Marx vacillated over whether violence was necessary to achieve socialist goals. During the early part of his professional life, he clearly suggested that one could not hope for a change from a capitalist system to a socialist one without violence. Gradually, however, he began to weaken this position until finally he admitted that certain systems (such as those in England, Holland, and perhaps the United States) might be esponsive enough to adopt socialism by nonviolent means. Violence as still necessary elsewhere however; Lenin would again insist that no eaningful change could occur without violence.
Helping to develop class consciousness is the role Marx saw for himself and his revolutionary colleagues.
Calling his followers the vanguard of the proletariat, Marx advised that their function was to do what they could to instill in the worker an understanding of the true nature of a class-driven society. Importantly, Marx did not advocate that revolutionaries should organize and lead the revolution. He saw their function as more educative than activist. Once fully aware of their circumstances, the proletariat would take care of the revolution themselves. Marx's attitude toward revolution and revolutionaries is particularly important because, as we shall see in Lenin, who was supposedly a disciple of the German master, abandoned this rather passive role for a more activist one. Proletarian revolution puts an end to the exploitation and oppression by the bourgeoisie by establishing their dictatorship through collective ownership of the means of production and gradual withering of the state.
For Marxists the proletarian revolution will resolve permanently all the contradictions in society. Karl Marx and his followers hold that proletarian revolution is historically inevitable. The history of human society is not the product of impersonal forces; it is the result of people's purposive activity, since people make society, only people can change society.
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