Marx And Engels’ Anti-poverty Theory And Its Development In Contemporary China

Poverty is still a global problem,and poverty is caused by many factors.The history of the founding of New China for more than 70 years,especially the history of reform and opening up for more than 40 years,can be said to be a history of struggle against poverty.During the 70 years of development,the Chinese Communist Party has explored and adopted a series of anti-poverty practices and theories,which are the inheritance and development of Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theories,taking into account China’s basic national conditions.Although Marx and Engels did not explicitly put forward the concept of "anti-poverty",they always discussed the issue based on anti-poverty,and this paper understands his ideas from the perspective of anti-poverty.Although Marx and Engels did not concentrate on the anti-poverty theory in a systematic way,their research on the anti-poverty issue is widely distributed in a series of classical works.Marx Engels’ anti-poverty theory critically examines the poverty of the proletariat in capitalist society and puts forward a concept for solving the problem of proletarian poverty.His anti-poverty theory constitutes an important part of Marxist theory and,at the same time,has important guiding significance for contemporary(broadly speaking,since the founding of New China)China and the world to effectively fight poverty.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to dig deeper and systematically analyze Marx’s Engels’ anti-poverty theory,its value to contemporary China and its development in contemporary China.The emergence and formation of Marx Engels’ anti-poverty theory has its specific theoretical sources and social background.The theoretical sources of Marx Engels’ anti-poverty theory mainly include: one is the anti-poverty ideas of ideal socialists such as More,Campanella,Morelli,Saint-Simon,Fourier and Owen;the other is the anti-poverty ideas of classical political economists such as Adam Smith,Malthus,Sismondi,Ricardo and Mandeville.The social background against which Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory was formed was the rapid development of capitalism and the growing poverty and constant resistance of the proletariat.Marx Engels critically inherited the anti-poverty ideas of his predecessors and created his scientific anti-poverty theory according to the needs of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory has gone through a complex process of germination,formation,development and perfection.The anti-poverty theory of Marx and Engels originated from their early concern for the interests of poor labor and their questioning of the "rational state".After Marx and Engels jointly founded the materialistic view of history,they revealed that private ownership and alienated labor were important causes of poverty and formed their anti-poverty theory.By analyzing the internal structure of capital,they clarified the fundamental way to fight poverty,i.e.,overthrowing capitalist private ownership and realizing the "union of free men",and developed their anti-poverty theory.After Marx’s death,Marx’s and Engels’ anti-poverty theory faced multiple challenges,and Engels defended and enriched the anti-poverty theory that he and Marx had co-founded.It is due to the long process of exploration that Marx Engels’ anti-poverty theory has been continuously developed and improved.Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory is very rich in content.Based on the position of the proletariat,the theory points out that in capitalist society,the proletariat is the subject of poverty;on this premise,it gives a concrete and profound historical interpretation of the concept of poverty: deprived of the means of production,the proletariat has to sell its labor to satisfy its basic needs in order to survive;due to the capitalists’ greedy appropriation of surplus value,the proletariat can only obtain wages far below what it should obtain for its labor production.Due to the greedy appropriation of surplus value by the capitalists,the proletariat can only obtain wages far below what it should get for its labor production,and obtain "essential needs" far below the average level of society,falling into material poverty,which is inevitably accompanied by spiritual poverty.Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory explains the two types of poverty,absolute poverty and relative poverty,and points out that proletarian poverty consists of these two types of poverty,which are manifested in reality as material poverty and spiritual poverty.It analyzes in depth the causes of poverty: the basic contradictions of capitalist society,the capitalist wage labor system,the increase of the organic composition of capital,the capitalist economic crisis and the weakened ability of the proletariat to survive,and points out that proletarian poverty is a kind of institutional poverty.For the anti-poverty path,it argues that proletarian poverty can be fundamentally eliminated only by vigorously developing the productive forces,eliminating the system of exploitation through proletarian revolution,and establishing a brand new society,i.e.,communist society.Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory has guided the contemporary practice of China’s anti-poverty cause,highlighting its important contemporary significance.Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory has gone through three periods in the practical testing and development of contemporary China: the anti-poverty practice in the period of socialist revolution and construction,the anti-poverty practice in the new socialist period of reform and opening up,and the anti-poverty practice in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.The practical background and practical purposes of each period were different,and accordingly,the CPC put forward targeted guiding ideologies and adopted effective measures in each period,and achieved good results in anti-poverty practice.In the course of China’s anti-poverty practice for more than 70 years,Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory has not only been inherited but also innovated and developed in China,and this innovative development is reflected in various aspects,mainly including: first,the people-centered thought.This idea requires putting people’s interests in the first place,which is reflected in safeguarding the basic rights of the general public,contributing to the realization of the Chinese dream,and contributing Chinese wisdom to poverty reduction in the world;second,the idea of common prosperity.This idea enriches the goals of Marx and Engels’ anti-poverty theory and develops the stages of achieving the anti-poverty goals;third,the idea of precise poverty alleviation.This idea insists on combining scientific spirit and concrete practice,and focuses on solving the problems of who to support,who to support and how to support.