Communist Manifesto: Historical and Societal Commentary
by A Paper I wrote about the Communist Manifesto for a college class.
Another part of this system to keep the workers under control was forcing them to part with any extra money by giving it to other Bourgeoisie. Marx explains that when a worker receives his small paycheck “… at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.” By keeping the money in the system and away from the Proletariat, the Bourgeoisie was able to control their workers source of income and prevent them from ever escaping from the wage labor system. Many workers were basically becoming slave laborers from this cycle.
Despite all of these obstacles put against them, the Proletariat was still trying to improve their situation. At the time of Marx’s writing, unions were starting to form against the harsh practices of the Bourgeoisie. However, Marx believes that because of the general incoherence between the masses of workers “… the Proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of the absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial Bourgeoisie, the petty Bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the Bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the Bourgeoisie.[7]” Marx thinks that the Proletariat is focusing on the wrong enemy, the old enemy of the monarchy. The Monarchy no longer has the power to change policy, so the protesters need to focus their tactics on the industrial Bourgeoisie in order to obtain true freedom.
Marx was very supportive of the idea of forming unions to fight the Bourgeoisie practices, saying that “The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever-expanding union of the workers.[8]” He believed in the power of numbers and that with enough people to support the cause and the centralization of these protests, the groups could merge into one national struggle between classes. With the people united together, they could oppose the power of the Bourgeoisie through sheer numbers and overturn their harsh practices.
It is here were Marx begins to start his argument for communistic practices in order to save Europe from the Bourgeoisie tyranny. All the historical commentary and the critiques of the system were planned to eventually lead to the idea that communism can stop the Bourgeoisie and save humanity from being poor wage laborers. Marx wanted the unity to occur, as it would provide a strong platform to promote communistic ideologies. The last words in the Manifesto call for a revolution and for the “Working men of all countries, Unite![9]” He pledged that “Communists everywhere would support every revolution movement against the current social and political order of things.[10]” With the power of the Proletariat behind the communist movement, they could revolutionize Europe and rid it of the Bourgeoisie forever.
Marx wove both historical context and current social commentary together to create a platform to spread his ideals of communism to the Proletariat. His comments about the degradation of the old feudal system due to colonial expansion and revolutions guided the reader into how the current Bourgeoisie led industry came into power in Europe. He then analyzed the new system at the time of writing to exemplify its faults towards the Proletariat. The poor wages and never ending cycle of work were examined in order to show the wage laborers that there was something wrong with the system and that they should fight to change it. He showed that the unions slowly forming against the Bourgeoisie could be centralized and be used to start a national revolution to change their lives forever. By carefully combining historical commentary and a modern social analysis into one book, he was able to create a compelling story to advance his ideas to the common man and start a revolution in the name of communism.
[1] Pg. 219 Paragraph 1 Communist Manifesto (All page notations are for Penguin Classics Version of the book)
[2] Pg. 220 Paragraph 4 Communist Manifesto
[3] Pg. 221 Paragraph 2 Communist Manifesto
[4] Pg. 221 Paragraph 3 Communist Manifesto
[5] Pg. 222 Paragraph 3 Communist Manifesto
[6] Pg. 236 Paragraph 5 Communist Manifesto
[7] Pg. 229 Paragraph 1 Communist Manifesto
[8] Pg. 229 Paragraph 3 Communist Manifesto
[9] Pg. 258 Paragraph 7 Communist Manifesto
[10] Pg. 258 Paragraph 3 Communist Manifesto
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