“Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labor. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others…” (Marx 238). In today’s Western society, such a statement would be smacked down as a statement of radicalism or of anarchy. In the years surrounding the Industrial Revolution in Europe, however, the deprivation of man by his labor was a greater threat for the working class population. The working class, described by Marx as the proletariat, was in a continuous struggle for survival during this time, and it was to this class of society that Marx appealed. Karl Marx offered the workers of the world the solution of revolution in response to the struggles they faced. To convince them of this and …show more content…
his views, he explained the bourgeoisie’s impious subjugation of the working class and how his ideals would help them overcome this oppression. Marx further suggests to the working class how to go about organizing and completing the revolution both nationally and internationally. Revolution may have left a sour taste in the mouths of those who witnessed the horrors of the French Revolution, but Marx insisted that it was the only solution for the proletariat to take control of the world and eviscerate the injustices done to them.
In order for the working class to save themselves and reshape the world as it should be, they needed to strip the bourgeoisie’s power away, which could only be done via revolution. According to Marx, this power is political power: “…the organized power of one class for oppressing another” (244). By overthrowing the bourgeoisie, the proletariats would assume control over themselves, and therefore have the ability to solve the problems they faced during the Industrial Revolution, such as being overworked and underpaid. “In place of the old bourgeoisie society, [they] shall have an association, in which the free development of each…is the free development of all” (Marx 244). For those who had been oppressed and suffering all their lives this seemed a very utopian goal. To get the working class on board, Marx had to explain how Communist ideology would help them directly and incite their anger and urge to unite by showing how the upper classes had oppressed …show more content…
them. Realizing how skeptical the population of the world was about Communism, Marx attempted to enlighten the working class of the harm consistently done to them by the upper classes and answered skeptics’ questions about the ideology.
Marx claimed that the bourgeoisie had exploited the lower classes directly and brutally, and blamed them for the crises that shook the world. For example, he stated that they had “reduced the family relation to a mere money relation,” and that through the expansion of their modern industry had “cut off the supply of every means of subsistence” of the world (Marx 225, 226). These claims suggested that the upper classes had taken away the sanctity and security of the family via their own desires for industry and power. He also appealed to the growing frustrations and hopelessness the working class was experiencing at the time, explaining that the suffering of the working classes didn’t end at the workplace; that even the landlords of their homes and the shopkeepers they bought their means to live from exploited them, taking away the little wages they earned to keep the working classes oppressed (Marx 228). By validating his claims that the working class was in a cycle of being oppressed, Marx further attempted to persuade the people towards his line of thinking; revolution. Speaking of things such as overthrowing the ruling class, however, incurred many questions and criticisms towards Marx’s views. To ensure that the working class would be
predisposed to Communism Marx retorted to these criticisms and questions in the Manifesto: For example, when criticized about the idea of the abolition of private property, he responded that the development of industry by the bourgeoisie had already destroyed the private property of the wage laborers, and that it would continue to prevent the working class from accumulating any private property at all (Marx 235). He further clarified that, “private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population” (Marx 237). By saying this, he endeavored to provoke the rage of the working class who felt as though they worked like slaves in order for their bosses to become wealthier. This rage could unite the working class against their oppressors, and could lead to the revolution that Communism called for. While this anger may cause many to lean towards Communist ideology, revolution and uprising was only the first step towards a greater society. To “complete” the revolution, Marx offered multiple measures the proletariat must put in place after wresting the power from the bourgeoisie. While Marx admits that some of these measures may only occur in more advanced countries at first, he holds that they are all generally applicable to each proletariats’ country (Marx 243). After the revolution has taken place, Marx recommended that the working class (now the ruling class) do the following; “use its political supremacy to wrest…all capital from the bourgeoisie, …centralize all instruments of production, …and increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible” (Marx 243). Marx attested that these measures are the key to ending the cycle of class antagonisms and oppression (Marx 243). By taking all the capital (and therefore property) from the bourgeoisie, the means to which they oppressed the proletariat are also taken away, thus helping create a better world in which wealth was in the hands of the many. From that point, by centralizing all the units of production in the hands of their State and increasing production as fast as possible, the proletariat would be able to “sweep away by force the old conditions of production,” thus freeing themselves and their respective countries from class antagonisms (Marx 244). Marx believed in a future where the oppressed were free and the countries of the world were without class divisions. He published these beliefs in the Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848, and while it may not have had an immediate effect, its message has resounded through history. To the workers who struggled under the conditions of the Industrial Revolution, Marx offered the solution of their own revolution. When outcries were made against his ideology, Marx attempted to actuate the people by accusing the bourgeoisie with their crimes against the working class and explaining the Communists’ ideals directly. Marx then asserted that to complete the revolution, various measures must be enacted to create the working class utopia he envisioned. Only then would the world “…have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all” (Marx 244).
In Marx’s opinion, the cause of poverty has always been due to the struggle between social classes, with one class keeping its power by suppressing the other classes. He claims the opposing forces of the Industrial Age are the bourgeois and the proletarians. Marx describes the bourgeois as a middle class drunk on power. The bourgeois are the controllers of industrialization, the owners of the factories that abuse their workers and strip all human dignity away from them for pennies. Industry, Marx says, has made the proletariat working class only a tool for increasing the wealth of the bourgeoisie. Because the aim of the bourgeoisie is to increase their trade and wealth, it is necessary to exploit the worker to maximize profit. This, according to Marx, is why the labor of the proletariat continued to steadily increase while the wages of the proletariat continued to steadily decrease.
Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species being, but our social environment can alienate us from it. To describe this nature, he first describes the class conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariats. Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class.”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition.
The Communist Manifesto made the oppressed people aware of their status and called them to unite. It did this by outlining the history of classes and class struggle. The Communist Manifesto stated that society and history are shaped by class struggles and that two classes were present in 1848, the bourgeois and the proletariat. The document goes on to state that the bourgeois had created capitalism and were oppressing the proletariat.[1] Marx defines the proletariat as “an appendage of the machine”. [2] He recognized how the proletariats were being exploited and he brought it to the attention of the public. Not only does the Communist Manifesto point out that the proletariats were being exploited, it went a step further and called the proletariats to action. He called the working class the revolutionary class and told them that they had the power to fight the bourgeois.[3] The Communist Manifesto forced the Proletariats to recognize their exploitation. As a result the attitude of the proletariat was changed. Proof that the proletariats attitudes were changed comes from the widespread uprising of revolutions in Europe that followed the publication of the Communist Manifesto.
Karl Marx 's writing of ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in 1848 has been documented by a vast number of academics as one of the most influential pieces of political texts written in the modern era. Its ideologically driven ideas formed the solid foundation of the Communist movement throughout the 20th century, offering a greater alternative for those who were rapidly becoming disillusioned and frustrated with the growing wealth and social divisions created by capitalism. A feeling not just felt in by a couple of individuals in one society, but a feeling that was spreading throughout various societies worldwide. As Toma highlights in his work, Marx felt that ‘capitalism would produce a crisis-ridden, polarized society destined to be taken over by
Furthermore, Marx claimed that "The conditions of Bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them.it has also called the into existence the men who wield those weapons -the modern workers.” The elites have created a very exclusive market, in order for the market to be placed effectively; the Bourgeois depended on the exploitation of others to remain wealthy. Marx perceived this tactic that allowed the bourgeoisie to overthrow their predecessors could be used against the bourgeoisie in the long term. Nevertheless, the way to abolish the Bourgeois was for the Proletariats to revolt against the factories in their areas and destroy the technology inside the factories, this allowed for the return of skilled jobs.
Marx speaks of a life to be free from working for someone who receives far more from a group of laborer’s who are part of a lower class party. However, there is more to it. What Marx promotes is a take over of all industrial factories, or businesses. A literal revolution of the lower class, so that instead of the business owners reaping all the benefits by the “proletariat” doing all laboring earning little, they need to gain total control of businesses of production and share amongst themselves equally everything. Sounds good to the ear that there could be no more struggles for the little people who are doing all the work, making someone else rich, but Marx...
In the first section of Communist Manifesto, Marx explains the class struggles of the modern society, most notably found between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats. He also points out that in today’s modern society, all of the exploitive relationships that were covered by ideology (i.e. religion) have all been uncovered and revealed to be only in self-interest. Finally, he explains that the bourgeoisie need to continually change their way of leadership if they want to stay in power. The proletariats, in Marx’s opinion, go to great lengths as to how the modern laborers seem to be seen as part of the machinery and are only good for what labor they produce. Marx reveals that the proletariats are a unique class, and that they are connected by the miserable existence they share in common. He believes that they have nothing to lose, and that by being proletariats they have no powers or privileges to defend; rather, to help themselves they must destroy the entire class system. Because of this, when they have the revolution they destroy everything.
Marx expressed many views about the over empowerment of the bourgeoisies in The Communists Manifesto. Marx believed that the working class was not getting paid what they deserved for the quality of work that they were producing. Marx thought that the all workers should be paid the same rather than by social position. For instance, Marx thought that a mineworker should be paid as much as a doctor. Marx states, ?The average price of w...
Marx’s analysis of social class is that there will always be a divide between the haves and the have not’s. He separates them into two classes the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie signifies the capitalist class, while proletariat signifies the working class. Max Weber’s defines class as “a group of people who have a similar level of economic resources”(p.244). He identifies two main elements of class, material resources, and skill knowledge in the marketplace. In contrast to Marx’s view on class Weber believed that class was not just based solely on ownership of means of production, but could also be based off ownership of other resources and the amount knowledge one has. Pierre Bourdieu’s view on class is that it is based on the concept of cultural capital meaning, “our tastes, knowledge, attitudes, language, and ways of thinking that we exchange in interaction with others”
Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in order to give a voice to the struggling classes in Europe. In the document he expressed the frustrations of the lower class. As Marx began his document with "the history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles" he gave power to the lower classes and sparked a destruction of their opressors.1 He argued that during the nineteenth century Europe was divided into two main classes: the wealthy upper class, the bourgeoisie, and the lower working class, the proletariat. After years of suffering oppression the proletariats decided to use their autonomy and make a choice to gain power. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century the proletariats were controlled and oppressed by the bourgeoisie until they took on the responsibility of acquiring equality through the Communist Manifesto.
In his Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx created a radical theory revolving not around the man made institution of government itself, but around the ever present guiding vice of man that is materialism and the economic classes that stemmed from it. By unfolding the relat...
The end of 19th century, Western Society was changing physically, philosophically, economically, and politically. It was an influential and critical time in that the Industrial Revolution created a new class. Many contemporary observers realized the dramatic changes in society. Among these were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who observed the conditions of the working man, or the proletariat, and saw a change in how goods and wealth were distributed. In their Communist Manifesto, they described their observations of the inequalities between the emerging wealthy middle class and the proletariat as well as the condition of the proletariat. They argued that the proletariat was at the mercy of the new emerging middle class, or bourgeoisie, and could only be rescued by Communism: a new economic form.
The political philosopher believed that communism could only thrive in a society distressed by “the political and economic circumstances created by a fully developed capitalism”. With industry and capitalism growing, a working class develops and begins to be exploited. According to Marx, the exploiting class essentially is at fault for their demise, and the exploited class eventually comes to power through the failure of capitalism.... ... middle of paper ...
According to Marx class is determined by property associations not by revenue or status. It is determined by allocation and utilization, which represent the production and power relations of class. Marx’s differentiate one class from another rooted on two criteria: possession of the means of production and control of the labor power of others. The major class groups are the capitalist also known as bourgeoisie and the workers or proletariat. The capitalist own the means of production and purchase the labor power of others. Proletariat is the laboring lower class. They are the ones who sell their own labor power. Class conflict to possess power over the means of production is the powerful force behind social growth.