Hello to the class.

I consider Marx like a thinker that is still hugely current because his thought about capitalism can be
completely separated by the historic materialism and still be modern to comprehend the present society
while at the same time inspiring the revolutionary struggles all over the world, not to mention that he
created the best theoretical tool to better analyze the unfolding of the development and the crisis of the
modern capitalism: a phrase of Marx that has always struck me was “The time during which the laborer
works, is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labor-power he has purchased of him”
(Marx, 1867, p. 7), giving the perfect portray of the capitalist that act like a vampire. But most of all, I
have always thought that Marxism is a powerful development factor of critical thinking and of
resistance to the exploitation of the man over the man.

Here in Italy, we have always been fascinated by the Marxian interpretation of history from the point of
view of the oppressed but at the same time, we tend to reject his revolutionary message that it implies,
well aware that Marx raised undeniable concerns, such as the primacy of the economic power over the
political culture, the tendency of capitalism to oppress wage labor, the conception of the state as tool to
defend the interests of class and mostly, the conception of liberty as the real power to do. Moreover, the
Marxist principles permeate our Constitution, by placing the work at the foundation of our Republic,
recognizing the right to work to all the citizens because, as Engels states in one of his works, “labor is
the prime basic condition for all human existence, and this to such an extent that, in a sense, we have to
say that labor created man himself” (Engels, 1876, p. 1).

313 words

References

Engels, F. (1876). The part played by labour in the transition from ape to man. Retrieved from
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm

Marx, K. (1867). Capital Volume One. Retrieved from

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch10.htm#4a