Karl Marx Interview

Interviewer: Good evening. Tonight we have a very special guest, Karl Marx. He is joining us to  discuss his views and his works. Thank you coming, Mr. Marx.

Karl Marx: It is a pleasure to be here.

Interviewer: One of your most widely read works is the Communist Manifesto. How would you summarize it, and what pushed you to write it?

Karl Marx: I resigned from my editorial post on the newspaper Rheinische Zeitung in 1843 and moved to France where I continued studying philosophy, history, and political science. There, I adopted my communist beliefs. Friedrich Engels visited me in 1844 and we discovered that we had the same views on the nature of revolutions. We began to collaborate in order to explain the principles of communism. I moved to Brussels in 1845, as I was ordered to leave Paris because of my revolutionary activities. There I began directing and organizing  revolutionary groups called the Communist Correspondence Committees. Engles and I were commissioned to create a statement of principles that became known as the Communist Manifesto. It states that the the economic system defines the social classes and that the history of society is a history between the ruling and oppressed social classes. The capitalist society will eventually be eliminated and will be replaced by a classless society.

Interviewer: What are your views on capitalism?

Karl Marx: Well, capitalism is an economic system that is drastically different from the ones before it and it will without a doubt fail. As capitalism progresses,  the working class will become  so large and so poor that a revolution will be inevitable. The conflict between the social classes is that the working class provides the labor, but does not reap any of the benefits, while  upper class does not provide any labor, but yet benefits more from capitalism than the working class does.  

Interviewer: What would be the result of a revolution?

Karl Marx:  Initially a the result of a revolution would be a socialist state where people contribute according to their skill and will receive according to their  need .  Ultimately a government will become unnecessary and give way to a stateless society where we have communism.

Interviewer:I understand that you are currently living in London,  how did you end up there and What are you currently working on?

Karl Marx: Yes, thats right I am currently living in  London.  Previously  I had been banished from Belgium because of the revolutions that occurred in France and Germany, So I went to Paris and then the Rhineland. I started a communist periodical, and in 1849, I was arrested on a charge of incitement to armed insurrection. I was acquitted, but I was expelled  from Germany and I was banished from France again  later that year. So now I am in London where I am continuing to study and and write, I ‘m  also thinking about  building and international communist movement.

Interviewer: Unfortunately, That is all the time we have tonight. Thank you for  joining us Mr. Marx., it was a pleasure to have you.

Karl Marx: Thank you, It was great to be here.