Study Guide for Marx (Communist Manifesto pg 469-500)

What drives history? What is the engine of historical change according to Marx?

"All history has been a history of class struggles, of struggles between exploited and exploiting, between the dominated and the dominating classes at various stages of social development" (472).

What separates proletariat movements from past movements and revolutions?

"All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air" (482).

What are the political consequences of capitalism? Under capitalism, what function do political institutions serve?

"Each step in the development of the bourgeoises was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. ...*Since the world of feudalism and oppressed classes through aristocrats and monarchs*..., the establishment of the Modern Industry and of the world-market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie". (pg 475).

What happens to the old society?

"In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family-relations; modern industrial labor, modern subjection to capital, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk an ambush just as many bourgeois interest" (482)

How has the Bourgeoisie and the Modern Industry affected the people's mindsets?

"It has pitilessly torn assunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors" , and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment". It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom- Free Trade" (475)

What does Marx think is inevitable?

"The development of Modern Industry therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable" (483)

Describe the developmental stages of the Proletariat?

"The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoise. First, only carried by individual laborers, but then by workpeople, then by operatives of a trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They smash machinery, set factories ablaze, they seek to restore the force of the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages" (480). As the industry only continues to advance, workers begin to form combinations (trades Unions) against the bourgeois in order to keep rates of wages.

What do the communists want? What are they against?

Communists have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat, they do not set up any sectarian principles to shape or mould the proletariat movement. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interest of the movement as a whole..

How many classes were there under feudalism (medieval times)?

In the Middle Ages there were 1. Feudal lords (landowners) 2. Vassals 3. Guild-masters (blacksmiths) 4. Journeymen 5. Apprentices 6. Serfs (farmers who paid high taxes) This was during the Big-Agro phase, before major modern industries were brought about.

What does Marx say about the right to property? What is his answer to Lockeans who would object to his goals?

Marx says on 484, that the theory of the communist party can be summed into one sentence: Abolition of private property. He explains that while to us the abolition of private property may seem horrific, "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. He believes that the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property/capital, from that moment on, individuality vanishes.

What are the consequences of capitalism for old aristocracy, small businesses, local industry, and old artisans?

People are forced to become slaves to the bourgeoisie class and of the bourgeoisie state, they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooked, and above all, by the individual bourgeoisie manufacturer himself. All of the small businesses become irrelevant, new money is becoming more important than the old aristocrats and their "old money". Old artisans aren't needed anymore, because all things are now being made in larger and machine made quantities. The place of manufacture was taken by the Modern machine Industry. The national character becomes obsessed with materialism and money. The power of capitalism and the modern bourgeoisie pushed into the background every class handed down from the middle ages.

How does Marx define class?

Proletariat, Bourgeoisie and landowners. (check*)

What are the Bourgeoise constantly involved in and how does it affect the proletariats?

The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in constant battle, at first with aristocracy; later on, with portions of bourgeoisie who don't want industrial progress, and at all times, with the bourgeoise of foreign countries. In all these battles, it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat class, to ask for its help, and thus to drag it into the political arena.

What does the proletariats' access to politics mean for the bourgeoisie?

The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education. In other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie.

How does the Proletariat develop a class?

The creation of the proletariat class happens over various stages. It begins with the modern working class- laborers who live only so long as they find work, and who find work so long as their labor increases capital. They are consequently exposed to all the harshness of competition and the fluctuations of the market. The workman becomes an appendage of the machine. Then, the lower state of the middle class- the small tradespeople and craftsmen- also sink into the proletariat, and all large capitalists are rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus, the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.

How did the Bourgeoisie/Capitalism develop?

The discovery of the global market (like America, China, India, etc) along with industrialization drove the economic system to change (pg 474). The place of manufacturing (manufacture = "make by hand" in latin) was taken over by the giant Modern Industry. Modern Industry has established the world market.

How is the proletariat going to achieve its goals? And what happens to the state after the revolution?

The first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class - to win the battle of democracy. List below: 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 right of inheritance 4. Confiscation of property of all emigrants/rebels. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. 6. Centralization 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 labour, establishment of industrial armies - especially for agriculture. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present from, combination of education with industrial production.

What is the main aim of communists?

The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat. The distinguishing feature of communism is the abolition of the bourgeois property... AKA Abolition of Private Property. (484)

What does Marx say about marriage and the family under capitalism?

The present, bourgeois family is based on capital and private gain. This type of family only exists among the bourgeoisie, and is noticeably absent among proletarians and in public prostitution. Proletarians are torn asunder, and their children are transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labour. However, this family will vanish when its complement vanishes and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital. (488)

What does Marx mean by the "epidemic of overproduction"? (p. 478)

The weapons with which the bourgeoise felled feudalism to the ground, are now the same weapons being turned against the bourgeoisie itself. This is what he means by epidemic of overproduction, as the conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them, and so the industries and factories become so powerful they endanger the bourgeoisie property.

What does Marx say capital is?

To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status in production, capital is a collective product. Capital is, therefore, not a personal, but a social power.