An Analysis of The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto is a theory created by Karl Marx, a popular philosopher who disagreed with capitalism as a moral economic system. The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848. This theory suggested an alternative economic system instead of using capitalism. It was compiled into four main sections: Bourgeois and Proletarians, Proletarians and Communists, Socialist and Communist Literature, and Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties. Marx believed that capitalism would never be a beneficial system as it relied on the exploitation of the working class.

Throughout the first section, Marx commonly made connections between the feudal system and capitalism. Feudalism was a causation of the social classes under capitalism. These ideas can be commonly seen in the sense that peasants/laborers were at the bottom of a social pyramid with the highest population. They would work to support lords (a smaller percentage of the population) and would have a percentage of goods that were produced taken away. He separated these two by calling the laborers proletariat and the employers bourgeoisie. The idea that Marx proposed was that to continue a capitalistic society there needs to be constant revolution with technology. Because of this, the employers would need to expand not only technology, but also urbanization to increase production. By doing this, the environment is specifically shaped by their urbanization no matter how conservative it originally was. This urbanization was a direct cause for nation, class, laws, and a unified government, however, there became an inability to control it all. New markets and urbanization led to more exploitation of the working class, as there was a higher need of production to accommodate for increased demand. The idea is that the working class itself is a weapon. Without the working class producing for the high demand, the entire economic system would fall. However, the working class has been abused by the employers to a point that this isn't noticed. When production increases, wages continue to decrease or stay the same despite more work being done. To Marx, the working class is always going to be exploited under capitalism no matter sex and age because employers will exploit to ensure more production is gauranteed. Logically to Marx, the working class would be able to come together to form a union to create a political struggle and ultimately stop the exploitation. To explain this Marx would cite the idea of wage-labour and then ending of it. This idea basically explains that a worker sells their labor power in a contract with their employer which commonly can be exploited.

Furthermore, in the second section, Marx explains the main goal of Communists is to bring the common interest of the working class and end the class struggle with laborers and employers. To achieve this a revolution or “overthrow” is necessary. Not only this, but the idea of private property and feudal like classes would need to be abolished. Marx’s reasoning for this is because property isnt always gained ethically and the idea of profiting off of property would mean there needs to be workers to exploit. However, he acknowledged the capitalist side and ultimately tore it down with the sense of monopolies which increased possible exploitation. His critiques of the critiques given would commonly show the issue with capitalism such as monopolies and how capitalism is inherently exploitative. He further explains that communism itself would never take the power of production or individuality away, it would only take the ability to own the labor of others away. It's also recognized that the idea of family was now based on wealth and gain instead of traditional values of family itself. Marx explains that communism would not change schools or their conditions, however the idea of private education would no longer be offered. He mentions characteristics that would exist such as abolition of private property, progressive income taxes, abolition of rights of inheritance, centralisation of credit, etc. In this society the idea of class supremacy would also be non-existent because a class struggle would result in the dismantling of any type of patriarchy or class structure. Marx does acknowledge the fact that this couldn't happen immediately. There would have to be in a sense, a stepping stone that would lead to a communist society, which leads to the idea of socialism and certain types of socialism. 

Throughout “Chapter 30: The Making of the Industrial period” we have seen how capitalism first developed and became more popular. However, with the spread of Capitalism, we learned it brought a spread of Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, and Marxists, one example being Karl Marx. In this chapter we learned how his ideas played off the immorality of capitalism and a better economic system that would give more freedom and collectivism for workers. Commonly, this chapter did recognize that Marx had published multiple economic theories based on capitalism and communism to help get his points across. 

Adding on, in “Chapter 33: Imperialism” it also recognizes there was an extreme growth of these groups of communists and anarchists. As Marx had said in the Communist Manifesto the proloteriat had to come together to overthrow the currenct class system and abolish it as nothing ethical and equal would come out of it. In this chapter, it was said that people used imperialism as a justification to stop this possible overthrow of the proloteriat. This was done because more attention of these groups was focused on the effects of imperialism and the exploitation of other countries rather than just disagreeing with capitalism and basing a revolution on that. To add on, this chapter also mentioned that people took this new land they got from colonization as places to outcast these anarchists and communists. Because of what I read in the Communist Manifesto, it was again most likely from the fear of any attempted coup. In general, chapters 30 and 33 did mention communism and anarchism in a way that would lead to the idea that many capitalists at the time were reactionary due to the ideas of overthrowing classes.

Personally, the Communist Manifesto isnt one of the best critical theories about economics, however, I view it as a really great starting point for people who want to learn about different economic ideas. When I first read it, about a year ago, I didnt have any understanding of other economic systems and very little understanding of capitalism. This theory was very easy to comprehend and really gave me a new perspective on economics that I originally didnt have. Before I actually started reading this type of theory I was very pro capitalism without ever trying to understand different economic systems or ideas. This theory specifically didnt cause me to shift my view points in a big fashion because I think it lacked the more critical aspects of how communism should work such as how taxes would work, how the ecp would be explained, distribution of goods, etc. It left me with more questions that I didnt have any answers to, but it did cause me to be more curious about what Marx meant when talking about communism, different types of communism, social class effects, religious effects, and how it would all work. Without this easy to understand theory, I wouldnt have started reading other critical theory that helps with political literacy. I find this theory was very helpful in the long run for me. It had a lot of renosation because it caused me to start finding more theory to understand how different aspects could possibly affect people and life.