Marx - The Communist Manifesto
Pgs. 14-27: 14 pages
Marx starts off claiming Communism is haunting Europe
Many opposition groups to the central government that challenge the status quo were commonly branded "communist" as a way of making them unpopular
Opposition groups label other more radical opposition groups as "communist" and the conservative government as communist - monarchs, aristocrats, capitalists - as a way of discrediting them
Marx argues that the Communists should openly share their views and aims of Communism with a manifesto, in order to show it is real.
Is this that manifesto?
Bourgeois and Proletarians:
All societies up until this was written has existed in class struggles - master; labourer
Whenever two opposing groups, such as the labourers and the owners fight, it results in two outcomes:
Society gets reshaped in some way
Either they both get destroyed
The bourgeois society that has emerged from feudal society has only created new avenues of conflicts, new classes, and struggles.
As time went on, up until when Marx wrote this, society simplified class conflicts, to where the only primary conflict was that between the Bourgeois and Proletarians.
Here's how the Bourgeois evolved:
Serfs - labourers/peasants- who worked on feudal lands eventually gained some sort of freedom and moved into cities, where they formed the burghers
Burghers were merchants or tradesmen who worked in cities as a middle-class entity
As the burghers made more money and became wealthy, they became the bourgeois, who owned and invested in businesses
Increased trade with colonies, and other markets strengthened commerce, shipping, and work, which ultimately led to opposition groups that would weaken feudal societies
Probably because the companies were privately owned, and lots of people accumulated a lot of capital/wealth as a result of trade, that groups formed to oppose/stop this from happening.
Feudal system of industry involved guilds - groups of people specializing in a skill/trade - who did the industrial work of producing things.
The manufacturing class replaced the guilds as the markets had higher demands.
Eventually, the manufacturing class was replaced by machinery, due to even higher demands.
The modern industry eventually replaced the small manufacturing class, with big factories, large-scale production, and international trade.
This led to the rise of wealthy factory owners (bourgeois) who controlled industrial production, and paid the proletariats for working the machines, controlling production.
As industry, trade, and navigation increased and expanded to produce more goods for more markets in further areas, the bourgeois started to consolidate more capital/wealth.
As Modern industry grew, the bourgeois sided with monarchies, such as for protection of their businesses in exchange for wealth, which eventually undermined the monarchy's reliance on the nobility - land owning lords.
They also started to gain political power as Modern industry - factories, large scale production - and markets grew in scope.
Capitalism has made exploitation of workers very direct and visible. It has undermined religion, and has made men more self-centered; it has made other professions look less valuable
The bourgeois as a class constantly revolutionizes the means of production and social conditions/structures, which is its key distinction in relation to earlier industrial classes - Change
The bourgeoise are constantly looking for markets around the world to sell products and make money.
The Bourgeois have made industry - production of goods - a much more global phenomenon, in which production is outsourced to different areas, goods traded with more areas, and markets opened globally.
Not limited to national production, trade, or consumption anymore
National self-sufficiency and production becomes impossible, as the populace demands international goods.
Capitalism is clustering scattered people, assigning property to few people, and centralizing production to larger companies/fewer people
Resulted in political centralization - many separate provinces coming together under one entity which shares common laws.
Feudal societies no longer could keep up with urban production, and didn't have a reason to produce - most goods were produced on a large scale in cities.
Free competition between businesses originated in place of feudalism
Marx describes capitalism as a force that is powerful enough to lose control of itself in some regards.
A crisis that occurs in capitalism is overproduction - destroys both goods already produced and the factories, labor, and technology used to produce them. This crisis is overcome by:
Expanding into newer markets - increases profits
Shutting down productive forces such as factories, labour, or machinery - cuts costs
The proletariats play a role in the destruction of capitalism, as their low wages makes it impossible for them to afford goods they produce, which leads to overproduction - high supply, low demand.
The wages provided to the proletariats are just enough for their own survival. The pay level is only equal to competition and skill level, not unpleasantness. Therefore, the harder the work, the lower the pay?
As modern industry and machinery become prevalent, industries hire more women to save costs, as physical strength isn't required
The proletariats, even if freed from exploitation of manufacturers, is exploited in other ways by groups such as the shopkeepers, landlords, etc.
The proletariats attack the means of production used in industries, such as machinery. They come together as Trade Unions to fight against low wages, and occassionally burst into riots
The formation of these unions is helped due to advances in communication technology, concentrating many local proletarians into a larger whole
One factor that motivates the proletariats to fight the bourgeoise is their knowledge and awareness of the systems - laws, legislation - that regulate industrial production.
A small portion of the bourgeois class join the proletariats - due to loss of wealth, businesses, competition or slow production?
