From a895a7593c66b53400d47bf9bfc671de2f7b73cb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Taru Karttunen Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 15:13:16 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] manifesto --- lib/manifesto | 1487 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 1487 insertions(+) create mode 100644 lib/manifesto diff --git a/lib/manifesto b/lib/manifesto new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6c1ad48b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/lib/manifesto @@ -0,0 +1,1487 @@ +MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY + +[From the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels] + + +A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism. +All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to +exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, +French Radicals and German police-spies. + +Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as +Communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the Opposition +that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, +against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against +its reactionary adversaries? + +Two things result from this fact. + +I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers +to be itself a Power. + +II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the +face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their +tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of +Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself. + +To this end, Communists of various nationalities have +assembled in London, and sketched the following Manifesto, to be +published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and +Danish languages. + + + +I. BOURGEOIS AND PROLETARIANS + +The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history +of class struggles. + +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-constitution of society at +large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. + +In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a +complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a +manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have +patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, +feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, +serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate +gradations. + +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 in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the +epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive +feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a +whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, +into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie +and Proletariat. + +From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers +of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements +of the bourgeoisie were developed. + +The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up +fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and +Chinese markets, the colonisation of America, trade with +the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in +commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to +industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the +revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid +development. + +The feudal system of industry, under which industrial production +was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the +growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took +its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the +manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the +different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of +labour in each single workshop. + +Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. +Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and +machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of +manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of +the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the +leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois. + +Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the +discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an +immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication +by land. This development has, in its time, reacted on the +extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, +navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the +bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the +background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. + +We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the +product of a long course of development, of a series of +revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. + +Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied +by a corresponding political advance of that class. An +oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an +armed and self-governing association in the mediaeval commune; +here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), +there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy (as in France), +afterwards, in the period of manufacture proper, serving either +the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise +against the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great +monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the +establishment of Modern Industry and of the world-market, +conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, +exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is +but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole +bourgeoisie. + +The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary +part. + +The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an +end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has +pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to +his "natural superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus +between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash +payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of +religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine +sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It +has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of +the numberless and indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that +single, unconscionable freedom--Free Trade. In one word, for +exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, +shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. + +The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation +hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has +converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the +man of science, into its paid wage labourers. + +The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental +veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money +relation. + +The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the +brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages, which Reactionists +so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful +indolence. It has been the first to show what man's activity can +bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian +pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has +conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses +of nations and crusades. + +The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising +the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of +production, and with them the whole relations of society. +Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, +was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all +earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of +production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, +everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois +epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, +with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and +opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated +before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all +that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face +with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his +relations with his kind. + +The need of a constantly expanding market for its products +chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It +must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions +everywhere. + +The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world-market +given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in +every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has +drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on +which it stood. All old-established national industries have +been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged +by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death +question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer +work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the +remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only +at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old +wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new +wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant +lands and climes. In place of the old local and national +seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every +direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in +material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual +creations of individual nations become common property. National +one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more +impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, +there arises a world literature. + +The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of +production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, +draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. +The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with +which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the +barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to +capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to +adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to +introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to +become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world +after its own image. + +The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the +towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the +urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued +a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural +life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so +it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on +the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, +the East on the West. + +The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the +scattered state of the population, of the means of production, +and of property. It has agglomerated production, and has +concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence +of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but +loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, +governments and systems of taxation, became lumped together into +one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national +class-interest, one frontier and one customs-tariff. The +bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has +created more massive and more colossal productive forces than +have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's +forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry +and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, +clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of +rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground--what +earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive +forces slumbered in the lap of social labour? + +We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose +foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in +feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these +means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which +feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organisation of +agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal +relations of property became no longer compatible with the +already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. +They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder. + +Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a +social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the +economical and political sway of the bourgeois class. + +A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern +bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange +and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic +means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is +no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he +has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history +of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of +modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, +against the property relations that are the conditions for the +existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule. It is enough to +mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put +on its trial, each time more threateningly, the existence of the +entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great part not only +of the existing products, but also of the previously created +productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises +there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would +have seemed an absurdity--the epidemic of over-production. +Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary +barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of +devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; +industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because +there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, +too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at +the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development +of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they +have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are +fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring +disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the +existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois +society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. +And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one +hand inforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the +other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough +exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the +way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by +diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented. + +The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the +ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. + +But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring +death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who +are to wield those weapons--the modern working class--the +proletarians. + +In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, +in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working +class, developed--a class of labourers, who live only so long +as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour +increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves +piece-meal, are a commodity, like every other article of +commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of +competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. + +Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of +labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual +character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He +becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most +simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is +required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is +restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he +requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his +race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of +labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion +therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage +decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and +division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden +of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working +hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by +increased speed of the machinery, etc. + +Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the +patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial +capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are +organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they +are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers +and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, +and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by +the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the +individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this +despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, +the more hateful and the more embittering it is. + +The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual +labour, in other words, the more modern industry becomes +developed, the more is the labour of men superseded by that of +women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive +social validity for the working class. All are instruments of +labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age +and sex. + +No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, +so far 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. + +The lower strata of the middle class--the small tradespeople, +shopkeepers, retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and +peasants--all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly +because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale +on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the +competition with the large capitalists, partly because their +specialized skill is rendered worthless by the new methods of +production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes +of the population. + +The proletariat goes through various stages of development. +With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At +first the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then by +the workpeople of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade, +in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly +exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the +bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments +of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that +compete with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they +set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished +status of the workman of the Middle Ages. + +At this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass +scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual +competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, +this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of +the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its +own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in +motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this +stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, +but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute +monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, 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. + +But with the development of industry the proletariat not only +increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, +its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various +interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the +proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as +machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour, and nearly +everywhere reduces wages to the same low level. The growing +competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial +crises, make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating. The +unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, +makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions +between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and +more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon +the workers begin to form combinations (Trades Unions) against +the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of +wages; they found permanent associations in order to make +provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and +there the contest breaks out into riots. + +Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. +The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate +result, but in the ever-expanding union of the workers. This +union is helped on by the improved means of communication that +are created by modern industry and that place the workers of +different localities in contact with one another. It was just +this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local +struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle +between classes. But every class struggle is a political +struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers of the +Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, +the modern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few +years. + +This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and +consequently into a political party, is continually being upset +again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it +ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels +legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, +by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie +itself. Thus the ten-hours' bill in England was carried. + +Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society +further, in many ways, the course of development of the +proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant +battle. At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those +portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become +antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all times, with the +bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles it sees +itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for its +help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. The +bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its +own instruments of political and general education, in other +words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting +the bourgeoisie. + +Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling +classes are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the +proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of +existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements +of enlightenment and progress. + +Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive +hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling +class, in fact within the whole range of society, assumes such a +violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling +class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the +class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at +an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the +bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the +proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois +ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of +comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole. + +Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie +today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. +The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of +Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential +product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the +shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the +bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions +of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but +conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try +to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance they are +revolutionary, they are so only in view of their impending +transfer into the proletariat, they thus defend not their +present, but their future interests, they desert their own +standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat. + +The "dangerous class," the social scum, that passively rotting +mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, +here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian +revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more +for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. + +In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at +large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without +property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer +anything in common with the bourgeois family-relations; modern +industrial labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in +England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him +of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, +are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in +ambush just as many bourgeois interests. + +All the preceding classes that got the upper hand, sought to +fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at +large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians +cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except +by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and +thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They +have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission +is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, +individual property. + +All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, +or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is +the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, +in the interests of the immense majority. The proletariat, the +lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise +itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official +society being sprung into the air. + +Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the +proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. +The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all +settle matters with its own bourgeoisie. + +In depicting the most general phases of the development of the +proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging +within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks +out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the +bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. + +Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have +already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed +classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions +must be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its +slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised +himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty +bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to +develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary, +instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and +deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He +becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than +population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the +bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in +society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society +as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is +incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his +slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a +state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. +Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other +words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. + +The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of +the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of +capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour +rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. The +advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, +replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, +by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The +development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its +feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and +appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, +above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of +the proletariat are equally inevitable. + + + +II. PROLETARIANS AND COMMUNISTS + +In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a +whole? + +The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other +working-class parties. + +They have no interests separate and apart from those of the +proletariat as a whole. + +They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, +by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement. + +The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties +by this only: (1) In the national struggles of the proletarians +of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front +the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of +all nationality. (2) In the various stages of development which the +struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass +through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the +movement as a whole. + +The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, +the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class +parties of every country, that section which pushes forward +all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over +the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly +understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate +general results of the proletarian movement. + +The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all +the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into +a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of +political power by the proletariat. + +The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way +based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or +discovered, by this or that would-be universal reformer. They +merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from +an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on +under our very eyes. The abolition of existing property +relations is not at all a distinctive feature of Communism. + +All property relations in the past have continually been subject +to historical change consequent upon the change in historical +conditions. + +The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in +favour of bourgeois property. + +The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of +property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But +modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete +expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, +that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the +many by the few. + +In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in +the single sentence: Abolition of private property. + +We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing +the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a +man's own labour, which property is alleged to be the groundwork +of all personal freedom, activity and independence. + +Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the +property of the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of +property that preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to +abolish that; the development of industry has to a great extent +already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily. + +Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property? + +But does wage-labour create any property for the labourer? Not +a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which +exploits wage-labour, and which cannot increase except upon +condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labour for fresh +exploitation. Property, in its present form, is based on the +antagonism of capital and wage-labour. Let us examine both sides +of this antagonism. + +To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a +social status in production. Capital is a collective product, +and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last +resort, only by the united action of all members of society, +can it be set in motion. + +Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power. + +When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into +the property of all members of society, personal property is not +thereby transformed into social property. It is only the social +character of the property that is changed. It loses its +class-character. + +Let us now take wage-labour. + +The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., +that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely +requisite in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the +wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely +suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. We by no +means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the +products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the +maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no +surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. All that we +want to do away with, is the miserable character of this +appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase +capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of +the ruling class requires it. + +In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase +accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour +is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence +of the labourer. + +In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; +in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In +bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, +while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. + +And the abolition of this state of things is called by the +bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly +so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois +independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at. + +By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of +production, free trade, free selling and buying. + +But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying +disappears also. This talk about free selling and buying, and +all the other "brave words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in +general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted +selling and buying, with the fettered traders of the Middle Ages, +but have no meaning when opposed to the Communistic abolition of +buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, +and of the bourgeoisie itself. + +You are horrified at our intending to do away with private +property. But in your existing society, private property is +already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its +existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the +hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with +intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary +condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any +property for the immense majority of society. + +In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your +property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend. + +From the moment when labour can no longer be converted into +capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being +monopolised, i.e., from the moment when individual property can +no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, +from that moment, you say individuality vanishes. + +You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no +other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of +property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and +made impossible. + +Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the +products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the +power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such +appropriation. + +It has been objected that upon the abolition of private property +all work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us. + +According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone +to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who +work, acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not +work. The whole of this objection is but another expression of +the tautology: that there can no longer be any wage-labour when +there is no longer any capital. + +All objections urged against the Communistic mode of producing +and appropriating material products, have, in the same way, +been urged against the Communistic modes of producing and +appropriating intellectual products. Just as, to the bourgeois, +the disappearance of class property is the disappearance of +production itself, so the disappearance of class culture is to +him identical with the disappearance of all culture. + +That culture, the loss of which he laments, is, for the enormous +majority, a mere training to act as a machine. + +But don't wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended +abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois +notions of freedom, culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but +the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and +bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of +your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential +character and direction are determined by the economical +conditions of existence of your class. + +The selfish misconception that induces you to transform into +eternal laws of nature and of reason, the social forms +springing from your present mode of production and form of +property--historical relations that rise and disappear in the +progress of production--this misconception you share with every +ruling class that has preceded you. What you see clearly in the +case of ancient property, what you admit in the case of feudal +property, you are of course forbidden to admit in the case of +your own bourgeois form of property. + +Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this +infamous proposal of the Communists. + +On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, +based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed +form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this +state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of +the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution. + +The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its +complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of +capital. + +Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of +children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. + +But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, +when we replace home education by social. + +And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the +social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention, +direct or indirect, of society, by means of schools, etc.? The +Communists have not invented the intervention of society in +education; they do but seek to alter the character of that +intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the +ruling class. + +The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about +the hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the +more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all +family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their +children transformed into simple articles of commerce and +instruments of labour. + +But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams +the whole bourgeoisie in chorus. + +The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. +He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited +in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than +that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the +women. + +He has not even a suspicion that the real point is to do away +with the status of women as mere instruments of production. + +For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the +virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women +which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established +by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce +community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial. + +Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters +of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common +prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's +wives. + +Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common +and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly +be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in +substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalised +community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident that the +abolition of the present system of production must bring with it +the abolition of the community of women springing from that +system, i.e., of prostitution both public and private. + +The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish +countries and nationality. + +The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what +they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all +acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of +the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, +itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word. + +National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily +more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the +bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world-market, to +uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of +life corresponding thereto. + +The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still +faster. United action, of the leading civilised countries at +least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of +the proletariat. + +In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another +is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will +also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between +classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation +to another will come to an end. + +The charges against Communism made from a religious, a +philosophical, and, generally, from an ideological standpoint, +are not deserving of serious examination. + +Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, +views and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes +with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in +his social relations and in his social life? + +What else does the history of ideas prove, than that +intellectual production changes its character in proportion as +material production is changed? The ruling ideas of each age +have ever been the ideas of its ruling class. + +When people speak of ideas that revolutionise society, they do +but express the fact, that within the old society, the elements +of a new one have been created, and that the dissolution of the +old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old +conditions of existence. + +When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient +religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas +succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal +society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary +bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of +conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition +within the domain of knowledge. + +"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, moral, philosophical +and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of +historical development. But religion, morality philosophy, +political science, and law, constantly survived this change." + +"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, +etc. that are common to all states of society. But Communism +abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all +morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it +therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." + +What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of +all past society has consisted in the development of class +antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at +different epochs. + +But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all +past ages, viz., the exploitation of one part of society by the +other. No wonder, then, that the social consciousness of past +ages, despite all the multiplicity and variety it displays, +moves within certain common forms, or general ideas, which +cannot completely vanish except with the total disappearance of +class antagonisms. + +The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with +traditional property relations; no wonder that its development +involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas. + +But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism. + +We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the +working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of +ruling as to win the battle of democracy. + +The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by +degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all +instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the +proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the +total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. + +Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by +means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on +the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, +therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, +but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, +necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are +unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of +production. + +These measures will of course be different in different +countries. + +Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will +be pretty generally applicable. + +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 right of inheritance. + +4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. + +5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means + of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive + monopoly. + +6. Centralisation 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 liability of all to labour. Establishment of + industrial armies, especially for agriculture. + +9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; + gradual abolition of the distinction between town and + country, by a more equable distribution of the population + over the country. + +10. Free education for all children in public schools. + Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. + Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c. + +When, in the course of development, class distinctions have +disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the +hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power +will lose its political character. Political power, properly so +called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing +another. If the proletariat during its contest with the +bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to +organise itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it +makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force +the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these +conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of +class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have +abolished its own supremacy as a class. + +In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and +class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which +the free development of each is the condition for the free +development of all. + + + +III. SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST LITERATURE + + +1. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM + + +A. Feudal Socialism + +Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of the +aristocracies of France and England to write pamphlets against +modern bourgeois society. In the French revolution of July 1830, +and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again +succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a serious political +contest was altogether out of the question. A literary battle +alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature +the old cries of the restoration period had become impossible. + +In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy were obliged to +lose sight, apparently, of their own interests, and to formulate +their indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the +exploited working class alone. Thus the aristocracy took their +revenge by singing lampoons on their new master, and whispering +in his ears sinister prophecies of coming catastrophe. + +In this way arose Feudal Socialism: half lamentation, half +lampoon; half echo of the past, half menace of the future; at +times, by its bitter, witty and incisive criticism, striking the +bourgeoisie to the very heart's core; but always ludicrous in +its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of +modern history. + +The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to them, waved the +proletarian alms-bag in front for a banner. But the people, so +often as it joined them, saw on their hindquarters the old feudal +coats of arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter. + +One section of the French Legitimists and "Young England" +exhibited this spectacle. + +In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to +that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they +exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite +different, and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under +their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget +that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their +own form of society. + +For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary +character of their criticism that their chief accusation against +the bourgeoisie amounts to this, that under the bourgeois regime +a class is being developed, which is destined to cut up root and +branch the old order of society. + +What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it +creates a proletariat, as that it creates a revolutionary +proletariat. + +In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive +measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, +despite their high falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the +golden apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter +truth, love, and honour for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and +potato spirits. + +As the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord, +so has Clerical Socialism with Feudal Socialism. + +Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist +tinge. Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, +against marriage, against the State? Has it not preached in the +place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification +of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church? Christian +Socialism is but the holy, water with which the priest consecrates +the heart-burnings of the aristocrat. + + +B. Petty-Bourgeois Socialism + +The feudal aristocracy was not the only class that was ruined by +the bourgeoisie, not the only class whose conditions of existence +pined and perished in the atmosphere of modern bourgeois society. +The mediaeval burgesses and the small peasant proprietors were +the precursors of the modern bourgeoisie. In those countries +which are but little developed, industrially and commercially, +these two classes still vegetate side by side with the rising +bourgeoisie. + +In countries where modern civilisation has become fully +developed, a new class of petty bourgeois has been formed, +fluctuating between proletariat and bourgeoisie and ever renewing +itself as a supplementary part of bourgeois society. The +individual members of this class, however, are being constantly +hurled down into the proletariat by the action of competition, +and, as modern industry develops, they even see the moment +approaching when they will completely disappear as an independent +section of modern society, to be replaced, in manufactures, +agriculture and commerce, by overlookers, bailiffs and shopmen. + +In countries like France, where the peasants constitute far more +than half of the population, it was natural that writers who +sided with the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, should use, +in their criticism of the bourgeois regime, the standard of the +peasant and petty bourgeois, and from the standpoint of these +intermediate classes should take up the cudgels for the working +class. Thus arose petty-bourgeois Socialism. Sismondi was the +head of this school, not only in France but also in England. + +This school of Socialism dissected with great acuteness the +contradictions in the conditions of modern production. It laid +bare the hypocritical apologies of economists. It proved, +incontrovertibly, the disastrous effects of machinery and +division of labour; the concentration of capital and land in a +few hands; overproduction and crises; it pointed out the +inevitable ruin of the petty bourgeois and peasant, the misery +of the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the crying +inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of +extermination between nations, the dissolution of old moral +bonds, of the old family relations, of the old nationalities. + +In its positive aims, however, this form of Socialism aspires +either to restoring the old means of production and of exchange, +and with them the old property relations, and the old society, or +to cramping the modern means of production and of exchange, +within the framework of the old property relations that have +been, and were bound to be, exploded by those means. In either +case, it is both reactionary and Utopian. + +Its last words are: corporate guilds for manufacture, +patriarchal relations in agriculture. + +Ultimately, when stubborn historical facts had dispersed all +intoxicating effects of self-deception, this form of Socialism +ended in a miserable fit of the blues. + + +C. German, or "True," Socialism + +The Socialist and Communist literature of France, a literature +that originated under the pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and +that was the expression of the struggle against this power, was +introduced into Germany at a time when the bourgeoisie, in that +country, had just begun its contest with feudal absolutism. + +German philosophers, would-be philosophers, and beaux esprits, +eagerly seized on this literature, only forgetting, that when +these writings immigrated from France into Germany, French social +conditions had not immigrated along with them. In contact with +German social conditions, this French literature lost all its +immediate practical significance, and assumed a purely literary +aspect. Thus, to the German philosophers of the eighteenth +century, the demands of the first French Revolution were nothing +more than the demands of "Practical Reason" in general, and the +utterance of the will of the revolutionary French bourgeoisie +signified in their eyes the law of pure Will, of Will as it was +bound to be, of true human Will generally. + +The world of the German literate consisted solely in bringing +the new French ideas into harmony with their ancient philosophical +conscience, or rather, in annexing the French ideas without +deserting their own philosophic point of view. + +This annexation took place in the same way in which a foreign +language is appropriated, namely, by translation. + +It is well known how the monks wrote silly lives of Catholic +Saints over the manuscripts on which the classical works of +ancient heathendom had been written. The German literate +reversed this process with the profane French literature. They +wrote their philosophical nonsense beneath the French original. +For instance, beneath the French criticism of the economic +functions of money, they wrote "Alienation of Humanity," and +beneath the French criticism of the bourgeois State they wrote +"dethronement of the Category of the General," and so forth. + +The introduction of these philosophical phrases at the back of +the French historical criticisms they dubbed "Philosophy of +Action," "True Socialism," "German Science of Socialism," +"Philosophical Foundation of Socialism," and so on. + +The French Socialist and Communist literature was thus completely +emasculated. And, since it ceased in the hands of the German to express +the struggle of one class with the other, he felt conscious of having +overcome "French one-sidedness" and of representing, not true +requirements, but the requirements of truth; not the interests of the +proletariat, but the interests of Human Nature, of Man in general, who +belongs to no class, has no reality, who exists only in the misty realm +of philosophical fantasy. + +This German Socialism, which took its schoolboy task so seriously +and solemnly, and extolled its poor stock-in-trade in such +mountebank fashion, meanwhile gradually lost its pedantic +innocence. + +The fight of the German, and especially, of the Prussian bourgeoisie, +against feudal aristocracy and absolute monarchy, in other words, the +liberal movement, became more earnest. + +By this, the long wished-for opportunity was offered to "True" +Socialism of confronting the political movement with the +Socialist demands, of hurling the traditional anathemas +against liberalism, against representative government, against +bourgeois competition, bourgeois freedom of the press, bourgeois +legislation, bourgeois liberty and equality, and of preaching to +the masses that they had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, +by this bourgeois movement. German Socialism forgot, in the nick +of time, that the French criticism, whose silly echo it was, +presupposed the existence of modern bourgeois society, with its +corresponding economic conditions of existence, and the political +constitution adapted thereto, the very things whose attainment +was the object of the pending struggle in Germany. + +To the absolute governments, with their following of parsons, +professors, country squires and officials, it served as a welcome +scarecrow against the threatening bourgeoisie. + +It was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and +bullets with which these same governments, just at that time, +dosed the German working-class risings. + +While this "True" Socialism thus served the governments as a +weapon for fighting the German bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, +directly represented a reactionary interest, the interest of the +German Philistines. In Germany the petty-bourgeois class, a +relic of the sixteenth century, and since then constantly +cropping up again under various forms, is the real social basis +of the existing state of things. + +To preserve this class is to preserve the existing state of +things in Germany. The industrial and political supremacy of the +bourgeoisie threatens it with certain destruction; on the one +hand, from the concentration of capital; on the other, from the +rise of a revolutionary proletariat. "True" Socialism appeared to +kill these two birds with one stone. It spread like an epidemic. + +The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers +of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this +transcendental robe in which the German Socialists wrapped their +sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to wonderfully +increase the sale of their goods amongst such a public. And on +its part, German Socialism recognised, more and more, its own +calling as the bombastic representative of the petty-bourgeois +Philistine. + +It proclaimed the German nation to be the model nation, and the +German petty Philistine to be the typical man. To every +villainous meanness of this model man it gave a hidden, higher, +Socialistic interpretation, the exact contrary of its real +character. It went to the extreme length of directly opposing +the "brutally destructive" tendency of Communism, and of +proclaiming its supreme and impartial contempt of all class +struggles. With very few exceptions, all the so-called Socialist +and Communist publications that now (1847) circulate in Germany +belong to the domain of this foul and enervating literature. + + +2. CONSERVATIVE, OR BOURGEOIS, SOCIALISM + +A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social +grievances, in order to secure the continued existence of +bourgeois society. + +To this section belong economists, philanthropists, +humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, +organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of +cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner +reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of Socialism has, +moreover, been worked out into complete systems. + +We may cite Proudhon's Philosophie de la Misere as an example of +this form. + +The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern +social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily +resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society +minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish +for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie +naturally conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the +best; and bourgeois Socialism develops this comfortable +conception into various more or less complete systems. In +requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and thereby +to march straightway into the social New Jerusalem, it but +requires in reality, that the proletariat should remain within +the bounds of existing society, but should cast away all its +hateful ideas concerning the bourgeoisie. + +A second and more practical, but less systematic, form of this +Socialism sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in +the eyes of the working class, by showing that no mere political +reform, but only a change in the material conditions of +existence, in economic relations, could be of any advantage to +them. By changes in the material conditions of existence, this +form of Socialism, however, by no means understands abolition of +the bourgeois relations of production, an abolition that can be +effected only by a revolution, but administrative reforms, based +on the continued existence of these relations; reforms, +therefore, that in no respect affect the relations between +capital and labour, but, at the best, lessen the cost, and +simplify the administrative work, of bourgeois government. + +Bourgeois Socialism attains adequate expression, when, and only +when, it becomes a mere figure of speech. + +Free trade: for the benefit of the working class. Protective +duties: for the benefit of the working class. Prison Reform: for +the benefit of the working class. This is the last word and the +only seriously meant word of bourgeois Socialism. + +It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois--for +the benefit of the working class. + + +3. CRITICAL-UTOPIAN SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM + +We do not here refer to that literature which, in every great +modern revolution, has always given voice to the demands of the +proletariat, such as the writings of Babeuf and others. + +The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own +ends, made in times of universal excitement, when feudal society +was being overthrown, these attempts necessarily failed, owing +to the then undeveloped state of the proletariat, as well as to +the absence of the economic conditions for its emancipation, +conditions that had yet to be produced, and could be produced +by the impending bourgeois epoch alone. The revolutionary +literature that accompanied these first movements of the +proletariat had necessarily a reactionary character. It +inculcated universal asceticism and social levelling in its +crudest form. + +The Socialist and Communist systems properly so called, those of +Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen and others, spring into existence in +the early undeveloped period, described above, of the struggle +between proletariat and bourgeoisie (see Section 1. Bourgeois +and Proletarians). + +The founders of these systems see, indeed, the class antagonisms, as +well as the action of the decomposing elements, in the prevailing form +of society. But the proletariat, as yet in its infancy, offers to them +the spectacle of a class without any historical initiative or any +independent political movement. + +Since the development of class antagonism keeps even pace with +the development of industry, the economic situation, as they find +it, does not as yet offer to them the material conditions for the +emancipation of the proletariat. They therefore search after a +new social science, after new social laws, that are to create +these conditions. + +Historical action is to yield to their personal inventive +action, historically created conditions of emancipation to +fantastic ones, and the gradual, spontaneous class-organisation +of the proletariat to the organisation of society specially +contrived by these inventors. Future history resolves itself, in +their eyes, into the propaganda and the practical carrying out of +their social plans. + +In the formation of their plans they are conscious of caring +chiefly for the interests of the working class, as being the most +suffering class. Only from the point of view of being the most +suffering class does the proletariat exist for them. + +The undeveloped state of the class struggle, as well as their +own surroundings, causes Socialists of this kind to consider +themselves far superior to all class antagonisms. They want to +improve the condition of every member of society, even that of +the most favoured. Hence, they habitually appeal to society at +large, without distinction of class; nay, by preference, to the +ruling class. For how can people, when once they understand +their system, fail to see in it the best possible plan of the +best possible state of society? + +Hence, they reject all political, and especially all +revolutionary, action; they wish to attain their ends by +peaceful means, and endeavour, by small experiments, necessarily +doomed to failure, and by the force of example, to pave the way +for the new social Gospel. + +Such fantastic pictures of future society, painted at a time +when the proletariat is still in a very undeveloped state and has +but a fantastic conception of its own position correspond with +the first instinctive yearnings of that class for a general +reconstruction of society. + +But these Socialist and Communist publications contain also a +critical element. They attack every principle of existing society. +Hence they are full of the most valuable materials for the +enlightenment of the working class. The practical measures +proposed in them--such as the abolition of the distinction +between town and country, of the family, of the carrying on of +industries for the account of private individuals, and of the wage +system, the proclamation of social harmony, the conversion of the +functions of the State into a mere superintendence of production, +all these proposals, point solely to the disappearance of class +antagonisms which were, at that time, only just cropping up, and +which, in these publications, are recognised in their earliest, +indistinct and undefined forms only. These proposals, therefore, +are of a purely Utopian character. + +The significance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism +bears an inverse relation to historical development. In +proportion as the modern class struggle develops and takes +definite shape, this fantastic standing apart from the contest, +these fantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all +theoretical justification. Therefore, although the originators +of these systems were, in many respects, revolutionary, their +disciples have, in every case, formed mere reactionary sects. +They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in +opposition to the progressive historical development of the +proletariat. They, therefore, endeavour, and that consistently, +to deaden the class struggle and to reconcile the class antagonisms. +They still dream of experimental realisation of their social +Utopias, of founding isolated "phalansteres," of establishing +"Home Colonies," of setting up a "Little Icaria"--duodecimo +editions of the New Jerusalem--and to realise all these castles +in the air, they are compelled to appeal to the feelings and +purses of the bourgeois. By degrees they sink into the category +of the reactionary conservative Socialists depicted above, +differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and +by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous +effects of their social science. + +They, therefore, violently oppose all political action on the +part of the working class; such action, according to them, can +only result from blind unbelief in the new Gospel. + +The Owenites in England, and the Fourierists in France, +respectively, oppose the Chartists and the Reformistes. + + + +IV. POSITION OF THE COMMUNISTS IN RELATION TO THE +VARIOUS EXISTING OPPOSITION PARTIES + +Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the +existing working-class parties, such as the Chartists in England +and the Agrarian Reformers in America. + +The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, +for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working +class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent +and take care of the future of that movement. In France the +Communists ally themselves with the Social-Democrats, against the +conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the +right to take up a critical position in regard to phrases and +illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution. + +In Switzerland they support the Radicals, without losing sight +of the fact that this party consists of antagonistic elements, +partly of Democratic Socialists, in the French sense, partly of +radical bourgeois. + +In Poland they support the party that insists on an agrarian +revolution as the prime condition for national emancipation, that +party which fomented the insurrection of Cracow in 1846. + +In Germany they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a +revolutionary way, against the absolute monarchy, the feudal +squirearchy, and the petty bourgeoisie. + +But they never cease, for a single instant, to instil into the +working class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile +antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat, in order that the +German workers may straightaway use, as so many weapons against +the bourgeoisie, the social and political conditions that the +bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its supremacy, +and in order that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in +Germany, the fight against the bourgeoisie itself may immediately +begin. + +The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because +that country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that +is bound to be carried out under more advanced conditions +of European civilisation, and with a much more developed +proletariat, than that of England was in the seventeenth, and of +France in the eighteenth century, and because the bourgeois +revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately +following proletarian revolution. + +In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary +movement against the existing social and political order of +things. + +In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading +question in each, the property question, no matter what its +degree of development at the time. + +Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of +the democratic parties of all countries. + +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 classes 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!