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Title: The Communist ManifestoAuthor: Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsRelease Date: January 25, 2005 [EBook #6Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBEBOOK THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO ***
Transcribed by Allen Lutins with assistance im Tarzia.
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MANIFESTO OF TCOMMUNIST PARTY
[From the English edition of 1888, editeFriedrich Engels]
A spectre is haunting Europethe specCommunism.
All the Powers of old Europe have entered holy alliance toexorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metteand Guizot,French Radicals and German police-spies.
Where is the party in opposition that habeen decried as Communistic by its opponenpower? Where is the Opposition that has not hback the branding reproach of Communism, aghe more advanced opposition parties, as weagainst its reactionary adversaries?
Two things result from this fact.I. Communism is already acknowledged b
European Powers to be itself a Power.
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II. It is high time that Communists should opn the face of the whole world, publish their vheir aims, their tendencies, and meet this nuale of the Spectre of Communism with a Man
of the party itself.To this end, Communists of various nationahave assembled in London, and sketchedollowing Manifesto, to be published in the EnFrench, German, Italian, Flemish and D
anguages.
. BOURGEOIS AND PROLETARIANS
The history of all hitherto existing societies history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeianand serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a w
oppressor and oppressed, stood in conopposition to one another, carried onuninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, ahat each time ended, either in a revolutionarconstitution of society at large, or in the commo
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of the contending classes.In the earlier epochs of history, we find a
everywhere a complicated arrangement of sonto various orders, a manifold gradation of s
ank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knplebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lvassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprenerfs; in almost all of these classes, aubordinate gradations.
The modern bourgeois society that has sprorom the ruins of feudal society has not done with class antagonisms. It has but establishedclasses, new conditions of oppression, new fortruggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch
epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, howeverdistinctive feature: it has simplified the antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and plitting up into two great hostile camps, into
great classes, directly facing each o
Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang
chartered burghers of the earliest towns. From tburgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie developed.
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The discovery of America, the rounding oCape, opened up fresh ground for the bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese mahe colonisation of America, trade with the colo
he increase in the means of exchange ancommodities generally, gave to commercenavigation, to industry, an impulse never bknown, and thereby, to the revolutionary elemehe tottering feudal society, a rapid developmen
The feudal system of industry, under wndustrial production was monopolised by cguilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wof the new markets. The manufacturing systemts place. The guild-masters were pushed on
ide by the manufacturing middle class; divisiabour between the different corporate gvanished in the face of division of labour in ingle workshop.
Meantime the markets kept ever growing
demand ever rising. Even manufacture no loufficed. Thereupon, steam and machevolutionised industrial production. The plac
manufacture was taken by the giant, Mondustry, the place of the industrial middle clas
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ndustrial millionaires, the leaders of whole induarmies, the modern bourgeois.
Modern industry has established the wmarket, for which the discovery of America p
he way. This market has given an immdevelopment to commerce, to navigationcommunication by land. This development has,me, reacted on the extension of industry; a
proportion as industry, commerce, naviga
ailways extended, in the same proportionbourgeoisie developed, increased its capital,pushed into the background every class hadown from the Middle Ages.
We see, therefore, how the modern bourge
s itself the product of a long course of developmof a series of revolutions in the modes of produand of exchange.
Each step in the development of the bourgewas accompanied by a corresponding po
advance of that class. An oppressed class undeway of the feudal nobility, an armed and
governing association in the mediaeval commhere independent urban republic (as in ItalyGerman , there taxable "third estate" of
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monarchy (as in France), afterwards, in the permanufacture proper, serving either the semi-feor the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise aghe nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the
monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has atince the establishment of Modern Industry ahe world-market, conquered for itself, in the moepresentative State, exclusive political sway.
executive of the modern State is but a committe
managing the common affairs of the wbourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a evolutionary part.
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the u
hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, elations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the meudal ties that bound man to his "natural superand has left remaining no other nexus betweenand man than naked self-interest, than callous
payment." It has drowned the most heaecstasies of religious fervour, of chivaenthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in thwater of egotistical calculation. It has res
ersonal worth into exchan e value and in la
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he numberless and indefeasible charreedoms, has set up that single, unconscioreedomFree Trade. In one word, for exploitaveiled by religious and political illusions, na
hameless, direct, brutal exploitation.The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo occupation hitherto honoured and looked up toeverent awe. It has converted the physicianawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science
ts paid wage labourers.The bourgeoisie has torn away from the fam
entimental veil, and has reduced the family reo a mere money relation.
The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it cam
pass that the brutal display of vigour in the MAges, which Reactionists so much admire, foutting complement in the most slothful indolen
has been the first to show what man's activitybring about. It has accomplished wonders
urpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aquedand Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expedhat put in the shade all former Exoduses of naand crusades.
The bour eoisie cannot exist without cons
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evolutionising the instruments of production,hereby the relations of production, and with thewhole relations of society. Conservation of themodes of production in unaltered form, was, o
contrary, the first condition of existence for all endustrial classes. Constant revolutionisingproduction, uninterrupted disturbance of all sconditions, everlasting uncertainty and agidistinguish the bourgeois epoch from all e
ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their traancient and venerable prejudices and opinionswept away, all new-formed ones bec
antiquated before they can ossify. All that is melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and m
at last compelled to face with sober senses, hisconditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
The need of a constantly expanding market fproducts chases the bourgeoisie over the wurface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere,
everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.The bourgeoisie has through its exploitati
he world-market given a cosmopolitan characproduction and consumption in every country. To
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great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn under the feet of industry the national grounwhich it stood. All old-established national indushave been destroyed or are daily being destro
They are dislodged by new industries, wntroduction becomes a life and death questioall civilised nations, by industries that no longer up indigenous raw material, but raw material drom the remotest zones; industries whose pro
are consumed, not only at home, but in every quof the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfiehe productions of the country, we find new wequiring for their satisfaction the products of dands and climes. In place of the old local
national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we ntercourse in every direction, universal dependence of nations. And as in material, son intellectual production. The intellectual creationdividual nations become common prop
National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedbecome more and more impossible, and fromnumerous national and local literatures, there aa world literature.
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement
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nstruments of production, by the immeacilitated means of communication, draws all, he most barbarian, nations into civilisation.cheap prices of its commodities are the h
artillery with which it batters down all Chinese wwith which it forces the barbarians' inteobstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulatcompels all nations, on pain of extinction, to ahe bourgeois mode of production; it compels
o introduce what it calls civilisation into their me., to become bourgeois themselves. In one wocreates a world after its own image.
The bourgeoisie has subjected the country tule of the towns. It has created enormous cities
greatly increased the urban population as compwith the rural, and has thus rescued a considepart of the population from the idiocy of rural lifeas it has made the country dependent on the too it has made barbarian and semi-barb
countries dependent on the civilised ones, natiopeasants on nations of bourgeois, the East oWest.
The bourgeoisie keeps more and more daway with the scattered state of the populatio
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he means of production, and of property. Itagglomerated production, and has concentproperty in a few hands. The nececonsequence of this was political centralis
ndependent, or but loosely connected proviwith separate interests, laws, governments ystems of taxation, became lumped togethe
one nation, with one government, one code of one national class-interest, one frontier and
customs-tariff. The bourgeoisie, during its rucarce one hundred years, has created massive and more colossal productive forceshave all preceding generations together. Subjeof Nature's forces to man, machinery, applicati
chemistry to industry and agriculture, stnavigation, railways, electric telegraphs, cleariwhole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rwhole populations conjured out of the groundearlier century had even a presentiment that
productive forces slumbered in the lap of sabour?
We see then: the means of production aexchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisietself u , were enerated in feudal societ .
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certain stage in the development of these meaproduction and of exchange, the conditions uwhich feudal society produced and exchangedeudal organisation of agriculture and manufact
ndustry, in one word, the feudal relations of probecame no longer compatible with the alrdeveloped productive forces; they became so etters. They had to be burst asunder; they burst asunder.
Into their place stepped free compeaccompanied by a social and political constitadapted to it, and by the economical and poway of the bourgeois class.
A similar movement is going on before our
eyes. Modern bourgeois society with its relatioproduction, of exchange and of property, a sohat has conjured up such gigantic meanproduction and of exchange, is like the sorcerers no longer able to control the powers of the n
world whom he has called up by his spells. For a decade past the history of industry and comms but the history of the revolt of modern produorces against modern conditions of produa ainst the ro ert relations that are the cond
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or the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rus enough to mention the commercial crises thheir periodical return put on its trial, each time hreateningly, the existence of the entire bourg
ociety. In these crises a great part not only oexisting products, but also of the previously creproductive forces, are periodically destroyehese crises there breaks out an epidemic that,earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurd
he epidemic of over-production. Society sudnds itself put back into a state of mome
barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universaof devastation had cut off the supply of every mof subsistence; industry and commerce seem
destroyed; and why? Because there is too civilisation, too much means of subsistencemuch industry, too much commerce. The produorces at the disposal of society no longer teurther the development of the condition
bourgeois property; on the contrary, they become too powerful for these conditions, by whey are fettered, and so soon as they overchese fetters, they bring disorder into the whobour eois societ endan er the existenc
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bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgociety are too narrow to comprise the w
created by them. And how does the bourgeoisiover these crises? On the one hand info
destruction of a mass of productive forces; oother, by the conquest of new markets, and bmore thorough exploitation of the old ones. Thaay, by paving the way for more extensive and
destructive crises, and by diminishing the m
whereby crises are prevented.The weapons with which the bourgeoisie
eudalism to the ground are now turned againsbourgeoisie itself.
But not only has the bourgeoisie forged
weapons that bring death to itself; it has also cnto existence the men who are to wield tweaponsthe modern working classproletarians.
In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capit
developed, in the same proportion is the prolethe modern working class, developeda claabourers, who live only so long as they find and who find work only so long as their la
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ncreases capital. These labourers, who mushemselves piece-meal, are a commodity, like eother article of commerce, and are consequexposed to all the vicissitudes of competition,
he fluctuations of the market.Owing to the extensive use of machinery adivision of labour, the work of the proletariansost all individual character, and consequentlycharm for the workman. He becomes an appen
of the machine, and it is only the most simple, monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, tequired of him. Hence, the cost of production
workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the mof subsistence that he requires for his maintena
and for the propagation of his race. But the pricecommodity, and therefore also of labour, is equts cost of production. In proportion therefore, aepulsiveness of the work increases, the w
decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the u
machinery and division of labour increases, iame proportion the burden of toil also incre
whether by prolongation of the working hourncrease of the work exacted in a given time ncreased speed of the machinery, etc.
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Modern industry has converted the little workof the patriarchal master into the great factory ondustrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crownto the factory, are organised like soldiers
privates of the industrial army they are placed uhe command of a perfect hierarchy of officersergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bour
class, and of the bourgeois State; they are dailyhourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-lo
and, above all, by the individual bourmanufacturer himself. The more openly despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aimmore petty, the more hateful and the embittering it is.
The less the skill and exertion of strength imn manual labour, in other words, the more mondustry becomes developed, the more is the laof men superseded by that of women. Differencage and sex have no longer any distinctive s
validity for the working class. All are instrumenabour, more or less expensive to use, accordiheir age and sex.
No sooner is the exploitation of the labourhe manufacturer, so far at an end, that he rec
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his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord,hopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
The lower strata of the middle classthe
radespeople, shopkeepers, retired tradesgenerally, the handicraftsmen and peasantshese sink gradually into the proletariat, because their diminutive capital does not suffiche scale on which Modern Industry is carrie
and is swamped in the competition with the capitalists, partly because their specialized sendered worthless by the new method
production. Thus the proletariat is recruited froclasses of the population.
The proletariat goes through various stagdevelopment. With its birth begins its strugglehe bourgeoisie. At first the contest is carried ondividual labourers, then by the workpeople actory, then by the operatives of one trade, in
ocality, against the individual bourgeois who diexploits them. They direct their attacks not aghe bourgeois conditions of production, but aghe instruments of production themselves; destro im orted wares that com ete with
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abour, they smash to pieces machinery, theyactories ablaze, they seek to restore by forcvanished status of the workman of the Middle Ag
At this stage the labourers still form an incoh
mass scattered over the whole country, and brup by their mutual competition. If anywhere they o form more compact bodies, this is not yeconsequence of their own active union, but ounion of the bourgeoisie, which class, in ord
attain its own political ends, is compelled to sewhole proletariat in motion, and is moreover yea time, able to do so. At this stage, thereforeproletarians do not fight their enemies, buenemies of their enemies, the remnants of abs
monarchy, the landowners, the non-indubourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whistorical movement is concentrated in the hanhe bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained victory for the bourgeoisie.
But with the development of industryproletariat not only increases in number; it becoconcentrated in greater masses, its strength gand it feels that strength more. The various inteand conditions of life within the ranks of
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proletariat are more and more equalisedproportion as machinery obliterates all distinctioabour, and nearly everywhere reduces wages tame low level. The growing competition amon
bourgeois, and the resulting commercial cmake the wages of the workers ever uctuating. The unceasing improvement
machinery, ever more rapidly developing, mheir livelihood more and more precarious
collisions between individual workmen and indivbourgeois take more and more the charactcollisions between two classes. Thereuponworkers begin to form combinations (Trades Unagainst the bourgeois; they club together in ord
keep up the rate of wages; they found permaassociations in order to make provision beforeor these occasional revolts. Here and therecontest breaks out into riots.
Now and then the workers are victorious, bu
or a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not mmediate result, but in the ever-expanding unihe workers. This union is helped on by the imprmeans of communication that are createmodern industr and that lace the worke
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different localities in contact with one another. Itust this contact that was needed to centralis
numerous local struggles, all of the same charanto one national struggle between classes
every class struggle is a political struggle. Andunion, to attain which the burghers of the MAges, with their miserable highways, re
centuries, the modern proletarians, thankailways, achieve in a few years.
This organisation of the proletarians into a cand consequently into a political party, is continbeing upset again by the competition betweeworkers themselves. But it ever rises up atronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legisl
ecognition of particular interests of the workeraking advantage of the divisions amongbourgeoisie itself. Thus the ten-hours' bill in Engwas carried.
Altogether collisions between the classes o
old society further, in many ways, the coursdevelopment of the proletariat. The bourgends itself involved in a constant battle. At firsthe aristocracy; later on, with those portions o
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bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have becantagonistic to the progress of industry; at all twith the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all tbattles it sees itself compelled to appeal to
proletariat, to ask for its help, and thus, to drag he political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, thereupplies the proletariat with its own instrumen
political and general education, in other worurnishes the proletariat with weapons for fightin
bourgeoisie.Further, as we have already seen, entire secof the ruling classes are, by the advance of induprecipitated into the proletariat, or are at hreatened in their conditions of existence. T
also supply the proletariat with fresh elemenenlightenment and progress.Finally, in times when the class struggle nea
decisive hour, the process of dissolution goinwithin the ruling class, in fact within the whole r
of society, assumes such a violent, glaring charahat a small section of the ruling class cuts adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the classholds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, earlier period, a section of the nobility went ov
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he bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgegoes over to the proletariat, and in particulportion of the bourgeois ideologists, who aised themselves to the level of comprehe
heoretically the historical movement as a wholeOf all the classes that stand face to face witbourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a evolutionary class. The other classes decaynally disappear in the face of Modern Industry
proletariat is its special and essential productower middle class, the small manufacturerhopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these
against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinctionexistence as fractions of the middle class. The
herefore not revolutionary, but conservative. more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll bacwheel of history. If by chance they are revolutiohey are so only in view of their impending tranto the proletariat, they thus defend not
present, but their future interests, they desertown standpoint to place themselves at that oproletariat.
The "dangerous class," the social scum,passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest l
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of old society, may, here and there, be swept intmovement by a proletarian revolution; its condof life, however, prepare it far more for the partbribed tool of reactionary intrigue.
In the conditions of the proletariat, those oociety at large are already virtually swampedproletarian is without property; his relation to hisand children has no longer anything in commonhe bourgeois family-relations; modern indu
abour, modern subjection to capital, the samEngland as in France, in America as in Germhas stripped him of every trace of national charaLaw, morality, religion, are to him so mbourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in am
ust as many bourgeois interests. All the preceding classes that got the
hand, sought to fortify their already acquired sby subjecting society at large to their conditioappropriation. The proletarians cannot bec
masters of the productive forces of society, exby abolishing their own previous modeappropriation, and thereby also every other premode of appropriation. They have nothing of own to secure and to fortif ; their mission
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destroy all previous securities for, and insurancendividual property.
All previous historical movements movements of minorities, or in the interes
minorities. The proletarian movement is the conscious, independent movement of the immmajority, in the interests of the immense majThe proletariat, the lowest stratum of our prociety, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, withou
whole superincumbent strata of official society bprung into the air.
Though not in substance, yet in form, the strof the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at fnational struggle. The proletariat of each co
must, of course, first of all settle matters with itsbourgeoisie.
In depicting the most general phases odevelopment of the proletariat, we traced the or less veiled civil war, raging within existing so
up to the point where that war breaks out into evolution, and where the violent overthrow o
bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway oproletariat.
Hitherto ever form of societ has been ba
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as we have already seen, on the antagonisoppressing and oppressed classes. But in ordoppress a class, certain conditions must be asso it under which it can, at least, continue its sl
existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, rhimself to membership in the commune, just apetty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolumanaged to develop into a bourgeois. The moaborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with
progress of industry, sinks deeper and debelow the conditions of existence of his own cHe becomes a pauper, and pauperism devemore rapidly than population and wealth. And hbecomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfi
onger to be the ruling class in society, anmpose its conditions of existence upon sociean over-riding law. It is unfit to rule becausencompetent to assure an existence to its within his slavery, because it cannot help letting
ink into such a state, that it has to feed him, insof being fed by him. Society can no longer live uhis bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence onger compatible with society.
The essential condition for the existence an
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he sway of the bourgeois class, is the formatioaugmentation of capital; the condition for capwage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusivelycompetition between the laborers. The advan
ndustry, whose involuntary promoter is bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laboudue to competition, by their revolutiocombination, due to association. The developof Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its
he very foundation on which the bourgeproduces and appropriates products. Whatbourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory oproletariat are equally inevitable.
I. PROLETARIANS AND COMMUNISTS
In what relation do the Communists stand tproletarians as a whole?
The Communists do not form a separate opposed to other working-class parties.
The have no interests se arate and a art
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hose of the proletariat as a whole.They do not set up any sectarian principl
heir own, by which to shape and mouldproletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished fromother working-class parties by this only: (1) Inational struggles of the proletarians of the diffcountries, they point out and bring to the froncommon interests of the entire prolet
ndependently of all nationality. (2) In the vatages of development which the struggle o
working class against the bourgeoisie has to hrough, they always and everywhere represennterests of the movement as a whole.
The Communists, therefore, are on the one hpractically, the most advanced and resolute seof the working-class parties of every country,ection which pushes forward all others; on the
hand, theoretically, they have over the great ma
he proletariat the advantage of cunderstanding the line of march, the conditionshe ultimate general results of the proletmovement.
The immediate aim of the Communist is
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ame as that of all the other proletarian paormation of the proletariat into a class, overthrhe bourgeois supremacy, conquest of popower by the proletariat.
The theoretical conclusions of the Commuare in no way based on ideas or principles that been invented, or discovered, by this or that wbe universal reformer. They merely expresgeneral terms, actual relations springing from
existing class struggle, from a historical movegoing on under our very eyes. The abolitioexisting property relations is not at all a distineature of Communism.
All property relations in the past have contin
been subject to historical change consequent he change in historical conditions.
The French Revolution, for example, aboleudal property in favour of bourgeois property.
The distinguishing feature of Communism i
he abolition of property generally, but the abolitbourgeois property. But modern bourgeois prproperty is the final and most complete expreof the system of producing and appropr
roducts that is based on class anta onisms o
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exploitation of the many by the few.In this sense, the theory of the Communists
be summed up in the single sentence: Abolitiprivate property.
We Communists have been reproached witdesire of abolishing the right of personally acquproperty as the fruit of a man's own labour, wproperty is alleged to be the groundwork opersonal freedom, activity and independence.
Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned propDo you mean the property of the petty artisan ahe small peasant, a form of property that preche bourgeois form? There is no need to abhat; the development of industry has to a
extent already destroyed it, and is still destroydaily.
Or do you mean modern bourgeois prproperty?
But does wage-labour create any property fo
abourer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kproperty which exploits wage-labour, and wcannot increase except upon condition of begea new supply of wage-labour for fresh exploit
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Property, in its present form, is based onantagonism of capital and wage-labour. Leexamine both sides of this antagonism.
To be a capitalist, is to have not only a p
personal, but a social status in production. Capa collective product, and only by the united actmany members, nay, in the last resort, only bunited action of all members of society, can it bn motion.
Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a spower.When, therefore, capital is converted
common property, into the property of all memof society, personal property is not the
ransformed into social property. It is only the scharacter of the property that is changed. It losclass-character.
Let us now take wage-labour.The average price of wage-labour is
minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the meaubsistence, which is absolutely requisite in
existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the wabourer appropriates by means of his lamerely suffices to prolong and reproduce a
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existence. We by no means intend to abolishpersonal appropriation of the products of labouappropriation that is made for the maintenanceeproduction of human life, and that leave
urplus wherewith to command the labour of otAll that we want to do away with, is the misecharacter of this appropriation, under whichabourer lives merely to increase capital, anallowed to live only in so far as the interest o
uling class requires it.In bourgeois society, living labour is but a mo increase accumulated labour. In Commociety, accumulated labour is but a mean
widen, to enrich, to promote the existence o
abourer.In bourgeois society, therefore, the
dominates the present; in Communist societypresent dominates the past. In bourgeois socapital is independent and has individuality,
he living person is dependent and hasndividuality.
And the abolition of this state of things is cby the bourgeois, abolition of individuality reedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourg
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ndividuality, bourgeois independence, bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at.
By freedom is meant, under the prebourgeois conditions of production, free trade
elling and buying.But if selling and buying disappears, free sand buying disappears also. This talk aboutelling and buying, and all the other "brave word
our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, ha
meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted sand buying, with the fettered traders of the MAges, but have no meaning when opposed tCommunistic abolition of buying and selling, obourgeois conditions of production, and of
bourgeoisie itself.You are horrified at our intending to do away
private property. But in your existing society, prproperty is already done away with for nine-tenthe population; its existence for the few is solely
o its non-existence in the hands of those nine-teYou reproach us, therefore, with intending taway with a form of property, the nececondition for whose existence is the non-existenan ro ert for the immense ma orit of societ
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In one word, you reproach us with intending away with your property. Precisely so; that iswhat we intend.
From the moment when labour can no long
converted into capital, money, or rent, into a spower capable of being monopolised, i.e., frommoment when individual property can no longeransformed into bourgeois property, into carom that moment, you say individuality vanishes
You must, therefore, confess that by "indiviyou mean no other person than the bourgeois,he middle-class owner of property. This pemust, indeed, be swept out of the way, and mmpossible.
Communism deprives no man of the powappropriate the products of society; all that it doo deprive him of the power to subjugate the laof others by means of such appropriation.
It has been objected that upon the aboliti
private property all work will cease, and univaziness will overtake us.
According to this, bourgeois society oughtago to have gone to the dogs through sdleness for those of its members who work ac
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nothing, and those who acquire anything, dowork. The whole of this objection is but anexpression of the tautology: that there can no lobe any wage-labour when there is no longe
capital. All objections urged against the Commumode of producing and appropriating maproducts, have, in the same way, been urged aghe Communistic modes of producing
appropriating intellectual products. Just as, tobourgeois, the disappearance of class propehe disappearance of production itself, sodisappearance of class culture is to him idewith the disappearance of all culture.
That culture, the loss of which he laments, ihe enormous majority, a mere training to act machine.
But don't wrangle with us so long as you appour intended abolition of bourgeois property
tandard of your bourgeois notions of freeculture, law, etc. Your very ideas are butoutgrowth of the conditions of your bourproduction and bourgeois property, just as uris rudence is but the will of our class made
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aw for all, a will, whose essential characterdirection are determined by the econoconditions of existence of your class.
The selfish misconception that induces yo
ransform into eternal laws of nature and of reahe social forms springing from your present moproduction and form of propertyhistorical relahat rise and disappear in the progress of produthis misconception you share with every
class that has preceded you. What you see cleahe case of ancient property, what you admit icase of feudal property, you are of course forbio admit in the case of your own bourgeois foproperty.
Abolition of the family! Even the most rare up at this infamous proposal of
Communists.On what foundation is the present family
bourgeois family, based? On capital, on pr
gain. In its completely developed form this fexists only among the bourgeoisie. But this stahings finds its complement in the practical absof the family among the proletarians, and in p
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prostitution.The bourgeois family will vanish as a mat
course when its complement vanishes, and botvanish with the vanishing of capital.
Do you charge us with wanting to stopexploitation of children by their parents? Tocrime we plead guilty.
But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowelations, when we replace home educatio
ocial.And your education! Is not that also sociadetermined by the social conditions under whiceducate, by the intervention, direct or indireociety, by means of schools, etc.? The Commu
have not invented the intervention of socieeducation; they do but seek to alter the charachat intervention, and to rescue education fromnfluence of the ruling class.
The bourgeois clap-trap about the family
education, about the hallowed co-relation of pand child, becomes all the more disgustingmore, by the action of Modern Industry, all familamong the proletarians are torn asunder, and children transformed into simple articles
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commerce and instruments of labour.But you Communists would introduce comm
of women, screams the whole bourgeoisie in chThe bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instru
of production. He hears that the instrumenproduction are to be exploited in common, naturally, can come to no other conclusion thanhe lot of being common to all will likewise fall twomen.
He has not even a suspicion that the real poo do away with the status of women as nstruments of production.
For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous thavirtuous indignation of our bourgeois at
community of women which, they pretend, is openly and officially established by the CommuThe Communists have no need to introcommunity of women; it has existed almost me immemorial.
Our bourgeois, not content with having the wand daughters of their proletarians at their dispnot to speak of common prostitutes, takegreatest pleasure in seducing each other's wive
Bourgeois marriage is in reality a syste
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wives in common and thus, at the most, whaCommunists might possibly be reproached wihat they desire to introduce, in substitution hypocritically concealed, an openly lega
community of women. For the rest, it is self-evhat the abolition of the present system of produmust bring with it the abolition of the communwomen springing from that system, i.eprostitution both public and private.
The Communists are further reproached desiring to abolish countries and nationality.The working men have no country. We ca
ake from them what they have not got. Sinceproletariat must first of all acquire po
upremacy, must rise to be the leading class onation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, stself national, though not in the bourgeois senhe word.
National differences and antagonisms bet
peoples are daily more and more vanishing, oo the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedocommerce, to the world-market, to uniformity imode of production and in the conditions ocorres ondin thereto.
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The supremacy of the proletariat will cause o vanish still faster. United action, of the leacivilised countries at least, is one of theconditions for the emancipation of the proletaria
In proportion as the exploitation of one indivby another is put an end to, the exploitation onation by another will also be put an end tproportion as the antagonism between clawithin the nation vanishes, the hostility of one n
o another will come to an end.The charges against Communism made fr
eligious, a philosophical, and, generally, fromdeological standpoint, are not deserving of seexamination.
Does it require deep intuition to comprehendman's ideas, views and conceptions, in one wman's consciousness, changes with every chanhe conditions of his material existence, in his selations and in his social life?
What else does the history of ideas prove,hat intellectual production changes its characproportion as material production is changed?uling ideas of each age have ever been the idets rulin class.
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When people speak of ideas that revolutioociety, they do but express the fact, that withi
old society, the elements of a new one have created, and that the dissolution of the old
keeps even pace with the dissolution of theconditions of existence.When the ancient world was in its last throes
ancient religions were overcome by ChristiaWhen Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th ce
o rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its dbattle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie.deas of religious liberty and freedom of conscmerely gave expression to the sway of competition within the domain of knowledge.
"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, mphilosophical and juridical ideas have been modn the course of historical development. But relmorality philosophy, political science, and constantly survived this change."
"There are, besides, eternal truths, sucFreedom, Justice, etc. that are common to all sof society. But Communism abolishes eternal trt abolishes all religion, and all morality, insteconstitutin them on a new basis it therefore a
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contradiction to all past historical experience."What does this accusation reduce itself to?
history of all past society has consisted indevelopment of class antagonisms, antagon
hat assumed different forms at different epochsBut whatever form they may have taken, ons common to all past ages, viz., the exploitatione part of society by the other. No wonder, hat the social consciousness of past ages, de
all the multiplicity and variety it displays, mwithin certain common forms, or general idwhich cannot completely vanish except with thedisappearance of class antagonisms.
The Communist revolution is the most ra
upture with traditional property relations; no wohat its development involves the most raupture with traditional ideas.
But let us have done with the bourobjections to Communism.
We have seen above, that the first step ievolution by the working class, is to raise
proletariat to the position of ruling as to win the of democracy.
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The proletariat will use its political supremawrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeo centralise all instruments of production inhands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat orga
as the ruling class; and to increase the totproductive forces as rapidly as possible.Of course, in the beginning, this canno
effected except by means of despotic inroads oights of property, and on the conditions of bourg
production; by means of measures, therefore, wappear economically insufficient and untenablewhich, in the course of the movement, ouhemselves, necessitate further inroads upon thocial order, and are unavoidable as a mea
entirely revolutionising the mode of production.These measures will of course be differedifferent countries.
Nevertheless in the most advanced countrieollowing will be pretty generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and applicatiall rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.4. Confiscation of the property of all emig
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and rebels.5. Centralisation of credit in the hands o
State, by means of a national bank with State cand an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communicand transport in the hands of the State.7. Extension of factories and instrumen
production owned by the State; the bringingcultivation of waste-lands, and the improveme
he soil generally in accordance with a common8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishmendustrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufactndustries; gradual abolition of the distin
between town and country, by a more equdistribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in pchools. Abolition of children's factory labour
present form. Combination of education
ndustrial production, &c., &c.When, in the course of development,
distinctions have disappeared, and all produhas been concentrated in the hands of a association of the whole nation, the public powe
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ose its political character. Political power, proo called, is merely the organised power of
class for oppressing another. If the proletariat dts contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, b
orce of circumstances, to organise itself as a cf, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the class, and, as such, sweeps away by force thconditions of production, then it will, along with tconditions, have swept away the conditions fo
existence of class antagonisms and of clagenerally, and will thereby have abolished itsupremacy as a class.
In place of the old bourgeois society, witclasses and class antagonisms, we shall hav
association, in which the free development of s the condition for the free development of all.
II. SOCIALIST AND COMMUNLITERATURE
. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM
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A. Feudal SocialismOwing to their historical position, it becam
vocation of the aristocracies of France and Eng
o write pamphlets against modern bourgociety. In the French revolution of July 1830, ahe English reform agitation, these aristocragain succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thencea serious political contest was altogether out o
question. A literary battle alone remained possBut even in the domain of literature the old crihe restoration period had become impossible.
In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy obliged to lose sight, apparently, of their nterests, and to formulate their indictment aghe bourgeoisie in the interest of the expworking class alone. Thus the aristocracy tookevenge by singing lampoons on their new ma
and whispering in his ears sinister prophecicoming catastrophe.
In this way arose Feudal Socialism: amentation, half lampoon; half echo of the pastmenace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty
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ncisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to theheart's core; but always ludicrous in its ehrough total incapacity to comprehend the marmodern history.
The aristocracy, in order to rally the peophem, waved the proletarian alms-bag in front banner. But the people, so often as it joined taw on their hindquarters the old feudal coa
arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laug
One section of the French Legitimists Young England" exhibited this spectacle.In pointing out that their mode of exploitation
different to that of the bourgeoisie, the feudorget that they exploited under circumstances
conditions that were quite different, and that areantiquated. In showing that, under their rulemodern proletariat never existed, they forget thamodern bourgeoisie is the necessary offsprinheir own form of society.
For the rest, so little do they conceaeactionary character of their criticism that their
accusation against the bourgeoisie amounts tohat under the bourgeois regime a class is bdeveloped, which is destined to cut up root
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branch the old order of society.What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is n
much that it creates a proletariat, as that it creaevolutionary proletariat.
In political practice, therefore, they join coercive measures against the working class; aordinary life, despite their high falutin phrases,toop to pick up the golden apples dropped froree of industry, and to barter truth, love, and ho
or traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato spAs the parson has ever gone hand in handhe landlord, so has Clerical Socialism with FeSocialism.
Nothing is easier than to give Chr
asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has not Christdeclaimed against private property, agmarriage, against the State? Has it not preachhe place of these, charity and poverty, celibacymortification of the flesh, monastic life and M
Church? Christian Socialism is but the holy, wwith which the priest consecrates the heart-burof the aristocrat.
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B. Petty-Bourgeois SocialismThe feudal aristocracy was not the only class
was ruined by the bourgeoisie, not the only whose conditions of existence pined and perish
he atmosphere of modern bourgeois society.mediaeval burgesses and the small peproprietors were the precursors of the mobourgeoisie. In those countries which are butdeveloped, industrially and commercially, these
classes still vegetate side by side with the bourgeoisie.In countries where modern civilisation
become fully developed, a new class of bourgeois has been formed, fluctuating bet
proletariat and bourgeoisie and ever renewing as a supplementary part of bourgeois society.ndividual members of this class, however, are bconstantly hurled down into the proletariat byaction of competition, and, as modern ind
develops, they even see the moment approawhen they will completely disappear asndependent section of modern society, toeplaced, in manufactures, agriculture
commerce, by overlookers, bailiffs and shopme
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In countries like France, where the peaconstitute far more than half of the population, inatural that writers who sided with the proleagainst the bourgeoisie, should use, in their crit
of the bourgeois regime, the standard of the peaand petty bourgeois, and from the standpoihese intermediate classes should take upcudgels for the working class. Thus arose pbourgeois Socialism. Sismondi was the head o
chool, not only in France but also in England.This school of Socialism dissected with acuteness the contradictions in the conditionmodern production. It laid bare the hypocapologies of economists. It proved, incontrove
he disastrous effects of machinery and divisiabour; the concentration of capital and land in hands; overproduction and crises; it pointed ounevitable ruin of the petty bourgeois and peahe misery of the proletariat, the anarch
production, the crying inequalities in the distribof wealth, the industrial war of extermination betnations, the dissolution of old moral bonds, of thamily relations, of the old nationalities.
In its positive aims, however, this form
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Socialism aspires either to restoring the old mof production and of exchange, and with them thproperty relations, and the old society, ocramping the modern means of production a
exchange, within the framework of the old proelations that have been, and were bound toexploded by those means. In either case, it iseactionary and Utopian.
Its last words are: corporate guilds
manufacture, patriarchal relations in agriculture.Ultimately, when stubborn historical factsdispersed all intoxicating effects of self-decehis form of Socialism ended in a miserable fit oblues.
C. German, or "True," SocialismThe Socialist and Communist literatur
France, a literature that originated under
pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and that waexpression of the struggle against this power,ntroduced into Germany at a time whenbourgeoisie, in that country, had just begucontest with feudal absolutism.
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German philosophers, would-be philosopand beaux esprits, eagerly seized on this literaonly forgetting, that when these writings immigrom France into Germany, French social cond
had not immigrated along with them. In contacGerman social conditions, this French literatureall its immediate practical significance, assumed a purely literary aspect. Thus, toGerman philosophers of the eighteenth century
demands of the first French Revolution were nomore than the demands of "Practical Reasogeneral, and the utterance of the will ofevolutionary French bourgeoisie signified in
eyes the law of pure Will, of Will as it was bou
be, of true human Will generally.The world of the German literate consisted sn bringing the new French ideas into harmonyheir ancient philosophical conscience, or rathannexing the French ideas without deserting
own philosophic point of view.This annexation took place in the same w
which a foreign language is appropriated, naby translation.
It is well known how the monks wrote silly liv
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Catholic Saints over the manuscripts on whicclassical works of ancient heathendom had written. The German literate reversed this prowith the profane French literature. They wrote
philosophical nonsense beneath the French oriFor instance, beneath the French criticism oeconomic functions of money, they wrote "Alienof Humanity," and beneath the French criticism obourgeois State they wrote "dethronement o
Category of the General," and so forth.The introduction of these philosophical phat the back ofhe French historical criticisms they duPhilosophy of
Action," "True Socialism," "German ScienSocialism,"Philosophical Foundation of Socialism," and so
The French Socialist and Communist literwas thus completely emasculated. And, sin
ceased in the hands of the German to exprestruggle of one class with the other, he felt cons
of having overcome "French one-sidedness" aepresenting, not true requirements, but equirements of truth; not the interests of
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proletariat, but the interests of Human Nature, ofn general, who belongs to no class, has no rewho exists only in the misty realm of philosopantasy.
This German Socialism, which took its schoask so seriously and solemnly, and extolled itstock-in-trade in such mountebank fas
meanwhile gradually lost its pedantic innocenceThe fight of the German, and especially, o
Prussian bourgeoisie, against feudal aristoand absolute monarchy, in other words, the limovement, became more earnest.
By this, the long wished-for opportunity offered to "True" Socialism of confronting
political movement with the Socialist demandhurling the traditional anathemas against liberaagainst representative government, agbourgeois competition, bourgeois freedom opress, bourgeois legislation, bourgeois liberty
equality, and of preaching to the masses thathad nothing to gain, and everything to lose, bybourgeois movement. German Socialism forghe nick of time, that the French criticism, whosecho it was, resu osed the existence of mo
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bourgeois society, with its corresponding econconditions of existence, and the political constiadapted thereto, the very things whose attainwas the object of the pending struggle in Germa
To the absolute governments, with their folloof parsons, professors, country squires and offit served as a welcome scarecrow againshreatening bourgeoisie.
It was a sweet finish after the bitter pi
oggings and bullets with which these sgovernments, just at that time, dosed the Geworking-class risings.
While this "True" Socialism thus servedgovernments as a weapon for fighting the Ge
bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, diepresented a reactionary interest, the interest o
German Philistines. In Germany the petty-bourclass, a relic of the sixteenth century, and sinceconstantly cropping up again under various form
he real social basis of the existing state of thingTo preserve this class is to preserve the exi
tate of things in Germany. The industrial political supremacy of the bourgeoisie threatewith certain destruction on the one hand from
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concentration of capital; on the other, from the ra revolutionary proletariat. "True" Sociappeared to kill these two birds with one stopread like an epidemic.
The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidwith flowers of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of entiment, this transcendental robe in which
German Socialists wrapped their sorry "etruths," all skin and bone, served to wonde
ncrease the sale of their goods amongst supublic. And on its part, German Sociecognised, more and more, its own calling a
bombastic representative of the petty-bourPhilistine.
It proclaimed the German nation to be the mnation, and the German petty Philistine to beypical man. To every villainous meanness ofmodel man it gave a hidden, higher, Socianterpretation, the exact contrary of its real chara
t went to the extreme length of directly opposinbrutally destructive" tendency of Communism
of proclaiming its supreme and impartial contemall class struggles. With very few exceptions, ao-called Socialist and Communist ublication
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now (1847) circulate in Germany belong todomain of this foul and enervating literature.
2. CONSERVATIVE, OR BOURGE
SOCIALISM
A part of the bourgeoisie is desiroedressing social grievances, in order to secur
continued existence of bourgeois society.To this section belong economphilanthropists, humanitarians, improvers ofcondition of the working class, organisers of chmembers of societies for the prevention of crue
animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-ceformers of every imaginable kind. This forSocialism has, moreover, been worked outcomplete systems.
We may cite Proudhon's Philosophie d
Misere as an example of this form.The Socialistic bourgeois want all
advantages of modern social conditions withoutruggles and dangers necessarily resherefrom. They desire the existing state of so
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minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elemThey wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletThe bourgeoisie naturally conceives the wowhich it is supreme to be the best; and bour
Socialism develops this comfortable conceptiovarious more or less complete systems. In reqhe proletariat to carry out such a system,hereby to march straightway into the social erusalem, it but requires in reality, that
proletariat should remain within the boundexisting society, but should cast away all its hadeas concerning the bourgeoisie.
A second and more practical, butystematic, form of this Socialism sough
depreciate every revolutionary movement in theof the working class, by showing that no political reform, but only a change in the maconditions of existence, in economic relations, be of any advantage to them. By changes in
material conditions of existence, this formSocialism, however, by no means understabolition of the bourgeois relations of productioabolition that can be effected only by a revolutioadministrative reforms, based on the conti
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existence of these relations; reforms, thereforen no respect affect the relations between capitaabour, but, at the best, lessen the cost, and simhe administrative work, of bourgeois governme
Bourgeois Socialism attains adeqexpression, when, and only when, it becommere figure of speech.
Free trade: for the benefit of the working cProtective duties: for the benefit of the working c
Prison Reform: for the benefit of the working cThis is the last word and the only seriously mword of bourgeois Socialism.
It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeoibourgeoisfor the benefit of the working class.
3. CRITICAL-UTOPIAN SOCIALISM
COMMUNISM
We do not here refer to that literature whicevery great modern revolution, has always voice to the demands of the proletariat, such awritings of Babeuf and others.
The first direct attempts of the proletariat to
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ts own ends, made in times of universal excitemwhen feudal society was being overthrown, tattempts necessarily failed, owing to the undeveloped state of the proletariat, as well as t
absence of the economic conditions foemancipation, conditions that had yet toproduced, and could be produced by the impenbourgeois epoch alone. The revolutionary literhat accompanied these first movements o
proletariat had necessarily a reactionary characnculcated universal asceticism and social levn its crudest form.
The Socialist and Communist systems proo called, those of Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen
others, spring into existence in the undeveloped period, described above, oftruggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie
Section 1. Bourgeois and Proletarians).The founders of these systems see, indeed
class antagonisms, as well as the action odecomposing elements, in the prevailing forociety. But the proletariat, as yet in its infa
offers to them the spectacle of a class withouhistorical initiative or any independent po
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movement.Since the development of class antago
keeps even pace with the development of induhe economic situation, as they find it, does n
yet offer to them the material conditions foemancipation of the proletariat. They therearch after a new social science, after new s
aws, that are to create these conditions.Historical action is to yield to their per
nventive action, historically created conditionemancipation to fantastic ones, and the grapontaneous class-organisation of the proletarhe organisation of society specially contrivehese inventors. Future history resolves itself, in
eyes, into the propaganda and the practical carout of their social plans.
In the formation of their plans they are consof caring chiefly for the interests of the working cas being the most suffering class. Only from the
of view of being the most suffering class doeproletariat exist for them.
The undeveloped state of the class strugglwell as their own surroundings, causes Socialishis kind to consider themselves far superior
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class antagonisms. They want to improvecondition of every member of society, even thhe most favoured. Hence, they habitually appeociety at large, without distinction of class; na
preference, to the ruling class. For how can pewhen once they understand their system, fail ton it the best possible plan of the best possible of society?
Hence, they reject all political, and especia
evolutionary, action; they wish to attain their enpeaceful means, and endeavour, by experiments, necessarily doomed to failure, anhe force of example, to pave the way for theocial Gospel.
Such fantastic pictures of future society, paat a time when the proletariat is still in a undeveloped state and has but a fanconception of its own position correspond witrst instinctive yearnings of that class for a ge
econstruction of society.But these Socialist and Communist publica
contain also a critical element. They attack principle of existing society. Hence they are full omost valuable materials for the enli htenment o
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working class. The practical measures proposhemsuch as the abolition of the distinbetween town and country, of the family, ofcarrying on of industries for the account of p
ndividuals, and of the wage system, proclamation of social harmony, the conversiohe functions of the State into a uperintendence of production, all these propo
point solely to the disappearance of
antagonisms which were, at that time, onlycropping up, and which, in these publicationsecognised in their earliest, indistinct and undeorms only. These proposals, therefore, are purely Utopian character.
The significance of Critical-Utopian Sociand Communism bears an inverse relatiohistorical development. In proportion as the moclass struggle develops and takes definite shhis fantastic standing apart from the contest, t
antastic attacks on it, lose all practical value aheoretical justification. Therefore, althoughoriginators of these systems were, in many respevolutionary, their disciples have, in every ormed mere reactionar sects. The hold fast b
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original views of their masters, in opposition tprogressive historical development of the proletThey, therefore, endeavour, and that consistentdeaden the class struggle and to reconcile the
antagonisms. They still dream of experimealisation of their social Utopias, of founsolated "phalansteres," of establishing "HColonies," of setting up a "Little Icaria"duodeeditions of the New Jerusalemand to realis
hese castles in the air, they are compelled to apo the feelings and purses of the bourgeoisdegrees they sink into the category of eactionary conservative Socialists depicted a
differing from these only by more syste
pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstbelief in the miraculous effects of their science.
They, therefore, violently oppose all poaction on the part of the working class; such a
according to them, can only result from blind unn the new Gospel.
The Owenites in England, and the FourieriFrance, respectively, oppose the Chartists andReformistes.
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V. POSITION OF THE COMMUNISTS
RELATION TO THE VARIOUS EXISTOPPOSITION PARTIES
Section II has made clear the relations ofCommunists to the existing working-class pa
uch as the Chartists in England and the AgrReformers in America.
The Communists fight for the attainment ommediate aims, for the enforcement of
momentary interests of the working class; but imovement of the present, they also representake care of the future of that movement. In Frhe Communists ally themselves with the SDemocrats, against the conservative and ra
bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the right to taka critical position in regard to phrases and illuraditionally handed down from the great Revolu
In Switzerland they support the Radicals, wosin si ht of the fact that this art consis
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antagonistic elements, partly of DemoSocialists, in the French sense, partly of rabourgeois.
In Poland they support the party that insists o
agrarian revolution as the prime conditionnational emancipation, that party which fomentensurrection of Cracow in 1846.
In Germany they fight with the bourgewhenever it acts in a revolutionary way, agains
absolute monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, andpetty bourgeoisie.
But they never cease, for a single instant, tonto the working class the clearest posecognition of the hostile antagonism bet
bourgeoisie and proletariat, in order that the Geworkers may straightaway use, as so many weaagainst the bourgeoisie, the social and poconditions that the bourgeoisie must necesntroduce along with its supremacy, and in order
after the fall of the reactionary classes in Germhe fight against the bourgeoisie itself mmediately begin.
The Communists turn their attention chie
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Germany, because that country is on the evebourgeois revolution that is bound to be carrieunder more advanced conditions of Eurocivilisation, and with a much more devel
proletariat, than that of England was ineventeenth, and of France in the eighteenth cenand because the bourgeois revolution in Gerwill be but the prelude to an immediately folloproletarian revolution.
In short, the Communists everywhere suevery revolutionary movement against the exocial and political order of things.
In all these movements they bring to the fronhe leading question in each, the property que
no matter what its degree of development ame.Finally, they labour everywhere for the union
agreement of the democratic parties of all countThe Communists disdain to conceal their v
and aims.They openly declare that their ends can be attaonly byhe forcible overthrow of all existing sconditions.
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Let the ruling classes tremble at a Commuevolution.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but chains.
They have a world to win.
WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNIT
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