International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2022

Three comments on Marx’s view of communism

(Abstract)

David McLellan

In this short article I aim to do three things. First, I aim to show how Marx moved from a unilinear to a multilinear path on the road towards communism. Second, I discuss Marx’s view of communism – how it is devoid of a concept of equality and why its emphasis is on needs rather than wants. Third, I explain the relevance of this to how we confront the problems posed by the crisis of climate change. At least in his later writings, Marx argued that pre-capitalist social and economic formations contained valuable elements that capitalism was increasingly destroying. It is clear that, for Marx, the solution to the current crisis does not consist solely in the redistribution of wealth. Rather, it consists in creation of a society in which people can live a fulfilled and non-alienated life.