Society and the “Communist Manifesto”

Karl Marx wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party, better known as the Communist Manifesto, between December 1847 and February 1848.  The Central Committee of the Communist League, also known as the Communist Party, had requested that he should write a manuscript explaining the goals of Communism and the principles of the movement.  It is supposed that Fredrich Engles also played a role in the composition of the Communist Manifesto, as it is also believed that Engles titled the work.  Unfortunately, no letters continue to exist of this time period proving that Engles had any part it the creation of the document.  Nevertheless, the significance of the Manifesto remains the same, regardless of its authors.
The Communist Manifesto was created to be a simplified clarification of the league’s expectations and strategies for a pending revolution that they believed to be inevitable.  Before 1848, Europe had experienced a rapid growth of industry, an industrial revolution that proved to be a benefit, as well as, an affliction on European society.  While Europe seemed to be triumphing with the successes of an industrial revolution, the working class citizens were struggling to survive as Europe was turning into a highly capitalistic society.  The remarkable success and wealth of the capitalists and the bourgeoisie caused an imbalance of wealth within European society. The prosperity of the wealthy caused a downfall in the quality of life of the working class.  While the bourgeoisie were becoming increasingly wealthy, the working class citizens were battling famine and turning towards Socialistic and Communistic ideologies. The imbalance of wealth and the constant struggle of the working or “proletarian” class during Europe’s industrial revolution set the stage for the Communist Manifesto to be written.
Inescapable political mayhem finally surfaced in 1848.  Frederic L. Bender stated in his writing on the Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds of the Communist Manifesto that, “The cost of food skyrocketed, just as wages tumbled during the depression of 1847. Food riots and demonstrations became common” (3).  To emigrate, to fight, or to do nothing and consequently die were the only options made available to the working class.  The Committee of the Communist League had chosen the perfect time to announce their plan for the creation of a new and revolutionary Communistic society through Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
Throughout history, society has been constantly in a battle between the “oppressor” and the “oppressed,” which was also the case in 1848.  Karl Marx begins the Communistic, literary work with a brief history of class struggles and an account of the influence class structure has on society.  Marx writes:
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-construction of society at large or in the common ruin of the contending classes.  (55)
The bourgeoisie and the proletarians were famously at odds and against one another. The Communist Manifesto states that, “The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle” (56).  In the late 1700s, European society believed that it had revolutionized its societal structure and had grown from the “primitive” and feudalistic-type society, it had known in the past, to a more improved and civilized culture.  However this “grown-up” version of European class structure was highly representative of feudalism.  It could be best described as feudalism in disguise.  Little had improved, let alone changed, from the initial feudalistic society to the current capitalistic and industrial culture. As soon as Europe had decided to do away with feudalistic class structure, it recreated it, building new classes, which included the bourgeoisie and the proletarians.  The Central Committee of the Communist League believed that there was only one way to renovate the class structure and that was through a Communistic revolution.  Marx writes of the working class plight and the Communistic belief that the detrimental consequences of class structure are responsible.
Karl Marx continues his manuscript, in the second section of the Communist Manifesto, by explaining the Central Committee of the Communist League’s main goals, which were the “formation of the proletariat into a class, [the] overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, [and the] conquest of political power by the proletariat” (Marx 67).  The league aspired to implement a Communistic society.  Marx writes, “The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favour of bourgeois property” (68).  The Communists wanted to do likewise.  They planned to launch their own revolution in the hopes of weakening the power of the bourgeoisie and instating a society in favor of the proletariat or working-class people.
In the third section of the Communist Manifesto, Marx explains why previous manuscripts and literature written by various socialist groups have failed to revolutionize society.  Literature written by Feudal Socialists failed because the “bourgeoisie regime…is destined to cut up root and branch the old order of society” (Marx 76). The Central Committee of the Communist League believes that a classless society could never be established under Feudal Socialism.  The Communist Party believes that a classless society is necessary to eliminate the oppressor and oppressed relationship that has become a structural flaw in societies that maintain classes. The Conservative Socialist Party failed because they did not realize the gravity of class structure and its impact on the working-class.  They fail to see the oppressor and oppressed relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.  Marx explains that the Critical-Utopian Socialists also failed to bring about change because they did not understand that revolutions must occur in order to alter society.  Dreaming of change, without action, will not bring about the desired change.  According to the Communist Manifesto, Communism is the only key to unlocking the change desired by the working-class.
The fourth, and final section of the Communist Manifesto explains that the Communist Party will stop at nothing to overthrow all existing social arrangement. It is written in the Manifesto that, “The Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things” (Marx 86).  Marx makes it clear that they are willing to do anything to promote political and social change, even if that means supporting the bourgeoisie for a period.  If it will result in a revolution in favor of the proletariat, the Communists are supportive.
Marx’s Communist Manifesto was written to end the confusion that was present in the mid 1800s and rid Communism of its bad reputation.  Marx helped to clarify the theories and goals of “true” Communism, as defined by the Central Committee of the Communist League.  Marx concludes his manuscript with the following motivational proclamation:
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.  They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!  (86)
This memorable declaration led many individuals of the working-class to join with the Communist Party.  With the promise of freedom and improved living conditions, men and women of the working-class were more than willing to unite and fight for a revolution. Though the Communist Manifesto did not reach the level of success that Marx and the Central Committee of the Communist League had hoped for, it did not fail like previous Socialistic literature.  Even today, one hundred and sixty years after the composition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Communistic values can be found in several societies around the globe.

List of Works Cited
Bender, Frederic L. “Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds of the Communist
Manifesto.” The Communist Manifesto. New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
1988.
Davidson, Rondel V. “Reform versus Revolution: Victor Considerant and the Communist
Manifesto.” The Communist Manifesto. New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
1988.
Kautsky, Karl. “The Communist Manifesto after Six Decades.” The Communist
Manifesto. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
Levack, Brian. The West. New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2007.
Marx, Karl. “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” The Communist Manifesto. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
Selsam, Howard. “The Ethics of the Communist Manifesto.” The Communist Manifesto.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.