The Communist Manifesto

In Part 2, Marx addresses common arguments of his time against communism and lays out a concrete plan for how communism might help the proletariat class. In doing so, he clarifies many of his ideas for the reader.

The Communist Party, Marx argues, is not a competitor to or a separate party from other proletariat political parties. Communists are distinct only in their intent to cross national boundaries; while other movements concentrate on particular stages of development in different regional areas, communism envisions the progression of the movement throughout the world. In this capacity, communists can function as high-level representatives of the proletariat cause on a global level. Their immediate aim is the “formation of the proletariat into a class, [the] overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, [and the] conquest of political power by the proletariat” (21). Marx is keen to emphasize the practicality of the communist worldview. Their principles have not been “invented or discovered,” but rather, they “express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle” (21).

Marx communicates to the reader his awareness that the primary policy aim of the Communist Party is also its most controversial: the abolition of private property. But this point is an empty threat for most, he argues: the lower classes have already been barred from property ownership because industrialization has effectively put it out of reach for all but the richest. “[…] In your existing society,” he writes, “Private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population” (22). When proletariats work, they do not gain property for themselves: they generate capital for their overlords. That capital benefits the owner of the factory or sweatshop, but it does nothing to enhance the workers’ quality of life.

Communists mean to abolish the existence of bourgeois private property because this property is gained expressly through the exploitation of the wage-labor of the lower classes. The bourgeoisie hoards the capital, or surplus value, that is generated by proletariat wage laborers; in turn, the laborers earn exactly the amount which will keep them alive and working, which is called the minimum wage. Though the capitalists do not work themselves, they enjoy all the rewards of work, especially property. This system makes owning property a class privilege, rather than a privilege enjoyed by anyone who works and buys property with their earnings. In wresting property from the capitalists and redistributing property amongst the workers, communists remove property’s class character and return it to the people who earned it. Marx argues that the rewards of work will not be abolished—rather, those rewards will be used to enrich the lives of the people actually performing the labor (21-22).

An imaginary bourgeois interlocutor argues that this scenario will spell the abolition of individuality and freedom. Marx points out that only the bourgeoisie’s freedom to exploit the poor will be threatened: “All that [communism] does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriation” (23).

Marx next tackles the argument that the abolishment of private property will lead to widespread laziness. Capitalists, Marx suggests, are already lazy as they sit back and reap the rewards of the labor of their employees. Capitalists are being hypocritical in worrying about the laziness of others, when they themselves are lazy.

He extends this accusation of hypocrisy to another common capitalist argument against communism. This argument claims that the implementation of communist ideals will lead to seismic cultural change, e.g. the demise of intellectual products and the dissolution of the family. Marx argues that the destruction of class culture of the bourgeoisie does not equate to a destruction of all culture. As well, the whole notion of “family,” as it exists under the current capitalist system, centers on private gain and the exploitation of women and children. Communists wish to improve family dynamics by emphasizing social education over private education and by doing away with the worldview that women are merely instruments of production (24-25).

Marx addresses the fact that bourgeois detractors accuse communists of wishing to do away with countries and nationalities. Marx refutes the assumption by reminding the reader that, just as working men have no private property to seize, “working men have no country” (25). Because they lack political power, they enjoy none of the benefits of citizenship of any one nation. In fact, the emancipation of the proletariat relies on united action across national borders. These borders are already degraded, Marx argues, thanks to an increasingly interconnected world economy. By doing away with the competition between workers of different nations, communists ensure that certain powerful countries cannot exploit weaker or poorer ones (25). On a small-scale level, communists wish to free individual workers from their taskmasters. On a larger scale, they wish to enact the same principle to liberate poorer countries from the oppression of richer ones.

Finally, Marx addresses criticisms of communism on philosophical or religious principles, which he dismisses outright as “not deserving of serious examination” (26). Detractors of communism argue that communism denies the existence of eternal religious and philosophical truths, like justice and freedom. In their eyes, because communism seeks to abolish religion and moral systems, it stands in direct contradiction to the whole of human history. Marx asserts that the only eternal truth of human existence of “the exploitation of one part of society by another” (27). In light of this claim, communism, he agrees, is a radical departure from history, but not for the reasons its critics think. Communism refutes the assumption that one part of society must always be exploiting another, envisioning a bold new world where such exploitation is no longer possible (27).

Having addressed these criticisms, Marx lays out the master plan. He outlines ten concrete aims, which include the confiscation of private property and inheritances, the centralization and expansion of banking, transportation, and communication, and the decision to move children from factory work into free schools. He admits that in the beginning, this process will involve “despotic inroads on the rights of property” (28), but envisions a situation in which the proletariat party will become the ruling class to dismantle the old systems of power (28). At their ascension, they will deprive themselves of their own status as the ruling class and eliminate class antagonism. Widespread equality and a world characterized by “free development” (28) for all.