The Failure of the Proletarian Revolution

One of the main reasons for the failure of the proletarian revolution was Marx’s idealistic forecast of what was to come. He founded his theory of the class struggle on some basic assumptions about the working class but he underestimated the bourgeoisie. He believed that the proletariat would focus their energies together against the present state of affairs. Because as the bourgeoisie gathers more and more capital, the number of proletariat increases exponentially. Marx stated that eventually the oppression from the bourgeoisie would be so great that the proletariat would eventually get so angered that they would band together and overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Throughout “The Communist Manifesto” there are certain observations that, even though it was written 100 years ago, are very relevant today. Marx noted the exploitation of developing nations as an aspect of capitalism. He held that capitalism will attempt to exploit every worker on earth and spread its principles to every corner of the known world. And that the bourgeoisie will attempt to move from place to place in a never ending search to seek cheap human labour. This is a tendency, still valid for every corporation involved in some kind of production using manual labour, in the contemporary business environment without boundaries.

So, what exactly went wrong? Why hasn't the proletarian revolution occurred? Marx overlooked one of the very issues which he mentioned as part of his dialectic: the action - reaction relationship between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. As the bourgeoisie got more aggressive they needed a method of keeping the proletariat at bay. They have been able to relieve the social tension by providing the working class with small number of gains. By allowing the formation of what Marx defines as “combinations against the bourgeoisie”, namely the trade unions, they supplied the proletariat with just enough means of protection of their self-interest to confine the growth of the