Video source: The Radical Individualism of Karl Marx (channel: Taimur_laal. Recommend his english channel: Red Star)

Claims of Liberals & Conservatives United

Marx opposed the role of individual in history. History determines the individual.
Marx opposes individual self development. The individual must sacrifice for the freedoms of the collective.
Marx was a collectivist.
Garbage articles from mises institute

Note: Before you ask, this isn't AI, manual transcribing of a video, a source for quotes and finally, wherever you see "man", mentally replace it with human.

History & the Individual

Quote	In simple terms
History does nothing, it “possesses no immense wealth”, it “wages no battles”. It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights; “history” is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims. - The Holy Family by Marx and Engels	History is nothing other than the actions of individuals

Property & the Individual

Quote	In simple terms
First the productive forces appear as a world for themselves, quite independent of and divorced from the individuals, alongside the individuals: the reason for this is that the individuals, whose forces they are, exist split up and in opposition to one another, whilst, on the other hand, these forces are only real forces in the intercourse and association of these individuals. - The German Ideology	Individuals create productive forces but they do not have control over them, because they are in a constant state of competition. Capital is united, individuals have no control over capital. Capitalists also have no real control over capital or the market, it obeys it's own laws based on the organization of social relations, forces of production and relations of production.
Thus, on the one hand, we have a totality of productive forces, which have, as it were, taken on a material form and are for the individuals no longer the forces of the individuals but of private property, and hence of the individuals only insofar as they are owners of private property themselves. Never, in any earlier period, have the productive forces taken on a form so indifferent to the intercourse of individuals as individuals, because their intercourse itself was formerly a restricted one. On the other hand, standing over against these productive forces, we have the majority of the individuals from whom these forces have been wrested away, and who, robbed thus of all real life-content, have become abstract individuals, but who are, however, only by this fact put into a position to enter into relation with one another as individuals. - The German Ideology	Individuals create productive forces but they do not have control over them, it becomes the property of the owners of capital. Capitalism destroys the worker's individuality like none before and turned them into abstract individuals, who create social relations among them only through the medium of capital.
The social power, i.e., the multiplied productive force, which arises through the co-operation of different individuals as it is determined by the division of labour, appears to these individuals, since their co-operation is not voluntary but has come about naturally, not as their own united power, but as an alien force existing outside them, of the origin and goal of which they are ignorant, which they thus cannot control, which on the contrary passes through a peculiar series of phases and stages independent of the will and the action of man, nay even being the prime governor of these. - The German Ideology	Economic power is created by individuals but is not in the control of individuals.

Class & the Individual

Quote	In simple terms
Individuals have always built on themselves, but naturally on themselves within their given historical conditions and relationships, not on the "pure" individual in the sense of the ideologists. But in the course of historical evolution, and precisely through the inevitable fact that within the division of labour social relationships take on an independent existence, there appears a division within the life of each individual, insofar as it is personal and insofar as it is determined by some branch of labour and the conditions pertaining to it. [...] In the estate (and even more in the tribe) this is as yet concealed: for instance, a nobleman always remains a nobleman, a commoner always a commoner, apart from his other relationships, a quality inseparable from his individuality. The division between the personal and the class individual, the accidental nature of the conditions of life for the individual, appears only with the emergence of the class, which is itself a product of the bourgeoisie. This accidental character is only engendered and developed by competition and the struggle of individuals among themselves. Thus, in imagination, individuals seem freer under the dominance of the bourgeoisie than before, because their conditions of life seem accidental; in reality, of course, they are less free, because they are more subjected to the violence of things. - The German Ideology	Individuals always develop themselves within their given historical conditions, not according to the "abstract individual" liberals like to ideologize and lead you astray. Unlike previous forms of class society with overt division of labor that slots you into a role or even generationally by birth like the caste or feudal system, the division of labor that arises from the capitalist class society seem to conceal itself much more effectively and has an element of accident, which creates an illusion that the individual appears freer under the domination of bourgeoisie and market economy than before, when in actuality they are even less in control over their own lives.
This subsuming of individuals under definite classes cannot be abolished until a class has taken shape, which has no longer any particular class interest to assert against the ruling class. - The German Ideology	Class subsumes individuality. This regime will not be abolished by claiming you don't believe in the mental construct of classes. It's like saying I'm not racist, casteist, or patriarchal, and therefore concluding that structure of bigotry does not exist. It will only change by changing the material structure of class. By destroying class oppression, the proletariat will liberate individuality.
The transformation, through the division of labour, of personal powers (relationships) into material powers, cannot be dispelled by dismissing the general idea of it from one's mind, but can only be abolished by the individuals again subjecting these material powers to themselves and abolishing the division of labour. This is not possible without the community. Only in community [with others has each] individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible. In the previous substitutes for the community, in the State, etc. personal freedom has existed only for the individuals who developed within the relationships of the ruling class, and only insofar as they were individuals of this class. The illusory community, in which individuals have up till now combined, always took on an independent existence in relation to them, and was at the same time, since it was the combination of one class over against another, not only a completely illusory community, but a new fetter as well. In a real community the individuals obtain their freedom in and through their association. - The German Ideology	You cannot liberate the individual from class just by thinking class does not exist. It requires a union against class oppression. This union of individuals against class oppression will create true individual freedom.The contradiction between individual and society is the result of class oppression. The ruling class has always had personal freedom but at the expense of exploitation of the majority. The contradiction between individual and society will be eliminated in a communist society because the majority will finally develop individuality and personal freedom.
the communal relationship into which the individuals of a class entered, and which was determined by their common interests over against a third party, was always a community to which these individuals belonged only as average individuals, only insofar as they lived within the conditions of existence of their class — a relationship in which they participated not as individuals but as members of a class. [...] This right to the undisturbed enjoyment, within certain conditions, of fortuity and chance has up till now been called personal freedom. - The German Ideology	Individuals become part of a class, not as individuals but as average individuals of a class. It is their negation of individuality.The right to exploit others is what has been called "personal freedom".
With the community of revolutionary proletarians, on the other hand, who take their conditions of existence and those of all members of society under their control, it is just the reverse; it is as individuals that the individuals participate in it. - The German Ideology	The proletariat breaks these class barriers to assert their individuality. Society can only develop individuality by breaking class relations.
Communism differs from all previous movements in that it overturns the basis of all earlier relations of production and intercourse, and for the first time consciously treats all natural premises as the creatures of hitherto existing men, strips them of their natural character and subjugates them to the power of the united individuals. [...] The reality, which communism is creating, is precisely the true basis for rendering it impossible that anything should exist independently of individuals, insofar as reality is only a product of the preceding intercourse of individuals themselves. - The German Ideology	Communism is based on united individuals, not crude collectivism. In reality society is made up of relations of individuals. But alienation robs the individuals of power. Communism makes it impossible "that anything should exist independently of individuals".
This communism, inasmuch as it negates the personality of man in every sphere, is simply the logical expression of the private property which is this negation. Universal envy constituting itself as a power is the hidden form in which greed reasserts itself and satisfies itself, but in another way. The thoughts of every piece of private property as such are at least turned against richer private property in the form of envy and the desire to level everything down; hence these feelings in fact constitute the essence of competition. The crude communist is merely the culmination of this envy and desire to level down on the basis of a preconceived minimum. It has a definite, limited measure. How little this abolition of private property is a true appropriation is shown by the abstract negation of the entire world of culture and civilization, and the return to the unnatural simplicity of the poor, unrefined man who has no needs and who has not yet even reached the stage of private property, let along gone beyond it. - The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts: 3rd Manuscript	The most common capitalist strawman. This is a leveling of private property, not the end of it. Making everyone equally poor is not communism and will destroy individuality. This is called crude communism.
Competition separates individuals from one another, not only the bourgeois but still more the workers, in spite of the fact that it brings them together. Hence it is a long time before these individuals can unite, apart from the fact that for the purposes of this union — if it is not to be merely local — the necessary means, the great industrial cities and cheap and quick communications, have first to be produced by big industry. Hence every organised power standing over against these isolated individuals, who live in relationships, daily reproducing this isolation, can only be overcome after long struggles. To demand the opposite would be tantamount to demanding that competition should not exist in this definite epoch of history, or that the individuals should banish from their minds relationships over which in their isolation they have no control. - The German Ideology	This is a question people often ask why doesn't the change happen quicker. It's because competition breaks apart workers and it will take time, education, agitation, organization and class consciousness to overcome their atomization.

Society & the Individual

Quote	In simple terms
It is, above all, necessary to avoid once more establishing “society" as an abstraction over against the individual. The individual is the social being. His vital expression – even when it does not appear in the direct form of a communal expression, conceived in association with other men – is therefore an expression and confirmation of social life. Man's individual and species-life are not two distinct things, however much – and this is necessarily so – the mode of existence of individual life is a more particular or a more general mode of the species-life, or species-life a more particular or more general individual life. - The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts: 3rd Manuscript	This is Marx criticizing classical liberals like Locke, Mill, Bentham who separates an abstract notion of individual from the society. Society is not a separate identify from the individuals that make up the society.
The propertied class and the class of the proletariat present the same human self-estrangement. But the former class feels at ease and strengthened in this self-estrangement, it recognizes estrangement as its own power and has in it the semblance of a human existence. The class of the proletariat feels annihilated in estrangement; it sees in it its own powerlessness and the reality of an inhuman existence. It is, to use an expression of Hegel, in its abasement the indignation at that abasement, an indignation to which it is necessarily driven by the contradiction between its human nature and its condition of life, which is the outright, resolute and comprehensive negation of that nature. - The Holy Family by Marx and Engels	The owning class is strengthened by alienation, the working class is made powerless by alienation.
it produces the proletariat as proletariat, poverty which is conscious of its spiritual and physical poverty, dehumanization which is conscious of its dehumanization, and therefore self-abolishing. - The Holy Family by Marx and Engels	The working class is dehumanized by alienation.
These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. - Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1)	Workers are nothing but commodities in capitalism.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc. - Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1)	Capitalist industrialization turns a worker into a limb of the machine. As the awfulness of the work increases, the wage decreases. As the use of machinery and division of labor increases, in the same proportion the burden of work also increases, whether by lengthening of the working hours, by increase of the work in a given time or by increased speed of the machinery, etc.
Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is. - Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1)	Workers in a work place is like soldiers under a dictatorship.

State & the Individual

Quote	In simple terms
Individuals always proceeded, and always proceed, from themselves. Their relations are the relations of their real life-process. How does it happen that their relations assume an independent existence over against them? and that the forces of their own life become superior to them?In short: division of labour, the level of which depends on the development of the productive power at any particular time. - The German Ideology	This was in critique of Hegel who says "the state expresses our commonality" or Aristotle's notion of man is a political animal, and the state is the highest form of expression of humans. Marx says the state is not some community representing everyone, it was formed through the development of division of labor. It is however a repressive institution over an individual. This is something both marxists and anarchists agree on in principle, however it is idealist to believe you can protect yourself from imperialist sabotage without a proletarian state. Marxists believe the state will wither away when they material basis for it's existence goes away.
the individuals, of which society consists, have given themselves collective expression, that is, the State. In order, therefore, to assert themselves as individuals, they must overthrow the State. - The German Ideology	Society consists of individuals. Society gives itself a collective expression (state). To restore individuality, the state must be overthrown.
And out of this very contradiction between the interest of the individual and that of the community the latter takes an independent form as the State, divorced from the real interests of individual and community, and at the same time as an illusory communal life, always based, however, on the real ties existing in every family and tribal conglomeration – such as flesh and blood, language, division of labour on a larger scale, and other interests – and especially, as we shall enlarge upon later, on the classes, already determined by the division of labour, which in every such mass of men separate out, and of which one dominates all the others. It follows from this that all struggles within the State, the struggle between democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, the struggle for the franchise, etc., etc., are merely the illusory forms in which the real struggles of the different classes are fought out among one another - The German Ideology	It is an illusion that the state represents common interests. Control over the state in the name of common interests is actually class struggle. In a capitalist state the minority capitalist class presents itself as the common interest, a proletarian state represents the interests of the majority working class.
the individuals must appropriate the existing totality of productive forces, not only to achieve self-activity, but, also, merely to safeguard their very existence. [...] The appropriation of these forces is itself nothing more than the development of the individual capacities corresponding to the material instruments of production. The appropriation of a totality of instruments of production is, for this very reason, the development of a totality of capacities in the individuals themselves. - The German Ideology	Once workers take over the economy, they become individuals and not mere instruments of production.
in the appropriation by the proletarians, a mass of instruments of production must be made subject to each individual, and property to all. Modern universal intercourse can be controlled by individuals, therefore, only when controlled by all. - The German Ideology	Individuals will be able to control the instruments of production and therefore control their conditions of life, only when they are not private property. This doesn't mean crude communism as mentioned above.
Only at this stage does self-activity coincide with material life, which corresponds to the development of individuals into complete individuals and the casting-off of all natural limitations. The transformation of labour into self-activity corresponds to the transformation of the earlier limited intercourse into the intercourse of individuals as such. With the appropriation of the total productive forces through united individuals, private property comes to an end. - The German Ideology	Communism will create 'complete individuals'. Labor will transform into self activity, an expression of species being, and elimination of alienation, meaning an end to the social relation of commodification of humans for exploitative labor, will be transformed into self activity like how no one tells you to do your own work you do for yourself. The capitalist superstructure and psychology tries real hard to obscure this basic fact and conform you to the logic of capital fundamentalism. United individuals will create communism.
The proletariat can thus only exist world-historically, just as communism, its activity, can only have a “world-historical” existence. World-historical existence of individuals means existence of individuals which is directly linked up with world history. - The German Ideology	In communism, the united power of individuals will be able to control their own history and not the other way around.

Conclusion

Marx was not a collectivist, though pro collectivization to end private property.
He argues that individuality will always remain subservient to class in an exploitative society.
Communism will truly develop individuality by destroying class exploitation.

r/Marxism

There is no real socialist country in today's society.

Philosophers

Is communist manifesto worth reading as a non communist?

Are any of you landlords?

Radical Individualism of Marxism