Marxism is not left-wing
Stop treating it like it is.
Published 02/02/2025
A day late with this one, sorry bout that.
When many think about Marxism, the communist ideology responsible for all manner of states, revolutions and broader social movements, it’s frequently positioned on the far left of the political spectrum in one’s mind. This is true even of many Marxists. The purpose of this week’s Vanguard Digest is to debunk this fallacious claim, explain why Marxism is a distinct ideology to anything on the political spectrum we know, and show an alternative framework for thinking about Marxism and its many heterodoxical branches.
Marxism without the Communism?
First of all, I feel the need to make a distinction here, which is that Marxism can manifest in two different forms. The first of these forms is effectively Marxism without the communist politics. This is possible because Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels didn’t just provide us with the basis for scientific socialism, but also the analysis framework of dialectical materialism. It was this dialectical materialist framework which Marx used to prove that the capitalist system would inevitably cripple under the weight of its intrinsic contradictions in his magnum opus work, Das Kapital, but perhaps unlike the radical political implications of Marx’s use of his framework, dialectical materialism has had a substantial impact on the social sciences since its inception, as a framework for analysing society, history, and the world we live in. Some might say that Marxism itself is a social science as much as it is a political ideology. Dialectical materialism broadly posits that changes in systems are driven by the resolution of contradictions within said system. Marx’s framework runs opposite to that of his mentor, Georg Hegel, with Marx’s framework emphasising materialism (i.e. material conditions as the engine of history) as opposed to Hegel’s dialectical idealism (i.e. ideas as the engine of history).
There is a broader discussion to be had regarding the specifics of dialectical materialism another time, but this framework, as well as its application to history in the form of historical materialism, which posits that material conditions and economics are the drivers of human history, has long influenced the social sciences, in particular the study of history, with the most notable application in recent memory, albeit one coming from someone who also shared the political convictions of Marxism, being the works of the late British historian Eric Hobsbawm. So this is the first and more apolitical way in which Marxism can manifest, but isn’t particularly important for the purpose of this Digest, just thought we’d get it out of the way.
Marxism with the Communism
The second, and of course more infamous, way in which Marxism manifests is scientific socialism. In this framework, communism, as evidenced by the dialectical materialist method, is to be a new mode of production that will replace the current capitalist mode of production, with the hope being that the proletariat, or working class, of the world will become conscious of their common oppression in the course of class struggle, and overthrow the bourgeoisie, the ruling class of capitalism (think the billionaires basically), kicking off a political, social and cultural revolution which will lead to the creation of a classless, stateless, moneyless society. Now there are some terms to define here:
Class here meaning a social class in the hierarchy of any given mode of production, e.g. Master and Slave, Lord and Serf, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
State here meaning a set of institutions built to serve the ruling class of any given mode of production, and perpetuate its rule.
Bourgeoisie meaning the capitalist class, wealthy business owners who hire workers to produce commodities to sell for a profit.
Proletariat meaning the working class, labourers and anyone else who earns a wage or salary in the course of employment for a capitalist or the state, as well as any other connected subclasses including stay at home parents.
I’ll surely go into further detail on Marxist scientific socialism in the future, but for now, let’s get the point of this Digest.
Slotting Marxism on the Political Spectrum
To illustrate why Marxism doesn’t belong on the commonly used political spectrum, I’m going to start by showing what the political spectrum looks like with Marxism or any other socialist ideology. I’ll be disregarding anarchist ideologies as being unrealistic, and syndicalist ideologies for being not worth much consideration after syndicalism formed the basis of Italian Fascism in the 20th century, so for those who may subscribe to those, my apologies.
When many think of the common political spectrum, Marxism is typically positioned on the far left on the spectrum, with ideas like democratic socialism, social democracy, progressivism, green politics being to the left of centre but less so than Marxism. We’ll then look at moderate ideas like classical liberalism and centrism, to be followed by ideas like neoliberalism, conservatism, neo-conservatism and libertarian capitalism going to the right, with the far right usually being characterized by fascism, ethnonationalism and other forms of right-wing populism.
Let’s now remove Marxism from this, and do a few readjustments. I’m also going to remove fascism from this one as well, for reasons I may go into in a future Digest.
On the far left is democratic socialism. From here, as we get closer to the centre, we get to social democracy, progressivism and green politics. The centre then consists of classical liberalism and centrism, but I think we can add neoliberalism to the centre here. Moving to the right, we get to conservatism, neo-conservatism and libertarian capitalism, with forms of right-wing populism and ethnonationalism being on the far right. Now I should mention that right-wing populism is commonly associated with fascism, which is a sound conclusion given the propensity of right-wing populists like Donald Trump to use fascistic rhetoric. But as an economic ideology, I think fascism can also be removed here as being something which runs quite differently to typical capitalism. Again, I’ll go into it in the future.
Now, I’ll explain why I don’t think Marxism belongs on the political spectrum.
Marxism doesn’t do “left” and “right”
Simply put, Marxism doesn’t recognise the left-right dichotomy. It is a concept of liberal bourgeois politics, not Marxist politics. Marxism rather splits society into classes, in the case of capitalism, into bourgeoisie and proletariat. This is why Marxists tend to not involve themselves too greatly in culture war pandering, because we instead argue that the culture war between left and right is a distraction from the real struggle happening right in front of our eyes, the class war between bourgeoisie and proletariat. This is why Marxism should not be considered left-wing; we are working with a fundamentally different dichotomy, and in addition to the next point, this point will be exemplified.
Marxism advocates a fundamentally different society
The second point here is that Marxists advocate, and fight for, an entirely different society with a fundamentally different economic model; socialism. This is a classless, stateless and moneyless society where the means of production are owned in common rather than privately, resources are distributed according to need rather than profit, and all of society benefits from the labour of every individual. It is for this reason that the bourgeoisie and their state fight so hard to prevent Marxists from gaining power and influence, while other capitalism-friendly ideologies are simply left to fight each other as representatives of certain subsects of the bourgeoisie. In the same light, the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat state would be antagonistic to any forces wishing to undermine the transition to socialism in the same respect, meaning liberal bourgeois ideologies.
Freedom of criticism
This is not to say that the workers should not have the freedom to criticise certain policies of decisions made by the revolutionary government, nor the ability to engage in acts of peaceful protest, for these are fundamental democratic rights which should not be abridged and keep the government accountable to the people. Diversity of opinion will still be tolerated, it is only acts of counter-revolutionary violence that will not be tolerated and be treated with the utmost antagonism.
But in conclusion, Marxism is not left-wing, and Marxists should not treat it as such. Perhaps using left-right language in propaganda may remain beneficial in bringing others to the cause without alienating them with mystifying language that rejects the left-right dichotomy, but this must be done with the understanding that Marxism does not recognise the left-right spectrum nor give it legitimacy, same with any other bourgeois ideology or institutions.
“This is why Marxists tend to not involve themselves too greatly in culture war pandering, because we instead argue that the culture war between left and right is a distraction from the real struggle happening right in front of our eyes, the class war between bourgeoisie and proletariat.”
I fundamentally disagree with this statement. The class struggle should be the basis for Marxist but this includes both the economic and political struggle. We address the economic aspects of capitalist exploitation while emphasizing the political aspects of these struggles as well. Capitalism is a mode of production but it sustains and justifies itself via cultural and political apparatuses all the time. Cultural apparatuses have been used to split the working class into groups based on race, gender, sexuality, etc. This is why Marxist have historically been against racial segregation, supported gay rights, supported women’s rights, and other progressive campaigns. By not engaging with the “culture war” Marxist movements do themselves a disservice in a number of ways. Namely, Marxist movements should engage with marginalized communities, should see their plight as part of greater issues within class society, and be politically in tune with what’s going on to strategize from a particular point. Ignoring the cultural elements of class society via the “culture war” is to ignore the political reality of many in places such as the United States.
You certainly are well-versed in Marxism, but I’d dispute the claim Marxists aren’t on the left. The left-right political spectrum originates from the French Revolution, when revolutionaries sat on the left side of the National Assembly and counter revolutionaries sat on the right. Marx turned French utopian communism into a science, so I think it’s fair to say we Marxists are on the left, and that the spectrum is not a bourgeois institution.