Discussion Topic
Purpose and Overview of The Communist Manifesto
Summary:
The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, aims to present the goals of communism and the theory underlying this movement. It critiques the capitalist system, calling for the working class to rise against the bourgeoisie. The manifesto outlines the historical development of class struggles and advocates for a classless society where the means of production are communally owned.
What is the thesis of The Communist Manifesto?
The main thesis of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto is that for too long, common workers of the world (the proletariat) have been exploited by manufacturers (the bourgeoisie), and the time has come to change the situation. Because the manufacturers control the means of production, laborers and craftsmen will continue to suffer privations for the benefit of their oppressors. Also central to the Manifesto is the concept of private property, about which Marx writes, “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
In addition, though it is not directly related to the main thesis, Marx believes that “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” What makes Marx think victory is inevitable? For one thing, there are more proletariat than bourgeoisie, and the justification for their...
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grievances rises in tandem.
But with the development of industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalized, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level.
There is much bellicose language in the Manifesto. Consider the passage below, in which Marx discusses the goals of the movement.
The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.
The Manifesto ends with a sonorous call to action, but for all its eloquence and empowerment, it is similarly laced with menace.
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Marx famously ends the Manifesto saying “Workers of the world, unite!” but it’s what he does not exhort the workers to do that speaks volumes—namely, to grab their weapons while they are uniting.
References
What is the purpose of The Communist Manifesto?
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were prolific authors of economic and political theory. Marx in particular was a serious commentator on economic theory who wrote voluminously about the dehumanizing nature of capitalist economics. His multivolume series on Capital (Das Kapital) and his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts set forth Marx’s predilections on what he viewed as the autocratic consequences of free enterprise and the evolution of society away from capitalism and towards socialism. In contrast to these other works, however, the Communist Manifesto is intended less as a protracted and sometimes utopian denunciation of capitalism, and more as a political call to action. Note in the final passage of the Manifesto the author's rallying cry to the masses:
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!
Marx’s most thoughtful writings describe an evolutionary process, the end-state of which is a near-utopian worker's paradise in which each individual contributes according his or her ability and receives according to his or her needs. That evolutionary process necessitates a period of capitalist economics that Marx viewed as essential to the industrialization of modernization of any given society. Indeed, it was his antipathy towards the archaic Russian society and his favorable view of the more technologically and industrially advanced nations of the West that convinced him that such societies would inevitably be the models for socialist development and not the backwards, unsophisticated model presented by czarist Russia.
In contrast to the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts and Das Kapital, the Communist Manifesto was a relatively brief political call to arms. Intended less as a scholarly dissertation and more as a political treatise or “manifesto,” which, by definition, is a public declaration of an individual or organization’s goals, Marx and Engels intended this document as a more immediate rallying cry for major changes in the status quo. While his earlier, more ponderous works reflected the realities of a more gradual, incremental evolutionary theory, the Communist Manifesto represented an impatience with that theory.
References
On February 21 1848, the Communist Manifesto was published in London by a group of German-born revolutionary socialists. This pamphlet was not written on the spur of the moment by Marx and Engels: it was a project commissioned by the Communist League, a newly-formed group in London. We can an see evidence of this on the first page:
"Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London, and sketched the following manifesto."
The word 'manifesto' also gives us an important clue about the purposes of this pamphlet. A manifesto is defined as a 'public declaration of policy and aims by a political party'. In other words, this pamphlet was not a typical book; it was designed to give the public a complete overview of the Communists League purpose and beliefs. This view is strengthened by the following sentence (also on the first page):
"to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages."
By publishing the manifesto in so many languages, the Communists hoped to not only educate all of these countries in their aims but also, perhaps, recruit some new members from across Europe.
References
What is The Communist Manifesto?
The Communist Manifesto was a relatively short document that was meant to be a statement of the beliefs of the Communist League, which was a multinational political movement (albeit a small one) in Europe in the 1840s. In this document, Marx and Engels lay out their vision of what the communist party was attempting to do. This was, in essence, a catechism of what the communists believed.
In the manifesto, the authors lay out their understanding of history and society. They show how history is (again, this is in their minds) a history of the struggle between classes. They show how the capitalist system that is just rising to its full strength in Europe is based on the exploitation of the workers. They then argue that capitalism will inevitably be replaced by socialism and then by communism.
Thus, The Communist Manifesto is the statement of the political beliefs of a group of European communists in the 1840s. It became one of the most influential statements of political and social beliefs in the history of the world.