Sadler's Lectures Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto - The Emergence Of The Proletariat
Dec 8, 2025
Delve into the revolutionary ideas of Marx and Engels as they dissect the rise of the proletariat in industrial capitalism. Explore how the bourgeoisie, in their quest for profit, inadvertently creates their own 'gravediggers.' Discover the shift from traditional social relations to a cash-driven society that fosters alienation among workers. Learn about surplus value through relatable examples and grasp Marx's theory on economic crises. Finally, witness the evolution of class consciousness as the proletariat transforms into a formidable revolutionary force.
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Cash Value Replaces Old Social Masks
- The bourgeoisie transformed society by replacing old status norms with cash-and-value relations that quantify people by productivity and property.
- Gregory Sadler explains this unveiling of real social relations as a key historical contribution of bourgeois industrialization.
Mechanization Alienates Workers
- Mechanization and division of labor reduce workers' identification with their work and turn them into appendages of machines.
- Sadler emphasizes that repetitive, simple tasks strip work of individuality and satisfaction for the proletariat.
Pizza Job Shows Surplus Value
- Gregory Sadler recounts working at a pizza place that paid $3.35 an hour where payroll was 20% of gross and profit was 40%.
- He uses this personal example to illustrate how owners appropriate surplus value as profit above workers' wages.
