Preview

Communism: The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
954 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Communism: The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx
Karl Marx
The Communist Manifesto reflects an attempt to explain the goals of Communism, as well as the theory underlying this movement. It argues that class struggles, or the exploitation of one class by another, are the motivating force behind all historical developments. Class relationships are defined by an era's means of production. However, eventually these relationships cease to be compatible with the developing forces of production. At this point, a revolution occurs and a new class emerges as the ruling one. This process represents the "march of history" as driven by larger economic forces.
Modern Industrial society in specific is characterized by class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. However, the productive forces
…show more content…
They argue that the elimination of social classes cannot come about through reforms or changes in government. Rather, a revolution will be required. The Communist Manifesto has four sections. In the first section, it discusses the Communists' theory of history and the relationship between proletariat and bourgeoisie. The second section explains the relationship between the Communists and the proletarians. The third section addresses the flaws in other, previous socialist literature. The final section discusses the relationship between the Communists and other …show more content…
As such, it formed the ideological foundation for the world communist movement centering on the Soviet Union. In the twentieth century, all nations calling themselves communist and communist parties in other nations were founded on Marxist-Leninist principles. The core ideological features of Marxism-Leninism include the belief that a revolutionary proletarian class would not emerge automatically from capitalism. Instead, there was the need for a professional revolutionary vanguard party to lead the working class in the violent overthrow of capitalism, to be followed by a dictatorship of the proletariat as the first stage of moving toward

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Two of the main ideas in the Communist Manifesto is that one, class alienation is a constant struggle within a society, and two that capitalism causes individuals to suffer both financially and socially. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ Communist Manifesto provides examples and explanation of these issues in order to convince the world of the benefits of communism, assuming communism is the solution for these dilemmas. According to the Manifesto the two varying classes have their own problems, whether caused by the system or their own mind sets. The problems of each class is what had led to the course of history, the financial suffering of society, and the negative results of capitalism at work, as well as the need for communism according to the authors of the Manifesto.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karl Marx a sociologist, economist and especially a political theorist wrote The Communist Manifesto, one of the most significant pro communism manuscripts, in the year 1848. During this time period the Industrial Revolution was blooming which had created two separate classes. Marx characterizes this class difference as a form of social inequality between the Proletariats and Bourgeoisies. According to Marx these two classes arose mainly due to Industry Revolution and its blooming economic markets.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Proletarians and Communists Marx believes the communists to be one of “the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country”. He concludes this to be true because the communists do not separate the middle class and the working class. The communists wish to demolish the bourgeoisie and to form the proletariat into a class. Although the communists are believed to be quite similar to the proletariat, there are two main differences. They bring together the shared interests of the proletariat and they always speak for the overall movement.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marxism is the theory of an economic, social, and political philosophy taken from the work of the 19th-century historians Karl Marx along-side Friedrich Engels. Marx believed that his theory was the only way to both divide and control citizens in different social class, for example, separating the middle class, from the working, less advantaged class. It views the majority of human history in society as a struggle between social classes and asserts that capitalism, as a result of this division, is inherently inevitable. Marxism advocates a "revolution of the proletariat" in which the working class will claim all possible political power internationally and establish new societies based on collective ownership among them. In the 20th century,…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Karl Marx longed for the day that he could wake up in the morning and see equality of class, equality of possessions, equality of living standards, equality of everything. By writing The Communist Manifesto, he established the ideology that could create his fantasy; Communism. Although his book achieved popularity and critical praise, there were those who saw flaws and ways to improve Marx’s first ideas of Communism. However, when Vladimir Lenin had the opportunity to make his dream a reality, he does not stray from Marx’s ideas of the poor mixing in with the rich, the cut-down of the rich and a bringing up of the poor, to create an equal class under a government which would provide everything based on the hard work of every individual together…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx, attempts to explain the goals of Communism as well as the theories underlying this movement. It argues that class struggle, or the exploitation of one class by another, have been occurring for generations. Marx quotes, "The history of all hitherto existing society [has been] the history of class struggles" (79). Class relationships are defined by an era's means of production. However, However, eventually these relationships cease to be compatible with the developing forces of production. At this point, a revolution occurs and a new class emerges as the ruling one.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Marx, often founded as the father of modern day socialism, saw a huge injustice in the division of wealth between the proletariat (working class/ruled class) and Bourgeoisie (middle class/capitalist/ruling class). The communist manifesto of 1848, written by Marx and his colleague Frederick Engels (1820-1895) cited guidelines towards the emancipation of the proletariat through non-violent means, i.e. through the formation of a politicised party of socialists gathered by means of a workers union, uniting to form the creation of a workers party.…

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    He created the idea that socialism and communism is the best way to live within a society. Marx discusses that living in a classes society with equal right for every individual is the “right way” to live. The Marxist theory directly opposes Capitalism, where their are individual opportunities where one makes their own wealth. When Karl Marx created the theory of Marxism in 1848, he created the idea of “Communist Manifesto.” This idea focuses on the history of society and the history of class struggle, that the struggle of upper and lower class is the root of everything.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Marxist view of the world is that society is based upon class conflict; created by Karl Marx this ideology argues that society is split into 2 separate classes the upper class known as the Bourgeoisie and the lower/working class called the Proletariat. In a capitalist society the Bourgeoisie own the means of productions therefore exploiting the lower classes by forcing them to work manual jobs with little pay. However the Proletariat is lured in a false class consciousness; meaning that they are unaware they are being exploited by the Bourgeoisie. Marx believed that the one way which would resolve this issue would be a global revolution turning the capitalist societies into communist utopias where everyone was equal.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Marx was an innovative German economist and philosopher. He was also the founder of the “Communist movement”. Marx was writing in contradiction of a backdrop of a huge industrial change. Newly industrialised cities were expanding and overcrowding, and most of the working class were living in excessive poverty. Marx looked at history as the “story of class struggles” in which the troubled fight against their dictators. Marx always thought that the success of one class would allow for the future freedom…

    • 1877 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    karl marx note

    • 565 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At the request of the Communist League, Marx and Engels coauthored their most famous work, “The Communist Manifesto,” published in 1848. A call to arms for the proletariat—“Workers of the world, unite!”—the manifesto set down the principles on which communism was to evolve. Marx held that history was a series of class struggles between owners of capital (capitalists) and workers (the proletariat). As wealth became more concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists, he thought, the ranks of an increasingly dissatisfied proletariat would swell, leading to bloody revolution and eventually a classless society.…

    • 565 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marx's Theory of Class

    • 349 Words
    • 1 Page

    Marx’s theory serves as an observation of the past and a hypothesis for the future. It is thus a Marxist aim to strive for equality among classes, a solution proposed through the communist idealism.…

    • 349 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Communist Movement

    • 1436 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes.”1 It is from this class antagonism that the communist movement tried to break away from. Karl Marx saw the proletariat as the most oppressed class and in his efforts to remedy this, the idea of communism was born. In the beginning it was the feudal lords who owned the land that subjugated the serfs. When the feudal system crumpled and fell it was the bourgeois who picked up the pieces and the capitalist system was created to fill the void. But rather than freeing the serfs from exploitation nothing changed it was only the masters who changed. Capitalism “provided, incontrovertibly, the disastrous effects of machinery and division of labour; the concentration of capital and land in a few hands; over-production and crises; it pointed out the inventible ruin of the petty bourgeois and peasant, the misery of the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the crying inequality in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of extermination between nations, the dissolution of old moral bonds, of the old family relations, of the old nationalities”2 It was the bourgeois who bought the factories, the printing presses, and the other means of production who in turn subjugated the working class for their own benefit. It is to this aim which communism strived, to take back the means of production for the working class, the proletariat. “All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority.”3 This communist movement would have no national identity or interest group it was a movement for the whole proletariat. This movement however could not succeed without a revolution. The bourgeois would never allow this movement to be a peaceful one.…

    • 1436 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shortspeech

    • 11327 Words
    • 46 Pages

    ^ Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels; Philip Gasper (1 October 2005). The Communist manifesto: a road map to history 's most important political document. Haymarket Books. pp. 60–63. ISBN 978-1-931859-25-7. Retrieved 12 April 2011.…

    • 11327 Words
    • 46 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Manifesto states it is economic system, which generates the necessities of life and livelihood, that determines class stratification and non-equitable distribution of resources in the society. And it is this very economic system that further impacts the political and intellectual history of that age. It is the strife and tussle between the exploited ,the working class and exploiting ,the bourgeoisie , or the ruling and oppressed social classes that create that ‘history’ of the age. Based upon these principles of his philosophy Marx brings home the inference or rather conclusion that only the working class can initiate a revolution and over throw the ‘high browed’ bourgeoisie or the capitalist, who exploit them. And this revolution would someday create a classless society where everyone is equal and there is no hierarchical set up and for certainty no human being will ever show supremacy upon any other human being in any aspect.…

    • 6263 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Powerful Essays