Discuss the Marxist concept of freedom.

The great contribution of Marx and Marxism has been to demonstrate how private property in the means of productive had robbed the great mass of the working class of their freedom and to work out the theoretical foundations of how to win back freedom.

According to the standard liberal view, freedom is the absence of restraints or coercion. Marxism on the other hand, has been a heir to a wider and richer view of freedom originating from such sources as Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant and Hegal who conceived of freedom as self-determination, self-realization, self-development, self-fulfillment and self-creativeness. Even if the concept of freedom is taken as absence of restraints, Marxism invoked wide notions of the relevant restrictions and options and of human agencies. Marx of Marxism tended to see freedom in terms of removal of obstacles to human emancipation.

Notable among such obstacles, Marx pointed out, were the conditions of wage labor the conditions of their life and labor and there with all conditions of existence of modern society. Marx’s understanding of freedom implies activity aimed at creating real conditions for the free all-round development and flowering of man’s individuality.