What a Marxist Professor

Should Teach

From the Left: Section on Marxist Sociology of the American Sociological

Association Summer 2005

Volume 26, No. 1

 Page 4   From the Left  Summer 2005    

What a Marxist Professor

Should Teach

 Michael Francisconi

 University of  Montana-Western

Political Sociology is the study of power in a social setting. Power is the use of political capabilities to achieve particular goals. This political contest is carried out in a competition between diverse groups over, among other things, economic resources. Power is used to pursue a course of action against the interests of others. In doing this, use of cultural symbols charged with emotional significance is central. Political sociology explores the lived, everyday experiences of people as they are shaped by their economic position in a particular society and the world economy, which molds most political issues. The state is the tool of the dominant class or classes. Under capitalism the class that owns and controls corporate capital clearly dominates, either directly by providing leadership, or indirectly by defining the issues.

   Sociology analyzes the historical juncture between worldwide trends and local issues. Anthropology gives this analysis a historical and cross-cultural reference point, supplementing sociology. Social movements are domestic affairs of local or national substance, created out of national manifestations of international trends. The fate of a social movement must resonate with the local situation, but is ultimately determined by global events. The capitalists and their supporters gain the means of support for their economic and political dominance by maximizing the illusion that their narrow interests are the national interests as a whole. This is done not only by control over economic production and distribution, but by physical means of coercion and education. Thus the capitalist state betrays its democratic justification.

   Because class is the relationship to the means of production and distribution, competing classes have competing interests. Competition between capitalists is minimized long-range view, which is not limited by the short-term profits of the individual capitalist. The state can make concessions to rebellious sections of the working class to preserve capitalism even when many capitalists may disagree.

   Control over the labor of the direct producers by an elite leads to resistance to domination. Ideologies of legitimacy lessen the problem, but imperfectly, because suffering is real. People create their lives through conscious action. Insight into inequalities and oppression may exist while knowledge of

possible solutions is often hidden.

   Social equilibrium is always threatened. While the dominant ideology legitimates existing inequalities, different classes will develop different interpretations of this ideology. These diverse interpretations of traditional dogma develop into rival opinions.

   The state is the organized control over classes, class factions, and ethnic groups. In this contest competing groups do not have equal power. The dominant group controls the resources necessary for production and they define the logic of stability. The rules of political behavior are agreed upon; to go beyond the rules is to undermine the security of the whole of society. 

   Any collective action by the masses short of social revolution requires the strengthening of the existing state institutions and the economy upon which they rest. Every government strives for social, political, and economic order. The rules that protect the ruling class are the only acceptable political behavior In any state society.

   The claim is that the state is erected outside of the daily needs of any element within society to protect the social whole. In fact it is the capitalist class that is protected from individual capitalists and other classes antagonistic to capitalism. Laws reflect these relationships. This is what gives the state its measure of autonomy.

   Through the control of the popular media, churches, and schools, the capitalists make their interests appear to be that of all of society. Popular culture supports much of the                         

               (Continued on Page 15) Page 15  From the Left  Summer 2005    

 What a Marxist Professor Should Teach (Continued from page 4)

upper class values. Morality is culturally defined in this way. When education fails, coercion will be used to maintain order.

   Capitalism incorporates other economies to meet its needs. The logic of capitalism redefines other moral traditions to support private property and production for profit. Alternative visions are neutralized, incorporated, or defined as subversive. Through hegemony all other ideologies seem silly. At present those who would challenge the logic of capitalism are weak and poorly organized.

   The political and economic institutions supporting capitalism ultimately control the Universities, for the benefit of capital. Like government the anti-government and ant- intellectual business leaders mask the fact that, the University, like government, exists for the benefit of big business. Dissent among government employees or University intellectuals have been, at times, defined as irresponsible and unprofessional.

   There is a resistance by people in authority to real emancipation of the oppressed classes. In modern society continual use of power com- bines ideology with concentrated and organized use of force to a point where the citizens do not always know where one begins and the other stops. The state creates government to establish policies, administration to carry out policies, and the military or police to ensure conformity to these policies. Because of the monopoly on the legitimate use of force controlled by the state, any revolution would require the elimination of the existing state. The old state reflects certain relationships of exploitation; when these relations change, the old state can no longer function properly.

   In US history, Immigration laws to keep out or expel dissidents have been used. The extensive denials of due process and exaggerated use of police powers are widespread. Trial by exhibiting rumor at the expense of legal procedures has been common throughout the 20th century. Public hearings to ruin the reputations of either the defendant or any witnesses who fail to provide what the government expected have been a major strategy. The use of covert police surveillance is still common. Every time working people in the US gain more control over parts of the state, the capitalists increase their efforts to maintain control over all functions of the state.

   The totalitarian power of capital flourishes in a bourgeois democracy. Capital becomes politically more powerful than government, and somewhat independent of the state. Capital is free to move anywhere, but the state is limited by geography. The needs of the bourgeoisie in a capitalist state deform and limit political democracy. Hostility and violence, supported by liberals who espouse democracy, is directed against anyone who, in reality, defends authentic democracy. Institutional violence used against democratic movements in the US has been central to the formation of “American” political culture. Political parties and elections become the sum total of democracy. To move beyond the two party electoral processes is considered subversive.

   Law and order has become the main justification for the violation of basic human rights in the US. Any group that is perceived as a threat to private property or questions the assumptions of a capitalist economy is treated as seditious. Mass culture has been manipulated to create popular demand for the suppression of alternative views of life. The open support for neo-colonialism around the world with violence as the official policy while preserving a world empire is one example. Life in liberal society is mystified; in a way that creates a total culture of support for a capitalist economy.             

   Ignorance is the main goal of liberal education. Education at its core is a lie.

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(Continued from page 15)

Liberal education is designed to limit debate.                              

Education supports the ethics of private property, market economy, and an elite hierarchy. Education as it stands is mis-education. The moral foundations of the core values of “American” society need to become openly questioned and debated in the classroom. The professor must join the intellectual struggle against the highbrow millstone around every student’s neck. If education is to become a medium of liberation, the University must expose it as an agent for class oppression.

   The cooperation of many University professors with policy makers during the cold war seriously compromised the moral justification of higher education. The University participated directly and indirectly in worldwide aggression and state supported terrorism. The

primary concern with many in administration was to protect the University’s source of income, thus creating a loyal slave of Empire. The Community College was created at the other end of the academic spectrum to “cool out” working aspirants, who received an education that did not threaten the elite.

   We professors must engage in seditious sabotage within the ranks of the University. Everything must be called into question, including higher education. We must explore the historical and sociological roots of all academic departments. Who benefits and who doesn’t by the underlying assumptions? How does what we teach fit into the ideology of hegemony? Education that is not subversive is not education.

Originally published: From the Left: Section on Marxist Sociology of the American Sociological

Association Summer 2005

Volume 26, No. 1

 Page 4   From the Left  Summer 2005    

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