Marxism can be widely applied to real world events, both past and present. Marx believed that all of recorded history was little more that a series of class struggles, with conflict arising because of flaws in the dominant economic system of the time. He believed history followed the pattern laid out by Hegel: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. In each socioeconomic epoch, one class (the thesis) would create an opposing force (antithesis), and they would struggle until one changed or overthrew the other (synthesis). The new system created would in turn created another thesis and the cycle would begin anew. In this way, Marx traced societies progress through various economic systems, from slavery to feudalism to capitalism. Marx believed that a society would transition from capitalism to communism once the proletariat achieved class consciousness and overthrew the bourgeoisie (communism was considered an ideal economic system as it is completely classless and thus would end the cycle of class struggle, with all men finally being equal). While country or world scale revolution has been rare, even the smaller struggles between the powerful and the subjugated can be considered emblematic of the shortcomings of capitalist society under Marxism, and human history is rife with such examples.

Struggles between the oppressors and the oppressed were the defining characteristics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The late 1800s and early 1900s were the prime years of worker union activity in America, which involved protesting, striking, and rioting against rich company owners who paid wages that were too low and provided working environments that were too dangerous and demanding. The sentiments these unionizers were expressing echo Marxist critiques of capitalism, emphasizing the injustice of the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that “the working class… who live only so long as they can find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital… becomes an appendage of the machine.”

Similarly, human rights movements can be considered  examples of Marxist theory. These happened in waves, with the most notable one occurring in the sixties. During this time, counterculture was on the rise. Many groups of marginalized people banded together to fight for their liberties. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks were perhaps some of the most prominent figures associated with the movements of the time, but there were many others fighting for their rights as well. Marsha P Johnson, for example, was a trans woman who was a key figure in the Stonewall riots that led to the emancipation of the LGBTQ community. Betty Friedan was a feminist and writer often credited for sparking the second-wave feminist movement of the sixties. This time period is defined by its human rights movements. The very concept of rising up against oppressors after centuries of struggling gets at the very core of what Marxism is about. Their stand against the powerful didn’t necessarily end with the rebels seizing the means of production and forming a new society based on principles of equality, but the essence of the struggles between socioeconomic groups are in line with key Marxist ideals.

In other parts of the world, there are examples such as the French Revolution or the Haitian Revolution, both of which occurred prior to the creation of Marxism. Marx was fascinated by such uprising (especially the socialist thinking which spread in France after the French Revolution) and had such event in mind when creating his theories.  The French Revolution was triggered when high taxes and bad harvests forced hordes of common people into starvation and drew the poor further into poverty. After years of fighting and turmoil, the monarchy was overthrown and its prominent members were beheaded.

The Haitian Revolution was in response to slavery, racial oppression, and colonialism in Saint Domingue (present day Haiti). A group of slaves rose up against their French oppressors, overthrew them, and established a non-white sovereign nation. This uprising became known as one of the largest and most successful slave uprisings in history.

In the present day, there are five countries that currently use the communist system: China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba. Take China as an example. The Chinese Communist Revolution lasted from 1941 to 1945 and was led by Mao Zedong, who directed the members of the Communist Party against the Nationalists. The people of China felt that their country was fragmented and that their government, led by Nationalist Chiang Kaishek, was weak and didn’t care for the common people. They believed that the Confucian ideals, which placed a huge importance on conformity to social structure, were ruining China. Anti-imperialist sentiment had spread throughout the common people. The idea of Marxism inspired the formation of the Communist Party, and later the Communist Revolution.

There are a tremendous amount of other examples of class struggles such as these throughout history and throughout the world. The ones listed, obviously, are only a few.