GLOSSARY

  1. antithesis - direct opposite of a thesis.


  2. bourgeoisie - middle class capitalists.

  3. capital - wealth.

  4. capitalism - an economic system in which the means of production,
      distribution, and exchange are privately owned and operated for
      private profit.


  5. Chartism - 19th century British working class movement to achieve
      the political reforms contained in the People's Charter (1838).


  6. commodity - an article of trade; any concrete thing desired by
      purchasers, possessing utility, and available in limited supply.


  7. communism - the ownership of property, or means of production,
      distribution, and supply, by the whole of a classless society, with
      wealth shared on the principle of 'to each according to ability, to
      each according to his needs.'


  8. Communist League - tiny group of primarily German socialist
      revolutionaries.


  9. dialectal materialism - Marx adapted the Hegelian dialectic to argue
      society is a reflection of economics. History progresses and eventually
      ends up in communism.


10. The First International - (International Working Men's Association)
      formed in 1864 by British and French trade unionists. It served as an
      umbrella organization for working-class interests.


11. Hegelian dialectic - in every historical period a prevailing ideal,
      thesis, conflicts with an opposing ideal, antithesis, and results in a
      new ideal, synthesis. This becomes the thesis of the next period and
      the process continues.


12. idealism - any doctrine holding that thought deals with representation
      and ideas rather than with material objects.


13. industrialism - a social system making industry the principle activity
      of a society.


14. labor - work as a productive factor.


15. laissez-faire - doctrine of avoiding government controls in economic
      affairs.


16. Luddites - a group of workers who deliberately smashed machinery
      in the industrial centers of England (1811-1816), believing it to be a
      cause of unemployment.


17. Marxism - a political, economic, and social system advocated by
      Marx and Engels and his followers. It sees capitalist society in terms
      of the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.


18. Paris Commune - a revolutionary government proclaimed on
      March 18, 1871 in opposition to the National Assembly at Versailles.
      It was a collective organization for living and working in which
      products were shared. Troops crushed the Commune with the loss
      of thousands of lives May 21-28, 1871.

19. proletariat - the lowest class in a modern society; industrial wage
      earners possessing neither property nor capital and living by the
      sale of their labor.


20. The Sadler Commission - set up in 1832 to report on child labor in
      British factories.

21. socialism - a political and economic theory advocating collective
      ownership of the means of production and control of distribution.
      It is based on the belief that all, while contributing to the good of
      the community, are equally entitled to the care and protection which
      the community can provide.


22. surplus value - the difference between the value of a worker's labor
      and the wages paid to him by his employer.


23. synthesis - an ideal arrived at by a series of deductions at what one
      seeks to establish.


24. technocrat - a technical expert.


25. thesis - a reasoned argument.


26. utopia - any imaginary political and social system in which
      relationships between individuals and the State are perfectly
      adjusted.