This page is a selection of definitions borrowed from “The Dictionary of Revolutionary Marxism”
Capitalism
A socio-economic formation based on the ownership of the means of production by the capitalist class (either in its traditional form of private ownership by individuals or corporations, or in the form of state capitalism where the capitalists own the means of production collectively as a class), and the exploitation of hired labor by the capitalists through the extraction of surplus value.
Means of production
The totality of the material elements of economic production, including the factories, mines, machinery, tools, raw materials, land, buildings, means of transport, etc. (Human labor is not included in this category; the means of production together with the application of the human work force to these material elements are collectively known as the productive forces.)
Bourgeoisie
The capitalist class; the ruling class in capitalist society, which owns the means of production (factories, etc.) and exploits hired labor.
Proletariat
The working class; the class of people in capitalist society who, deprived of any ownership of the means of production, must sell their labor power to the capitalists in order to survive. Hence the exploited class in bourgeois society.
Capital
In modern bourgeois society most people think of capital as the same thing as money, and this is the way the bourgeoisie itself often informally uses the term. (“The company has enough capital on hand to build a new factory...”) But for Marxists this completely misses the central concept of what capital actually is. According to Marx capital is the wealth (including not only money, but—more essentially—also land, buildings, machinery and hired labor) that is devoted to the production of more wealth. The capitalist hires workers, who make practical use of that existing capital (factories, machines, raw materials, etc.) to create additional value (see: “surplus value”) which then automatically belongs to the capitalist. This retained surplus value becomes part of the expanded capital that the capitalist then owns.
If an ordinary person, a worker, has some money saved up, or still available at the end of the month, that is not “capital”! (At least in the Marxist sense.) The reason is that the worker has no way of making use of that money to create more value, more capital. The worker does not own a factory, machinery, the necessary raw materials, etc., that would allow him to do that. On the other hand, even if a capitalist is deeply in debt, and needs to borrow more money to keep functioning, if he already owns a factory, machinery, raw materials, and purchases labor power (i.e., hires workers) he already has a tremendous amount of capital, and is in a position to make use of it to generate additional capital.
Money can be used as capital (e.g., to build factories, buy machinery and raw materials, hire workers, etc.). Money which is actually used for such purposes is called money capital. But if money, whether a small amount or a large amount, is not used for such purposes, it is not capital. Thus to understand what capital actually is, it is first necessary to get rid of the simple-minded and grossly incorrect idea that “capital = money”.
Surplus value
The value produced by workers in the capitalist system of production which is over and above that which goes to pay their wages, and the costs of raw materials, overhead, and other expenses required to keep the production process going. Surplus value is expropriated by the capitalists and is the source of not only their own profits, but also sometimes of the profit of other capitalists, such as the retailers who market the products for the manufacturing company.
Private property
As understood by Marxists in their discussions of the capitalist system and the political economy of capitalism, private property means mostly the private property in the means of social production. It does not normally refer to the personal possessions of ordinary people, such as your home, furniture, clothing, or your toothbrush(!), which are themselves not even part of the means of production in the first place. Nor does it even importantly refer to the means of production owned and used by a self-employed individual craftsman in capitalist or possibly socialist society who is not (directly anyway) exploited by a capitalist.
Instead, the “private property” that Marxists are primarily concerned to confiscate and make the property of everyone are those means of social production presently used in workplaces owned and controlled by capitalists. The point is to make that production serve the needs and interests of the working people and the broad masses, rather than to just make profits for the current private owners of those factories. Of course the bulk of the private personal property of the capitalists and their agents (e.g., their bank accounts, mansions and their yachts), which they have obtained through the vicious exploitation of workers, will also be confiscated and used for public purposes.
Class interests
The collective interests of the members of a particular social class; the interests which they hold in common; the things which benefit them as a group. These differ greatly from one class to another. Thus the capitalist class has an essential interest in exploiting workers in order to generate surplus value and therefore profits. The working class, on the other hand, has a strong objective interest in ending this system of capitalist exploitation, whether or not individual workers are aware of this class interest of theirs at a particular time.
Class struggle
The struggle between social classes with antagonistic (irreconcilable) interests.
The state
[In Marxist usage:] The primary instrument of political power in class society, consisting of organs of administration (government departments), and of force (army and police). There are also usually axillary organs (legislatures or parliaments, and courts of law) which exist both to resolve conflicts within the ruling class and to lend the appearance of fairness and “complete democracy” to the state. The state is thus a mechanism for class rule, the embodiment of the dictatorship of a particular class, no matter how camouflaged it may be.
Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie
Bourgeois, or capitalist, rule; domination of society by the capitalist class. There are two main forms of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, bourgeois democracy and fascism. In either case, bourgeois rule is based ultimately on force and violence directed against the lower classes, especially the proletariat, and whatever laws or rules the bourgeoisie may put in place are dispensed with whenever necessary to maintain its rule.
Bourgeois democracy
The form of capitalist society in which the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is camouflaged by superficial (i.e., fundamentally false) democratic forms. One favorite technique is to alternate rule between two different bourgeois political parties, both of which represent the fundamental interests of the capitalists and which differ only on secondary questions on which the capitalists themselves are not in agreement. The masses are accorded a minor role in deciding which of these two basically indistinguishable parties (from the proletarian point of view) shall administer capitalist power in any given period, in order to give them the illusion that they are controlling society. Whenever bourgeois rule is seriously threatened the capitalists dispense with the camouflage and resort to fascism.
Fascism
The form of capitalist society in which the bourgeoisie rules by open, terroristic violence against the people, as opposed to bourgeois democracy. As an extreme form of bourgeois nationalist rule, fascism often also includes rabid forms of racism, often to the point of genocide. The most vicious and notorious example was Nazi Germany (1933-1945).
All capitalist countries have at least some elements of fascism, to one degree or another, and to the extent that the bourgeoisie thinks these elements are “necessary” in order to maintain their rule. Nevertheless, we call those countries which allow relatively more freedoms of speech, of the press, of association, and allow at least some mass protest bourgeois democracies, while those countries which have few if any such freedoms we call fascist.
Dictatorship of the proletariat
Proletarian rule [as opposed to bourgeois rule]. See also: “Socialist society”
Socialist society
An intermediate and transitional form of society between capitalism and communism, characterized in its economic aspect by the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work,” and characterized in its political aspect by the genuine control and rule of society by the revolutionary proletariat and its party or parties.
Socialism is still a form of class society, where class struggle still exists, and bourgeois and proletarian ideology and tendencies still do battle. The ruling class in a genuine socialist society is the proletariat.
Communist society
A classless socio-economic system in which all the means of production are owned and controlled by the people as a whole. The basic economic principle of communist society is “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.”