Marxism and the End of Capitalism

The development of society occurs through the change of its socio-economic formations. According to Marx, in accordance with the provisions of Hegelian dialectics, this change occurs as a result of the resolution of the internal contradictions of each of them, leading to its transformation into “its other” — a formation of a higher level. According to his views, the capitalism that dominates the planet today arose from feudalism, and should disappear as a result of the resolution of its main contradiction — the contradiction between labor and capital, that is, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It was assumed that as a result of the revolution, the proletariat would take power with the ultimate goal of building a classless society. In reality, capitalism differs from previous formations in that under it the “vertical” social division of labor is not limited to the ruling and exploited classes within each country. It acquires an international (more precisely, inter-civilizational) character: Western European civilization exploits all the others, turned into colonies. Due to this, its development accelerates, which is beneficial not only to its bourgeoisie, but also to all strata of the population. Accordingly, with such a division of labor, the workers of the "advanced countries" also find themselves on the side of their bourgeoisie. For them, the anti-capitalist revolution loses its meaning. And yet, such a revolution took place. But, being from the point of view of the laws of development of society the result of a random coincidence of circumstances, it ultimately suffered defeat. The completion of the capitalist socio-economic formation, as Marx assumed, will occur as a result of the action of its own laws of development. The fundamental aspiration of the ruling class of developed countries for maximum profit today leads to a mass transfer of production from these countries to developing countries with cheap labor. General industrialization of the latter and deindustrialization of the former occur. This naturally leads to the liquidation of the international capitalist "vertical" division of labor, and, consequently, of capitalism itself as a special socio-economic formation.