The Communist Manifesto

Citation

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1848). The Communist Manifesto (English edition of 1888, edited by F. Engels). Free official edition: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

The pamphlet was written for the Communist League and first published in 1848 in German. The 1888 English edition, edited by Engels, is the English text read here. It is very short, about 14,000 words, and consists of a brief preamble and four sections. The preamble opens with the image of a "spectre" haunting Europe: every established power treats Communism as a threat, so the authors say it is time for Communists to state their own views and aims in a manifesto of the party itself.

The argument is a philosophy of history compressed into a political programme. Societies have always been shaped by struggle between classes. The modern bourgeoisie overthrew feudalism and then transformed the world, but in doing so it created the wage-earning working class that will overthrow it. Communists, on this account, are not a separate sect but the part of the working-class movement that understands where it is going.

Preamble

The preamble sets out the occasion. Communists of several nationalities have met in London to put their position before the public in several languages, in answer to the "nursery tale" of the spectre.

I. Bourgeois and Proletarians

The section begins with the claim that the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles. It traces the rise of the bourgeoisie from medieval towns through world trade, manufacture and machine industry, and links each stage to a political advance, ending with the modern state as "a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie". It credits the bourgeoisie with a revolutionary role: it dissolved feudal ties, reduced relations between people to cash payment, spread production across the globe and raised productive power beyond anything earlier ages imagined. It then argues that periodic commercial crises show these productive forces outgrowing the property relations that contain them. The second half follows the proletariat from scattered machine-breaking to trade unions, political organisation and a movement of the "immense majority", and ends with the claim that the bourgeoisie "produces, above all, its own grave-diggers".

II. Proletarians and Communists

This section defines the Communists' relation to the working class and answers charges made against them in turn: the abolition of property, of individuality and freedom, of the family, of education, of nationality, and of religion and morality. The central reply is that Communists aim at abolishing bourgeois private property specifically, which the authors argue already does not exist for most of the population, and that the objectors' ideas of freedom, law and culture are products of their own class position. The section closes with ten measures for "the most advanced countries", among them a progressive income tax, abolition of inheritance, state credit and transport, and free public education, followed by a picture of an "association" in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all".

III. Socialist and Communist Literature

A survey of rival currents, sorted into reactionary socialism (feudal, clerical, petty-bourgeois and the German or "True" variety), conservative or bourgeois socialism (with Proudhon as the example), and critical-utopian socialism and communism (Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen). The authors judge each by its relation to the class struggle. This section is the most dependent on 1840s controversies, but it shows how the authors distinguish their position from reform schemes, philanthropy and community experiments.

IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties

A short section on alliances. Communists support every movement against the existing order, naming the Chartists, French Social-Democrats, Swiss Radicals, the Polish agrarian party and the German bourgeoisie where it acts against absolute monarchy, while pressing the working class to recognise the opposition between bourgeoisie and proletariat. The text ends with the call "Working men of all countries, unite!"

Key Concepts

Section I

• Class struggle: the claim that history is driven by conflict between oppressor and oppressed classes, which ends in revolutionary change or the ruin of both.
• Bourgeoisie and proletariat: the owners of the means of production and the wage-earners who live by selling their labour.
• Productive forces and relations of production: the capacity to produce and the property arrangements around it, whose conflict explains the fall of feudalism and the crises of capitalism.

Section II

• Abolition of bourgeois property: the stated distinguishing aim of Communists, as opposed to abolition of property in general.
• Ideology as class position: ruling ideas of each age are those of its ruling class.
• Association of free development: the closing image of a society without class antagonism.

Sections III and IV

• Reactionary, conservative and utopian socialism: the three families of rival doctrine the authors set themselves against.
• Support for opposition movements: Communists work with other parties while keeping their own view of the class conflict.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A complete argument in a few pages. The pamphlet moves from a theory of history to an account of capitalism, to a political programme, to a map of rival doctrines, so each claim has a place in the whole.
• Rhetoric and analysis together. Section I's account of the bourgeoisie, including its praise of what it achieved, is the part most often quoted as a description of globalisation and constant economic change, and it is easy to read as a standalone essay.
• Objections stated and answered. Section II turns the standard charges against Communism into a series of replies, which makes it a useful model of how the authors argue.

Limitations

• Prediction versus later history. The text expects the working class to grow, become more uniform and be pushed into poverty; later history, which the pamphlet cannot address, raises questions about these expectations.
• Little on institutions after the revolution. The ten measures and the closing "association" are sketches. The text says the measures will differ by country and does not describe how a post-revolutionary state would work.
• Time-bound sections. Section III and the party references in Section IV assume knowledge of 1840s movements, so an annotated modern edition helps.
• A programme, not a full theory. The pamphlet asserts historical materialism and the labour theory of the wage but does not argue them in detail.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the classics in this course the Manifesto is by far the shortest, and it works well as a counterweight to the liberal contract tradition of Hobbes's Leviathan and Locke's Second Treatise. Where those authors begin with individuals and consent, the Manifesto begins with classes and history, and its claim that ruling ideas serve the ruling class directly challenges the universal claims of rights theories. Mill's On Liberty and Tocqueville's Democracy in America describe the same industrial and democratic age from the opposite side, so they make good pairs. Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics are useful contrasts on property and the family, which the Manifesto treats in Section II.

Rousseau's The Social Contract is an earlier critique of inequality and shares the Manifesto's interest in the common good. For interpretation across the whole course, Strauss and Cropsey's History of Political Philosophy and Wolin's Politics and Vision place Marx in the longer story of Western political thought.

How to Use This Book

The pamphlet needs no background, and a first reading takes an evening. Read Section I slowly, then Section II, which contains the argument most often examined in teaching. Section III can be read for its structure: note which of the three families of socialism each target belongs to and what the authors object to in it. Section IV can be read quickly.

While reading, keep a list of the claims that are descriptive (the bourgeoisie has created a world market), predictive (the proletariat will grow and unite) and prescriptive (the ten measures), and ask what evidence would count for each. Then read it next to Locke on property and Mill on custom to compare the same questions from different starting points. An annotated modern edition, such as the Penguin Classics one listed on this page, helps with names and events; read the pamphlet first and any editorial introduction second.

Edition and Sources

This guide covers the English edition of 1888 edited by Engels, as reproduced in Project Gutenberg eBook #61 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61). The preamble and all four sections were read in full.