By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Reviewed by Steve Halpern
In my opinion, The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels in 1848 is one of the most important documents of human history. I found the first section of this document to be especially provocative. Why do I feel this way?
First, we need to understand that the battle of the United States government against the idea of communism was one of its top priorities in the twentieth century. The government prosecuted and sent socialists to prison for merely exercising their First Amendment rights. This was for opposing the participation of the United States armed forces in the First and Second World Wars. The government in this country organized for the murder of millions of human beings in their wars against the people of Korea and Vietnam. They carried out these horrendous actions claiming that they were fighting communism.
They equated the Stalinist betrayal of the Soviet Union with the word communism. So, I believe it is important to look at what the word communism means in Communist Manifesto. First, I think it is useful to look at the mythology that is embedded into the social norms of every nation where there is capitalism.
In the United States, as in any capitalist nation, we are raised to believe in certain fundamental concepts. We are told that we have certain democratic rights, like the right to vote. The citizens of a nation vote for government officials and the press likes to call these people “leaders.”
We know that we must hold down a job in order to make a living. We know that employers have control of the environments where we work. We know that unions have advantages, but those advantages are limited, and it is very difficult to organize a union. We also know that in order to make a living, we need to adapt to this relationship.
We also know that with the establishment of the United States of America, there were many nasty things going on. There was the genocide against Native Americans. There were the unimaginable horrors of chattel slavery. There was the suppression of veterans of the American Revolution. After these veterans protested conditions of starvation in Shay’s Rebellion, they were confronted by the armed forces of the new government. So, many people question what was gained from the revolution of the thirteen colonies.
The Communist Manifesto
In the first ten pages of the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels looked at these questions from a different perspective. They titled their first section Bourgeois and Proletarians. The first sentence of this section is: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
This sentence not only challenges ideas we have been raised with, but it also challenged ideas promoted in the 19th century. Adam Smith was one of the architects of the capitalist system. He argued that while all wealth is created by human labor, there always were laboring and employing classes.
Marx and Engels showed how there were distinct differences between the slave societies of Greece and Rome, the feudal societies of Europe and Asia, and the capitalist societies of the 19th century. The first sentence of the Manifesto argued that in all these societies there were “class struggles” that brought about these transitions. In the following passage, Marx and Engels outlined the changes that took place when the bourgeoisie got the “upper hand” and established capitalist property relations.
“The bourgeoisie whenever it got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, Idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’ and left remaining no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest and callous ‘cash payment.’ It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of numberless and indefensible chartered freedoms, has set up that single unconscionable freedom—Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, shameless, direct, and brutal exploitation.”
So here we see how Marx and Engels identified some of the many differences between the feudal and capitalist systems. However, why would the Manifesto argue that the system of exploitation through “religious and political illusions” would be worse than the system of “naked, shameless, direct, and brutal exploitation?”
Both Marx and Engels lived in Germany under feudal rule. The German monarchy expelled them both because of their critical ideas with respect to the ruling powers. Eventually they both lived in Britain, a nation where capitalist property relations dominated.
In 1848, the same year as the publication of the Communist Manifesto, revolutions erupted throughout Europe. In Germany, the revolution was about unseating the royal family from power. Marx castigated leaders of that revolution for failing to use the power they had to bring about a capitalist regime free of feudalism. At that time, Marx was well aware of the horrors of capitalism, but he saw capitalism as a clear advance over the rule by royal families.
Marx supported President Abraham Lincoln in the war against the slave-owning confederate armed forces. While he knew the capitalist politics Lincoln represented, he also knew that the war to end chattel slavery would be an advance for all humanity. At that time, capitalists in the United States also viewed the system of chattel slavery as an obstacle to their consolidation of power.
The Manifesto gave the following reason for why the transition from feudalism to capitalism took place.
“the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many productive fetters. They had to be burst asunder; They were burst asunder.
“Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class.”
Here we see the beginning of the argument that destroys the myth that there is a genuine democracy in any nation where capitalist property relations dominate. The Manifesto gave the following definition of capitalist governments.
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.”
The Manifesto also breaks down how capitalism affects our day-to-day lives. One of the advances that came about with capitalism was the institution of an educational system.
We would all like to have access to an education. In the following passage the Manifesto breaks down the limitations of becoming a so-called professional in the capitalist system.
“The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into paid wage laborers.”
So, while talented people might win a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, while elite athletes might be paid tens of millions of dollars, they are locked into a system where they are effectively forced to work so someone else can have obscene amounts of money. Marx and Engels labelled the class of people we all work for as the bourgeoisie.
Workers toil their entire lives so their children might have the means to live rewarding lives. This is what the Manifesto has to say about the family in capitalism.
“The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation”
So, while workers toil their entire lives to provide for their families, we are all locked into a system where we need to generate wealth for a class that views profits as their priority over the needs of workers.
However, with the emergence of capitalism, the bourgeoisie created a new class that was different from the peasantry or the craft guilds of feudalism. This was the emergence of the “working class—the proletarians.” The Manifesto gave a description of the modern working class in the following quotation.
“A class of laborers, who live only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers who must sell themselves piecemeal, are commodities, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.”
Now we can ask a legitimate question. If capitalism is such an oppressive system, then why hasn’t the working class organized to overthrow it? To begin to answer this question, I believe it is useful to contrast the standard of living at the time of the revolution of the thirteen colonies to the reality of the working class today.
Back in the 1700s most working people were farmers who provided for their own means of subsistence. Today most workers have access to a home, a car, a cell phone, as well as access to indoor electricity and running water. In the following passage the Manifesto outlined how the enormous productive capacity of capitalism was and continues to be greater that what existed in all other epochs.
“Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones.”
I’ve seen this “uninterrupted disturbance of all social relations” in my lifetime. Many years ago, I was one of thousands of factory workers who toiled in the Philadelphia area. Most of those factories are now gone. Banks invested huge amounts of money to build factories in nations where wages might be two dollars per day or less. The Manifesto reported on how this was happening back in the 19th century.
“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.”
This quotation demonstrates how the capitalist system must continually grow. Without continual growth there can be no corporate profits. However, bankers do not like to think about the fact that there are limits to growth. In the following quotation, we see what happens when the capitalist system reaches its limit of growth.
“In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity—the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of monetary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed, And why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means of subsistence.”
I worked at an auto parts manufacturing factory in Philadelphia for 14 years. That factory, as well as numerous other factories in the United States closed. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the cause of the close of this factory was “excess capacity.” The Inquirer could have quoted the Communist Manifesto of 1848 that explained how crises in capitalism erupt because of over-production. Those factories continue to be abandoned shells throughout the country.
The Manifesto also reported on how this abandonment of factories for other locations in the world was going on in the year 1848.
“The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to the production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations.”
Black Lives Matter
While the Communist Manifesto gives perspective to many of the issues we face, it wasn’t about explaining how to deal with the institutionalized discrimination in the capitalist world. However, it did give us some perspective on this issue.
In the following passage the Manifesto reported on why women and children were being drawn into the labor force.
“The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labor, in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labor of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of labor, more or less expensive to use, according to the age and sex.”
In the year 1848 child labor was routine. Families needed the wages of children to meet all their expenses. The labor movement engaged in fierce battles to end this practice. However, today we see instances where children continue to work in horrendous conditions in this country. In the world, child labor continues to be a norm.
In this passage, Marx and Engels reported on how and why women were being drawn into the work environment. For similar reasons Black people, Latinos, and immigrants have also been drawn into the labor force of this country.
There used to be Jim Crow laws in the southern states of this country that barred Black people from using public facilities. Then capitalists in the northern states needed workers to toil at horrendous jobs. So, millions of Black people moved to the northern and western states to escape Jim Crow and fill the factory jobs that were available. This Great Migration occurred for similar reasons as the Manifesto reported with respect to the integration of women into the labor force. Latinos and immigrants also worked at jobs other workers weren’t interested in.
Here we see how the routine drive of capitalists to cut their costs has been the driving force behind the institutionalized discrimination against women, Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, and immigrants. Therefore, today I believe that the struggle to achieve unconditional liberation for all those who are discriminated against is absolutely necessary for the overall liberation of the international working class.
Workers of the World Unite
The final words of the Manifesto are: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. Workingmen (Workers) of all countries, unite.”
Reading these words, a worker might say: Are you crazy? I worked my entire life to get the things my family has. I have a lot to lose. Why would someone want me to lose all of that?
To answer this question, I can ask another question. What do workers really have?
Workers who are fortunate might have the means to retire. Many workers like me need to hold down a job to supplement Social Security payments. However, this is not the main point of the Manifesto.
In any nation dominated by capitalism, the working class has no control over the means of production. This means we have no control over our workplace environment, or the prices we pay, or the news portrayed by the media, or the basic priorities of the government.
The working class is totally dependent on a tiny minority of the population for the money we need to sustain ourselves. Yet that minority—the bourgeoisie—never actually produces any of the goods and services we need and want.
Because we don’t have control of the productive forces, the standard of living for most workers has deteriorated in the past fifty years. This means that the younger generation, on average, will need to work many more hours to get what the older generation has. This will only be possible if the economy remains stable which is unlikely.
Today there are about 44 million people in this country who do not have enough food to eat. 80% of the world’s population lives on ten dollars per day or less. As a result, the United Nations reports that about 30,000 children die every day of preventable diseases.
Today, the world is witnessing the unimaginable genocide against the Palestinian people organized by the governments of Israel and the United States.
These were not mistakes by uninformed politicians. Those conditions reflect the very essence of who capitalist politicians are.
As a result of the depression of the 1930s John Maynard Keynes advanced and economic program to regulate the economy. He understood that the unregulated economy of the past contributed to the depression, but his program was a lame attempt to rectify that problem.
Then by the 1970s, Keynes’ program evolved into an unmitigated disaster. So, Milton Friedman wrote several books arguing that the economy needed to go back to being unregulated. As a result of his policies, 30,000 children die every year due to preventable diseases. Friedman received a Nobel Prize for his efforts.
Then, with the economic collapse in 2008, Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, acknowledged that the Fed made mistakes due to “irrational exuberance.”
These so-called experts on economics refused to acknowledge that the Communist Manifesto gave the true cause of economic crises in the capitalist system. This is what Marx and Engels called the “epidemic of overproduction.”
Today we see workers from all over the world protesting the genocide against Palestinians. We are also seeing an upsurge in the workers movement. So, for a moment, allow me to imagine what the world might look like if human needs and not profits were the fundamental priority.
If this were the case, then the vast surplus value created by the working class would be used for human needs and not profits. So, corporate profits, banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, corporate law firms, landlords, and the military would not have a reason to exist.
The enormous wealth used by those enterprises could be used to establish lifetime rights for everyone to decent housing, health care, education, food, clothing, transportation, and communication.
All these enterprises would be organized to work in harmony with the environment. Using the available technology, all these goods and services could be provided by workers who would only need to work for ten to twenty years in their lives. The rest of their lives could be used as they choose.
Karl Marx wrote his final three volumes in books titled Capital. In those books, he wrote about all the many ways that the capitalist system would sooner or later collapse. When that happens, working people will face reality as it is. Masses of workers will be denied the basic necessities so a tiny minority can continue to live in opulence. Then the final words of the Communist Manifesto will become crystal clear.
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. Workers of all countries, unite.”
