WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! Written in 1848 by political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.
The seminal work contains Marx and Engels' theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles".
The book also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism.
'The Communist Manifesto' is an attempt to explain the goal of communism as well as the theory underlying the communist movement. It argues that class struggles and the exploitation of the lower class are the motivating factors behind historical developments leading to the communist movement. Marx insisted that his brand of socialism was different from others because it was scientifically based in the objective study of history, which he saw as a continuous process of change and transformation. Just as feudalism evolved into mercantilism and then capitalism, capitalism would inevitably give way to its logical successor, socialism, as the necessary result of class struggle.
Marx discusses modern industrial society, which is characterized by class conflict between the bourgeoisie (the employers of the wage laborers and the owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (the wage-laborers who do not have their own means of production and therefore must sell their own labor in order to survive). The productive forces of capitalism, he argues, are quickly ceasing to be compatible with this exploitative relationship and therefore the proletariat will lead a revolution different from any previous revolution. Where previous revolutions simply reallocated property in favor of the new ruling class, this revolution would have the proletariat destroying all ownership of private property, which would cause social classes to disappear and a classless society to arise. Marx argues that this development is inevitable and that capitalism is inherently unstable. The Communists intend to promote this revolution and will promote the parties and associations that are moving history towards this natural conclusion. The elimination of social classes cannot come about through reforms or changes in government, but has to happen through a revolution.
'The Communist Manifesto' concludes with a discussion about the role of the Communists as they work with other parties and ends with a rallying cry: "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!"
About the Author: Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 - 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influenced much of subsequent economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being 'The Communist Manifesto' (1848) and 'Das Kapital' (1867-1894).
Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland, Marx studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies, he wrote for a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. He moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing for other radical newspapers and met Friedrich Engels, who would become his lifelong friend and collaborator.
In 1849 he was exiled and moved to London together with his wife and children where he continued writing and formulating his theories about social and economic activity.
Marx's theories about society, economics and politics - collectively known as Marxism - hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict between an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides the labour for production. He called capitalism the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it to be run by the wealthy classes for their own benefit; and he predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism.
Marx argued that class antagonisms under capitalism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would eventuate in the working class' conquest of political power in the form of a dictatorship of the proletariat and eventually establish a classless society, socialism or communism, a society governed by a free association of producers. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for their implementation, arguing that social theorists and underprivileged people alike should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.
