THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO Part 2
General Observations
Labor Dynamics
As modern industry develops, manual labor becomes less reliant on skilled and strenuous exertion, leading to shifts in labor demographics, notably a transition where the labor force increasingly includes women.
Social distinctions based on age and sex lose significance among the working class. All individuals are treated as labor instruments with varying costs associated with their age and sex.
Exploitation by the Bourgeoisie
Once workers receive wages in cash, they face exploitation from multiple bourgeois sectors, including landlords and small business owners.
A demographic shift occurs where lower middle-class individuals—including small tradespeople and artisans—gradually fade into the proletariat due to competition against larger capitalists and reduced value of their specialized skills due to advancing production technologies.
Recruitment of the Proletariat
The proletariat emerges from diverse societal classes and undergoes various developmental stages, characterized by:
Initial Struggles: Early conflicts between individuals and their bourgeois adversaries.
Collective Action: Formation of worker organizations, challenging not just individual bourgeois but the overarching conditions of production. This often leads to violent outbursts, such as:
Destruction of competing imported goods.
Vandalism of machinery.
Arson of factories in an attempt to revert to previous standards of labor reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
Concentration of Proletariat Strength
The labor class advances towards greater organization:
Workers begin organizing into unions (trades unions) to collectively resist bourgeois exploitation, driven by:
Fluctuating wage levels.
Economic crises among the bourgeois class, leading to intermittent worker confrontations, sometimes resulting in temporary victories.
Worker solidarity grows through improved communication technologies, resulting in:
Centralizing local struggles into wider national conflicts.
Lost class fragmentation and an increase in political consciousness among the working class.
Class Struggle Dynamics
The historical movement predominantly advances bourgeois interests, leading to:
Proletarians initially uniting against remnants of older oppressive structures like monarchy and landownership.
Proletariat’s struggle morphing into a significant historical dynamic.
Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie
In contrast to the bourgeoisie, who have visibility and consolidation of power, the proletariat faces:
Competition from within their own ranks that hampers movements for unity.
Yet, the continuous emergence of class consciousness prompts demands for legal recognition of workers' interests, such as labor conditions (e.g., England’s Ten Hours bill).
Class interactions reveal a strange dependence where the bourgeoisie must rely on the labor class for political reinforcement during struggles against aristocracy and the foreign bourgeois.
Revolutionary Potential of the Proletariat
The proletariat stands as the only truly revolutionary class among societal strata, as:
Other classes, including the lower middle class and artisans seek to preserve their existence rather than effect revolutionary change.
They inadvertently defend future proletarian interests, preparing for their transition into the proletariat themselves.
The proletariat fundamentally opposes private property rooted in bourgeois ideology. By confronting these property relations, they seek to dismantle the very structures facilitating exploitation.
Unique Features of Proletarian Movement
Distinct from previous class movements:
Class Character: Proletariat represents the self-conscious movement of the vast majority, challenging existing societal norms.
Political Struggle: This struggle inevitably evolves into broader political revolutions with substantive reform demands arising at local, national, and global levels.
Class Dynamics and Historical Progression
Historical class structures have always relied on oppression; however:
The proletariat’s conditions are uniquely precarious, involving extensive impoverishment alongside capitalist ascendency.
Inadequate creation of basic societal necessities leads to burgeoning poverty, signifying that bourgeois rule is untenable.
The Abstract Idea of Property
Transformative Nature of Communism
The core of communism rejects bourgeois property rights, instead advocating for the abolition of all forms of individual appropriation that enhance the bourgeoisie.
Wealth creation under capitalism creates an intermediary situation where laborers see little recompense, motivating the proletariat to seek fundamental change:
Communism aims not to eliminate all property but rather to abolish bourgeois property.
The Nature of Property and Labor
The operational logic of capital alienates individuals from the fruits of their labor:
Workers merely secure enough wages for survival, which is inadequate to support personal or social independence.
Workers exist merely to fuel capitalist growth, a condition that is counterproductive to their humanity.
Community and Familial Structures
The Family Unit in Communism:
Current family structures are predicated on bourgeois capitalism, fostering inequality and private gain. Thus, their abolition is viewed as prerequisite for genuine family relations.
The transformation of societal structures allows for redefined relationships among individuals and families, ultimately leading to the disappearance of bourgeois marriage systems linked to exploitation.
The Global Context of Class Struggles
The proletariat, lacking national ties, fights against international and intra-national bourgeois impositions:
Nationality and nation-based oppression fade as the proletariat rises to prominence.
A united international proletariat is vital for systemic change, leading to the eradication of capitalist individualism.
Counter-arguments and Historical Perspective
Criticism directed towards communism often misinterprets the social relations inherent in capitalist structures, failing to recognize:
As capitalism advances, so do collective consciousness and structures designed for the emerging proletariat’s needs.
Political Action and Revolutionary Objectives
For successful establishment, communists must embrace political evolution, leveraging existing conditions:
Overthrow of existing power.
Centralization of economics and production parameters to state control.
Recognizable demands include:
Abolition of land property and rent structures.
Imposition of heavy taxation on incomes, targeting the bourgeoisie directly.
Prohibition on inheritance, substantially restructuring socioeconomic landscapes.
Conclusion on Proletarian Unity
The Communists’ goal is clear: unify and promote awareness of disparate class struggles globally;
They aim to procure a fundamental alteration of status quo, effectively dismantling current oppressive structures.
In doing so, the Communists call for global unity among the laboring class: Workers of the world, unite!