Marxist theory

Factual Questions
1

I really don’t like asking for help on homework on SD but I think that I need some clarifications.

I’m writing on the land crisis in Guatemala and how big companies are forcing sustainable farmers out of their land, and causing them to join the laboring class. The book Paradox of Plenty looks at the situation as a neo-classical point of view suggesting that the (equilib) price is set by the supply and demand of the commodity, lets say corn.

I would like to argue that Marx’s theory is a more suitable way of looking at this crisis because their is a large laboring class that revolts against the upper class. Also the natives are paid next to nothing and it would seem that the price of corn would be set by the labor hours the natives put into it.

I like to think of “how would Marxist theory be applied to a sweatshop.” And more importantly, how are the individual, sustainable farmers assimilated into the working class and what role would technology play in this?

I’m sorry if I seem all over the place here. Both answers and a little direction would really help. Thanks.

2

Good sociological / political / economic theories don’t give you “answers” so much as they give you a viewing angle from which you may see things that help make sense of the data. The marxist perspective says to think in terms of the data you see as the results of a power struggle in process; and specifically the ownership of the means of production, which in this case would be the land, as it often is in classical marxism.

Don’t be timid about doing your own theorizing and then finding references to cite as illustrations or reflections of your own thoughts rather than finding a specific marxist writing that bolsters your premise that “marxist theory is applicable here”. (All theories are always applicable anywhere to the extent that they enable you to see things clearly).