Introduction

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a german philosopher, economist, and sociologist who met Friederich Engels (1820-1895), another socially-minded German philosopher. They joined a new political society called the League of the Just in 1847, creating the Communist Manifesto together. The Manifesto is split into three sections: historical context/nature of contemporary capitalist society setting forth objectives why it was better than other socialist movements

Bourgeoise and Proletarians

bourgeoise = class of modern capitalist, owners of means of production, employers of wage labor

In earlier ages, societies were arranged by class structures. There were feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, and apprentices in medieval times. Modern bourgeois sprouted from the ruins of feudal society. This society has become simplified into two rival camps--Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

The modern bourgeoisie is the product of several revolutions in production and exchange. First, feudal guilds couldn't provide for increasing markets, and the manufacturing middle class took its place. Then, however, demand kept growing, and manufacturing couldn't keep up, leading to the Industrial Revolution.

A series of political developments accompanied the development of the bourgeoisie as a class. First, with the growth of the world market, the bourgeoisie has gained exclusive political sway. Thus, exploitation that used to be veiled by religious and political "illusions" is now direct, brutal, and blatant.

Because the bourgeoisie needs a constantly expanding market, it settles and establishes connections all over the globe. It "creates a world after its image." All become dependent on the bourgeoisie. It has also increased political centralization.

Free competition replaced the old system, and the bourgeoisie rose to power. However, modern bourgeois society is in the process of turning on itself. Current productive forces are revolting against the current conditions of production. Moreover, commercial crises, due, ironically, to over-production, are threatening the existence of bourgeois society.

proletariat = no means of production on their own, reduced to selling labor/power to live

As the bourgeoisie developed, so did the proletariat. The proletarians live only as long as they can find work, and they can find work only as long as their labor increases capital. They are a commodity vulnerable to all the fluctuations of the market. Due to the development of machines, the proletariat's work has lost all "charm." Furthermore, as his work becomes more repulsive, his wage only decreases. Furthermore, the worker gets his wages from his exploitative boss; then, he is exploited by other bourgeoisie, such as his landlord.

The proletariat is helped in unification by the increased means of communication made possible by modern technology, allowing for the struggles to take on national character. While the organization of the proletariat into a class is continually destroyed by competition among workers, it rises again stronger each time.

The only class today that is revolutionary is the proletariat. When a class gets the upper hand, it tries to subject all of society to its mode of appropriation. However, the proletariat lack any property of their own to retain or expand. Instead, they must destroy all ways of securing the private property at all.

Until now, every society has been based on class oppression. However, for a class to be oppressed, its slavish existence must be sustainable: laborers in modern society are continually suffering a deterioration of their status; they become poorer and poorer. The bourgeoisie is thus unfit to rule because they cannot guarantee "an existence to its slave within its slavery." Thus, the fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable."

Proletarians and Communists

Communism challenges bourgeois freedom. "You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population."

The Manifesto then addresses some objections to Communism. Many maintain that no one will work if private property is abolished. However, by this logic, bourgeois society should have been overcome with laziness long ago. In reality, those who work don't acquire anything, and those who acquire things don't work. Others maintain that Communism will destroy all intellectual products. However, this reflects a bourgeois misunderstanding. The disappearance of "class culture" is not the same thing as the disappearance of all cultures.

We see then that the first step in the working-class revolution is to make the proletariat the ruling class. When class distinctions have disappeared, the public power will lose its political character. This is because political power is nothing more than "the organized power of one class for oppressing another." Bourgeois society will be replaced by a society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."e equally inevitable."

Socialist and Communist Literature

The first subset is Reactionary Socialism. These groups fight against the rise of the bourgeoisie and modern industry without realizing the historical process the bourgeoisie represents.

The second subset of Socialism is Conservative, or Bourgeois, Socialism. This subset reflects the desires of a segment of the bourgeois to redress social grievances to guarantee the continued existence of bourgeois society.

The third subset is Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism. This subset originated with the first attempts of the proletariat to achieve their ends. These socialists looked for new social laws to create the material conditions necessary to free the proletariat.