Understanding Social Problems in

Hong Kong –Marxist Perspective

Community College HKU SPACE

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Agenda

Background
Marxism as Theory of Society
Implications and Criticisms

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 Background

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Background

Functionalism – social structure and

consensus – society as a system in which
different social institutions are developed for the
sake of survival.
Marxism – social structure and conflict – society
as a system in which one group of people
dominants and exploits the other.

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Background

Marxism is a theory of society, and a social and

political movement derived from the work of
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Karl Marx Friedrich Engels

2018/6/15 1818-1883 1820-1895
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Background

 As a sociological theory of society, Marxism provides

both explanation, commentary and critique on the
modern society
Marxism is highly critical of capitalism: “an economic
system based on the private ownership of the means of
production and distribution of goods, characterized by a
free competitive market and motivation by profit”
(Encarta),
It is “a theory in which class struggle is a central element
in the analysis of social change in Western societies.”

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Background

As a social and political movement Marxism was

once an important force in many western
countries and was the ideology of communist
societies.
1848 Communist Manifesto and the communist
movement in the late 19 century
1917 Bolshevik Revolution under Lenin
The communist block (the second world) after WWII
and the Cold War (1946-1991)
The establishment of PRC in 1949
Background

However, with the ending of Cold War and the

collapse of USSR, Marxism and communist
movement were said to be abandoned by the
people
1978 the Four Modernization Programme of PRC
1990 the reunification of Germany
1991 the collapse of USSR under Gorbachev
Question: is the theory of Marx still valid or
relevant today?
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 Marxism as Theory of Society

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Marxism

 Society is a system that divided into two major

parts
1. Infrastructure – the base - the economic system
(economic mode of production), e.g. forces of
production (including means of production), and
relations of production
2. Superstructure – the rest, e.g. family, religion, state,
school

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Infrastructure

 Economic mode of production: Ways in which a

society organizes production of material goods

 Consists of two parts:

 Forces of production: machinery, technical knowhow, land,
raw materials, labour power, Those physical and non-human
input e.g. land, machinery, tools that could be legally owned
are called means of production
 Social relationships of production: Social relations that
people entered into when organizing production

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Infrastructure – Example

Capitalist mode of
production (industrial
capitalism)
Means of production e.g.
application of machinery in
the factory system, all could
be legally and privately
owned
Relations of production –
between boss and workers,
the hierarchy of commands
within the factory.
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Infrastructure and Superstructure

Infrastructure – the economy – has a major

influence over the superstructure and the society
as a whole
Because of private property system, powerful groups
in the economic sphere control important resources
(i.e. the have class - the capitalist) and constitute the
dominant economic interest
Such dominant economic interest also shapes or
controls the superstructure (i.e. to become the ruling
class), e.g. the school, state, government and law to
protect their interests
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Exploitation and Class Struggle
The economic interest of the capitalist is directly
established on the exploitation of proletarian
In capitalist economy, labour power becomes a commodity as
workers lost their means of production and became
propertyless
In order to survival, the they have to sell their labour power
to the capitalist in return for a living and submit themselves
to the authority of capitalists to labour for a given period of
time
The end product of their labouring, however, was taken away
by the capitalists – Marx calls this relation “exploitation”

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Exploitation

 As a general principle, exploitation involves a persistent

social relationship in which certain persons are being
mistreated or unfairly used for the benefit of others
Taking something off a person or a group and that these things
are rightfully belongs to them without sufficient compensation
Use of people as resources, with little or no consideration of
their well-being
 Marx used it specifically to describe the social relations
in capitalist mode of production

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Marx – The Transformative Power of
Labour
 Labour power is the most important productive
force as it help to transform and create values
$90 -
earning

$100 – price
$10 - cost
/ exchange
value

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Surplus Value
 However, with
capitalist
control of
means of
production,
$5 - wage labour power
becomes
commodities
…
$85 – profit
$100 –
exchange
value / price
$10 - cost

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Exploitation – Surplus Value
 Exploitation is seen in the extraction of
surplus value and hence workers are not
sufficiently compensated
Surplus Value = value created
by labour – cost of hiring labor –
costs of energy, raw materials, etc.
Surplus Value = profit
 It is an exploitation because
Surplus value is the creation of
labour and the wage labour
received is far less than they
deserved
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Questions to consider

1. Do you agree with Marx’s idea of exploitation?

 What are the four factors of production in standard economic
textbook today?
 And what are the returns to these four factors of production?
2. Do you agree with the argument that capitalist has no
contribution to production? How much is deserved
by the capitalists and the workers respectively?
3. Is a world where no exploitation possible? How?

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Exploitation – Surplus Value

 To earn more surplus value (profit)

capitalists have to increase the degree
of exploitation
 Work place reorganization to make production
more efficient and cost-effective, e.g. Taylorism
and Fordism
 Application of more machinery
 Recruiting more people into labour market to
lower wage level
 Extending the working hours without paid
 Ignoring safety needs of workers

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Exploitation – The Use of Others as Resources

 As a result of the need to exploit more and more,

the needs of the labour as an human being are
ignored
 Labour as human being and a commodity as
the same time – treating them as commodity
may scarify their needs as a human being.
 Long working hours? Repetitive work?
Industrial safety? Emotional labour?
 living wage vs. family wage
 Is the second criteria of the general principle of
Photo credit:
exploitation – the use of others as resources https://theidiotsguides.com
fulfilled?

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Exploitation – Structural Characteristics

 Marxists argued that there are three structural

characteristics that make possible and even promote
exploitation
 The ownership of the means of production by a small
minority in society, the capitalists;
 the inability of non-property-owners (the workers,
proletarians) to survive without selling their labor-power
to the capitalists (in other words, without being
employed as wage laborers);
 the state, which uses its strength to protect the unequal
distribution of power and property in society.
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Superstructure – what keep labour in place
1. Protection by state including the government, the
law enforcement agency and the criminal justice
system over the interest of the capitalists
2. The value and belief system generates ideology that
help to maintain the exploitative system – seen in
school, media, and cultural industry

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Marxism – the solution
 All evils are originated from the
private property system that makes
possible the ownership of means of
production and hence accumulation
of wealth and power by the
capitalists
 1848 Communist Manifesto
the history of all societies has been the
history of class exploitation and class
struggle
Workers of the World, Unite. You
have nothing to lose but your chains!
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How Marxist Theory could be
Applied to Working Poor

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A Conflict Perspective

Capitalists and workers have fundamentally

different interests and their relation is like zero-
sum game
Capitalists must exploit workers in order to be
profitable – the more the capitalists obtained, the less
will be remained for the workers
The interest of the workers, however, lies in getting
their own share from the capitalists.

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A Conflict Perspective

Capitalists will adopt more measures to

extract more surplus value from the
workers
Mechanization and automation?
Subcontracting and outsourcing?
Casualisation and McJobs (for more pls check out
McDonaldization)

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A Conflict Perspective
 The pursuit of profit also resulted in
structural and cyclical unemployment
1. The economic restructuring of Hong Kong in
1970s to 90s – relocation strategy to maintain
low cost production and therefore spreading of
capitalist production (and exploitation) to
other area.
2. Boom and bust cycle – disorganized action for
profit pushes up the cost of production and
lowers the price of commodity, as well as
results in over-production and economic crisis.

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15/06/2018 Source: The Intelligent Economist 30
A Conflict Perspective
2. The recent financial crisis occurred because of the
unregulated financial sector for profit that affects the
real economy

 Speculation in currency market

in 1997/1998  Asian Financial
Crisis
 Subprime mortgage crisis 2007
 Financial Tsunami 2008

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A Conflict Perspective
 To earn more profit, it is
important to keep workers in
their place to work for the
capitalists – where culture and
state step in…
 CSSA feeds the lazy – no
alternative but to work!
 The domination of capitalist
interests in the government
system – the Election
Committee for CE and the
functional constituencies
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 The unfavourable law and
ordinance – the 418 system,
lack of protection of
workers’ rights, e.g. trade
union, strike, and collective
bargaining.
The ideology competitive
capitalism and individualism
– Hong Kong dream, self-
reliance spirit, the “don’t
rock the boat mentality”,
etc.
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Questions to Consider

1. What do you think are the reason for the

problem of working poor?
2. What do you think would be the role of
government in alleviating the problem?
3. What would be your solution?

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Reference

Haralambos and Holborn (2000) Sociology: Themes

and Perspectives. Collins.

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