as the "national-democratic stage" of Marxist transformation. In its final years, the party gradually moved away from Marxism–Leninism and towards Afghan nationalism . While a minority, the party helped Mohammad Daoud Khan , former Prime Minister of Afghanistan , overthrow King Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1973 and establish the Republic of Afghanistan . Initially,
14637-401: Was first developed in the Soviet Union in 1929, when a young archaeologist named Vladislav I. Ravdonikas published a report entitled "For a Soviet history of material culture"; within this work, the very discipline of archaeology as it then stood was criticised as being inherently bourgeois, therefore anti-socialist and so, as a part of the academic reforms instituted in the Soviet Union under
14760-556: Was officially formed at the unity congress of the different factions of the Socialist Party of Afghanistan on 1 January 1965. Twenty-seven men gathered at Taraki's house in Kabul , elected Taraki as the first party Secretary General and Karmal as Deputy Secretary General, and chose a five-member Central Committee (also called a Politburo ). Taraki was invited to Moscow by the International Department of
14883-693: Was popularised by Karl Kautsky , who considered himself an orthodox Marxist during the dispute between Marx's orthodox and revisionist followers. Kautsky's revisionist rival Eduard Bernstein also later adopted the term. Engels did not support using Marxism to describe either Marx's or his views. He claimed that the term was being abusively used as a rhetorical qualifier by those attempting to cast themselves as genuine followers of Marx while casting others in different terms, such as Lassallians . In 1882, Engels claimed that Marx had criticised self-proclaimed Marxist Paul Lafargue by saying that if Lafargue's views were considered Marxist, then "one thing
15006-563: Was the day before Friday, the Muslim day of worship, and most military commanders and government workers were off duty. Tanks were utilized in the coup d'état , with Major Aslam Watanjar commanding the tank units. With the help of the Afghan air force led by Colonel Abdul Qadir, the insurgent troops overcame the resistance of the Presidential Guard, assassinated Daoud, and killed most members of his family. Hafizullah Amin renamed
15129-562: Was under house arrest . He gave instructions to the Khalqi military officers through his family before being sent to jail on 26 April 1978. The regime of President Daoud came to a violent end in the early morning hours of 28 April 1978, when military units from the Kabul military base loyal to the Khalq faction of the party stormed the Presidential Palace in Kabul. The coup was also strategically planned for this date because it
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