Written in 1848 by Karl Marx, the communist manifesto highlighted a new way of living, known as communism; A system that would wipe out capitalism and ensure that class struggle between the lower and upper class would come to an end.
Marx firstly describes the ghost that is haunting Europe; this is the zeitgeist or spirit of now, which Marx believed to be revolution by the Bourgeoisie: the working class, against the proletarians: Upper class or industrial millionaires as described by Marx. Marx wanted to stop there being an oppressor and the oppressed as earlier history had shown between two groups of people.
Marx felt that the bourgeoisie were; the landowners and the pawnbrokers, the leaders who in effect own the proletariat, making them work for wages and improving technology as they would not be able to survive without revolutionising instruments for production. However as their technologies increase, the proletariat become commodities to machines that produce quicker, cheaper and more efficient therefore the proletariat jobs become worthless and degraded as everyone fights for money and material items rather than caring for people.
Marx felt that the proletariat should use the increasing technologies of the bourgeoisie to overthrow them. Marx did not like the level of civilisation and felt that the bourgeoisie could turn a barbarian nation into a civilised one. Marx also felt that capitalism did not work and felt that production was centralised into a few hands. This example can be seen in the current British government which shows how power is only in a select few individuals from the same class and even schools.
Marx did not believe in fee completion and felt that it destroys previous productive forces and therefore the proletariat need to rise up and be the death of the bourgeoisie as currently they are only slaves and the bourgeoisie are unfit to rule.
The communist manifesto highlights its interests as the same as the proletariat and therefore a party for the proletariat and therefore are different from any other party. The communists however set a list of 10 rules which separate them from any other party. They are:
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
The abolition of property and family and a change in education is a result of the representation it has to the bourgeoisie, despite how strange it may seem to abolish these, it shows the complete contrast to capitalism.
Communism involves everyone being paid the same despite what work they do, meaning that jobs are not sought after for money only, therefore jobs regain their respect back. However I personally do not agree with this idea, and feel hat some jobs require larger pay for what the job itself requires and therefore the people who undertake this job should be rewarded for it.
Marx’s idea of the dialectic is similar, but differs to that of Marx, as Marx does not feel that two contrasting ideas coming together can make a new idea. Marx feels that he has an idea and does not want to change it, he believes that class struggle causes revolution, which causes a temporary state; this is socialism, however the final stage of the revolution is communism, resulting in the end of capitalism and the bourgeoisies.
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