The Communist Manifesto

The fourth and final section of the Manifesto is only a few pages long. It reinforces the themes established in previous sections, arguing that the communist movement’s primary aim will always be the long-term empowerment of the proletariat class. It re-emphasizes the practicality of the movement by identifying socialist movements in European states that Marx supported at the time of writing the Manifesto (even those which were not necessarily communist themselves). Marx admires the Social Democrats of France, and a Swiss party called the Radicals, but Marx claims that the future of the communist movement was taking place in Germany. At this time, the German bourgeois class was on the verge of seizing power from the aristocrats of the feudal system. Compared to England and France, where the progression from feudalism to capitalism to socialism took more time, Germany’s proletariat class was already well-developed. If the bourgeois could seize power from the aristocrats in Germany, Marx believed that the socialist revolution of the proletariat could quickly follow. In fact, they believed this transition would take place in the immediate future.

Marx concludes by reminding the reader that communists seek to revolutionize the existing social and political order. Marx prioritizes property as the supremely important issue. Finally, Marx emphasizes that change can only occur through a forcible revolt. The Manifesto concludes with one of the most quoted exhortatory commands in all of Western literature: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!” (39-40).