Summary of the Communist Manifesto Ch. I "Bourgeois and Proletarians" by Karl Marx

The manifesto was written in 1848, and they begin by saying that Communism has spread through Europe and is making those in power afraid but it hasn't been a united movement and so this manifesto will hopefully formalize it. 1 

History Is Class Struggle 

The opening line sets the tone: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". [Now interestingly in a footnote is pointed out that they mean written history as it supposedly had been discovered that primitive societies used to be communistic. Also, the "Teutonic tribes" are mentioned here as the common progenitors.] 2

Marx then gives some examples, citing Ancient Roman and Medieval Europe to show that there have always been hierarchical classes in society, and that each age brings oppression and struggle between the classes which leads to some type of social upheaval. In Marx's time though he sees a reducing of the struggle down to two main groups. "Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat". 3 

Historical Recounting

Here Marx launches into a recounting of some of the historical factors that have led up to the struggle of his time. He mentions the Middle Ages having leaders in small towns called "burghers" as predecessor to the Bourgeoisie. With the discovering of America, the opening of trade routes to the East, and the new navigation technology there was a rapid development which changed the Medieval society before this. New manufacturing classes arose in the economic markets. Then with the Industrial Revolution. "Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionized industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois." 4 

Especially in America this type of industry flourished, and the traditional class structure from the Middle Ages disappeared. Rather, these technological advancements created revolutions in "the modes of production and of exchange." There were railways, ships, communication, industrial factories, etc. Those who profited from these advances also gain political advantage and form the new bourgeoise class. 5 "The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." 

Seizing Power

Marx claims that whenever the bourgeoisie obtains political power they break down the traditional bonds between the lower and upper classes which protected the lower classes historically, such as "feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations" and replaced that relation as one solely of making profit on the backs of the lower. "It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his 'natural superiors', and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous 'cash payment'." 

Destroying Everything for Money

They have taken all that was holy in society and humanity and traded it all for the dollar and the freedom to keep making money. While Marx thinks that the past still exploited the lower classes, at least it did it in veiled ways under the guise of other purposes. But now the capitalist does it in the open and nothing is sacred. 6 

Production is the name of the game in today's age. And it is a production that is constantly changing itself and developing, which then ends up changing the relations and nature of society at large with equal rapidity. "Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones." 7 

Globalization of Economy and Culture

Likewise, industry must seek new markets for their products and so expands over the globe. In doing this these big companies destroy the local industry that existed prior. For their products they take rare resources from remote places and create new "needs" for these products when people were previous satisfied. This creates a type of global inter-dependence between nations and brings about a type of mono-culture and way of thinking as ideas are shared as well. "And as in material, so also in intellectual production., The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property." 8 "National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature." 

This globalization introduces "civilization" by introducing products which then become necessities for these new societies to survive and function int he changing world. "In one word, it creates a world after its own image." This has also made urban populations much larger than rural ones, bringing with it a common way of thinking which looks down on the rural person. 9 This also centers productions on a few companies since the local and rural means cannot compete. All of this does away with the uniqueness of everything local, from laws to thoughts, turns everything into one large nation. 

New Foundations 

The industrial age at a certain point could not be supported on the foundations of the Medieval age, and so had to break forth from it to something new. "Subjection of Nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground..." 10 It is "free competition" that is needed to support the capitalist society. 

But what happens when production becomes so gigantic that it goes out of control? There have been conflicts between the desire for production and the bad conditions of the laborers, but what happens when there is an over-production which threatens the upper class? 11 There is a threat because others in society now have the power that production has bestowed them and they are now a threat to the upper class. And so the upper class must ... "On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented." 

Rise of the Proletariat

The economic production has also enriched the working class to have its own power. "But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons - the modern working class - the proletarians." 12 These proletariat workers are just another force in the bourgeoisie economy without inherent dignity. The tasks are so mundane and simple that the cost of a worker is simply what it takes to keep him alive. And so the products sold can be sold cheaper if the labor is cheaper, and the job is more repulsive and simple to do. 13 And so they are corralled into horrible factories where they are subject to their machines, their overseers, and long hours. Likewise, with the development of machines, women and children can be employed. And the little bit that is earned is then quickly taken away by all his expenses of living. Even the small business owners begin to sink into the lower class because they cannot complete with big business. 14 Specialized work is likewise no longer needed, and so many of these laborers fall down into the proletariat. 

As the proletariat begins to fight back it starts with individuals and begins to grow into larger groups who try to destroy inventory or their machines or factories. But they have not really united and have not focused their efforts on the right aspect of the Bourgeoisie, the industrial owners. 15 With the competition between bourgeoisie in markets there are fluctuations in the workers wages. Include this with continual development of the machines and the loss of specialization of labor. You begin to have two distinct classes forming against one another, and the proletariat begins to fight back to protect their wages. Their progress is in the growing "union of workers" that is forming. 16 Thanks to the growth in travel and communication in that time it is happening faster than the middle ages. It has thus become a political party. 

The disagreements with other parts of society help the proletariat, from the aristocracy with the bourgeoisie, to the bourgeoisie with other parts of itself, to the bourgeoisie of other countries. 17 "The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the bourgeoisie." There are also parts of the bourgeoisie that have fallen down into the proletariat, and those that just have chosen to join them. "Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry..." 18 The old artisanal classes and small businesses are not revolutionary, but reactionary given that they want to stop what has happened and go back in time. 

A New View On Things

All aspects of society for the proletariat are as so much garbage. "The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations; modern industrial labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests." 19 The bourgeois of the past obtained the "conditions of appropriation" whereby they were able to shape society to fit their ends. And so the call of the proletariat is to destroy everything in society because all of it reflects their oppression. "The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurance of, individual property." 

And so the tables are being turned, and the minority of society which catered everything to itself in the past is now being overthrown by the vast majority, which must destroy everything of the old rule with it. This must begin on the national level but is not only national. A period in history is being reached where the simmering antagonism between the classes will erupt into open revolution and war. "...the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat." 20

And so society and history has all been based on the conflict between oppressing an oppressor classes. The bourgeoisie is not fit to lead in any sense because it has driven the working man into complete poverty, yet they continue to rule because of capitalism which they can drive by abusing the worker. 21 And yet having brought these abused workers together has also brought about its own downfall ultimately. 22

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1 - Marx, Karl and Frederick Engles. The Communist Manifesto. New York: Cosmo Classics, 2006. Pg. 38

2 - 39

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