Communist Manifesto Summary

The Communist Manifesto opens with the famous words "The history of all hitherto
societies has been the history of class struggles," and proceeds in the next 41 pages
to single-mindedly elaborate this proposition (79). In section 1, "Bourgeois and
Proletarians," Marx delineates his vision of history, focusing on the development
and eventual destruction of the bourgeoisie, the dominant class of his day. Before
the bourgeoisie rose to prominence, society was organized according to a feudal
order run by aristocratic landowners and corporate guilds. With the discovery of
America and the subsequent expansion of economic markets, a new class arose, a
manufacturing class, which took control of international and domestic trade by
producing goods more efficiently than the closed guilds. With their growing
economic powers, this class began to gain political power, destroying the vestiges
of the old feudal society which sought to restrict their ambition. According to Marx,
the French Revolution was the most decisive instance of this form of bourgeois self-
determination. Indeed, Marx thought bourgeois control so pervasive that he claimed
that "the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common
affairs of the whole bourgeoisie" (82).
This bourgeois ascendancy has, though, created a new social class which labor in
the new bourgeois industries. This class, the proletariat, "wage-laborers who, having
no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order
to live," are the necessary consequence of bourgeois modes of production (79). As
bourgeois industries expand and increase their own capital, the ranks of the
proletariat swell as other classes of society, artisans and small business owners,
cannot compete with the bourgeois capitalists. Additionally, the development of
bourgeois industries causes a proportional deterioration in the condition of the
proletariat. This deterioration, which can be slowed but not stopped, creates within
the proletariat a revolutionary element which will eventually destroy their bourgeois
oppressors. As Marx says, "What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is
its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable"
(94).

In Chapter 2, "Proletariats and Communists," Marx elaborates the social changes

communists hope to effect on behalf of the proletariat. Marx notes firstly that the
interests of communists do not differ from the interests of the proletariat as a class;
they seek only to develop a class consciousness in the proletariat, a necessary
condition of eventual proletariat emancipation. The primary objective of
communists and the revolutionary proletariat is the abolition of private property, for
it is this that keeps them enslaved. Bourgeois economics, i.e., capitalism, requires
that the owners of the means of production compensate workers only enough to
ensure their mere physical subsistence and reproduction. In other words, the
existence of bourgeois property, or capital as Marx calls it, relies on its radically
unequal distribution. The only way the proletariat can free itself from bourgeois
exploitation is to abolish capitalism. In achieving this goal, the proletariat will
destroy all remnants of bourgeois culture which act to perpetuate, if even implicitly,
their misery. This includes family organization, religion, morality, jurisprudence,
etc. Culture is but the result of specific material/economic conditions and has no life
independent of these. The result of this struggle will be "an association in which the
free development of each is the condition for the development of all" (104).

Chapter 3, "Socialist and Communist Literature," encompasses Marx's discussion of

the relationship between his movement and previous or contemporaneous socialist
movements. In this chapter he repudiates these other movements for not fully
understanding the significance of the proletarian struggle. They all suffer from at
least one of 3 problems: 1) They look to previous modes of social organization for a
solution to present difficulties. 2) They deny the inherent class character of the
existing conflict. 3) They do not recognize that violent revolution on the part of the
proletariat is the only way to eradicate the conditions of oppression. Only the Marxist
communists truly appreciate the historical movement in which the antagonism
between the proletariat and bourgeois is the final act.

The final chapter, "Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Opposition
Parties," announces the communist intention to "everywhere support every
revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things"
(120). The communist contribution to this ongoing revolutionary discourse will be
the raising of the property question, for any revolutionary movement which does not
address this question cannot successfully rescue people from oppression. As Marx
thunders in conclusion, "Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

"The Communist Manifesto," originally known as "The Manifesto of the

Communist Party," was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in
1848, and is one of the most widely taught texts within sociology. The text
was commissioned by the Communist League in London, and was originally
published there, in German. While at the time it served as a political rally cry
for the communist movement throughout Europe, it is so widely taught today
because it offers a shrewd and early critique of capitalism and its social and
cultural implications.

For students of sociology, the text is a useful primer on Marx's critique of

capitalism, which is presented in much more depth and detail
in Capital, Volumes 1-3.

History

"The Communist Manifesto" is the product of the joint development of ideas

between Marx and Engels, and rooted in debates held by Communist League
leaders in London, however the final draft was written solely by Marx. The
text became a significant political influence in Germany, and led to Marx
being expelled from the country, and his permanent move to London. It was
first published in English in 1850.

Despite its controversial reception in Germany and its pivotal role in Marx's
life, the text was paid rather little attention until the 1870s, when Marx took
a prominent role in the International Workingmen's Association, and
publicly supported the 1871 Paris commune and socialist movement. The
text also captured wider attention thanks to its role in a treason trial held
against German Social Democratic Party leaders.

Marx and Engels revised and republished the text after it became more
widely known, which resulted in the text that we know today. It has been
popular and widely read around the world since the late 19th century, and
continues to serve as a basis for critiques of capitalism, and as a call for
social, economic, and political systems that are organized by equality and
democracy, rather than exploitation.

Introduction to the Manifesto

"A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism."

Marx and Engels begin the manifesto by pointing out that those in power
across Europe have identified communism as a threat, which they believe
means that as a movement, it has the political potential to change the power
structure and economic system that was currently in place (capitalism). They
then state that the movement requires a manifesto, and that this is what the
text is meant to be.
Part 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

In Part 1 of the manifesto Marx and Engels explain the evolution and
functioning of the unequal and exploitative class structure that resulted from
the rise of capitalism as an economic system. They explain that while political
revolutions overturned the unequal hierarchies of feudalism, in their place
sprung a new class system composed primarily of a bourgeoisie (owners of
the means of production) and proletariat (wage workers). They wrote, "The
modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society
has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes,
new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones."

Marx and Engels explain that the bourgeoisie have done this not just by
control of industry, or the economic engine of society, but also because those
within this class seized state power by creating and controlling the post-
feudal political system. Consequently, they explain, the state (or,
government) reflects the world views and interests of the bourgeoisie class--
the wealthy and powerful minority--and not those of the proletariat, who are
actually the majority of society.

Next Marx and Engels explains the cruel, exploitative reality of what happens
when workers are forced to compete with each other and sell their labor to
the owners of capital. An important consequence, the offer, is the stripping
away of other kinds of social ties that used to bind people together in society.
Within what has come to be known as a "cash nexus," workers are mere
commodities--expendable, and easily replaceable.

They go on to explain that because capitalism is premised on growth, the

system is gobbling up all people and societies around the world. As the
system grows, expands, and evolves its methods and relations of production,
ownership, and thus wealth and power are increasingly centralized within it.
(The global scale of today's capitalist economy, and the extreme
concentration of ownership and wealth among the global elite show us that
the 19th century observations of Marx and Engels were on point.)

However, Marx and Engels wrote, the system itself is designed for failure.
Because as it grows and ownership and wealth concentrate, the exploitative
conditions of wage laborers only worsen over time, and these sew the seeds
of revolt. They observe that in fact that revolt is already fomenting; the rise
of the Communist party is a sign of this. Marx and Engels conclude this
section with this proclamation: "What the bourgeoisie therefore produces,
above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat
are equally inevitable."

It is this section of the text that is considered the main body of the Manifesto,
and is most often quoted, and taught as an abridged version to students. The
following sections are less well-known.

Part 2: Proletarians and Communists

"In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class
antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development
of each is the condition for the free development of all."

In this section Marx and Engels explain what it is exactly that the Communist
Party wants for society.

They begin by pointing out that the Communist Party is not a political
workers party like any other because it does not represent a particular faction
of workers. Rather, it represents the interests of workers (the proletariat) as
a whole. These interests are shaped by the class antagonisms created by
capitalism and the rule of the bourgeoisie, and transcend national borders.

They explain, quite plainly, that the Communist Party seeks to turn the
proletariat into a cohesive class with clear and unified class interests, to
overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie, and to seize and redistribute political
power. The crux of doing this, Marx and Engels explain, is the abolition of
private property, which is the manifest of capital, and the essence of wealth
hoarding.

Marx and Engels acknowledge that this proposition is met with scorn and
derision on the part of the bourgeoisie. To this, they reply:

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; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-
existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with
intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for
whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense
majority of society.
In other words, clinging to the importance and necessity of private property
only benefits the bourgeoisie in a capitalist society.

Everyone else has little to no access to it, and suffers under its reign. (If you
question the validity of this claim in today's context, just consider the vastly
unequal distribution of wealth in the U.S., and the mountain of consumer,
housing, and educational debt that buries most of the population.)

Then, Marx and Engels state the ten goals of the Communist Party.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to

public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national
bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the
hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the
State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the
improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies,
especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual
abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more
equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of
children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education
with industrial production, etc.

While some of these might seem controversial and troubling, consider that
some of them have and do exist in a variety of nations around the world.

Part 3: Socialist and Communist Literature

In Part 3 Marx and Engels present an overview of three different types of

socialist literature, or critiques of the bourgeoisie, that existed at their time,
in order to provide context for the Manifesto. These include reactionary
socialism, conservative or bourgeois socialism, and critical-utopian
socialism or communism. They explain that the first type is either backward
looking and seeking to return to some kind of feudal structure, or that seeks
to really preserve conditions as they are and is actually opposed to the goals
of the Communist Party. The second, conservative or bourgeois socialism, is
the product of members of the bourgeoisie savvy enough to know that one
must address some grievances of the proletariat in order to maintain the
system as it is. Marx and Engels note that economists, philanthropists,
humanitarians, those that run charities, and many other "do-gooders"
espouse and produce this particular ideology, which seeks to make minor
adjustments to the system rather than change it. (For a contemporary take
on this, see the differing implications of a Sanders versus a Clinton
presidency.) The third type is concerned with offering real critiques of the
class structure and social structure, and a vision of what could be, but
suggests that the goal should be to create new and separate societies rather
than fight to reform the existing one, so it too is opposed to a collective
struggle by the proletariat.

Part 4: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing

Opposition Parties

In the final section Marx and Engels point out that the Communist Party
supports all revolutionary movements that challenge the existing social and
political order, and close the Manifesto with a call for unity among the
proletariat with their famous rally cry, "Working men of all countries, unite!"