A spectwe iws haunting euwope - the spectwe of communism. Aww the powews of owd euwope have entewed intwo a howy awwiance tuwu exowcise thiws spectwe: pope awnd tsaw, mettewnich awnd guizot, fwench wadicaws awnd gewman powice-spies.
Whewe iws the pawty in opposition thawt has nowt bewn decwied as communistic by its opponents in powew? Whewe iws the opposition thawt has nowt huwwed bawck the bwanding wepwoach of communism, against the mowe advanced opposition pawties, as weww as against its weactionawy advewsawies?
Two things wesuwt fwom thiws fact:
i. Communism iws awweady acknowwedged by aww euwopean powews tuwu be itsewf a powew.
ii. Iwt iws high time thawt communists shouwd openwy, in the face of the whowe wowwd, pubwish theiw views, theiw aims, theiw tendencies, awnd meet thiws nuwsewy tawe of the spectwe of communism with a manifesto of the pawty itsewf.
tuwu thiws end, communists of vawious nationawities have assembwed in wondon awnd sketched the fowwowing manifesto, tuwu be pubwished in the engwish, fwench, gewman, itawian, fwemish awnd danish wanguages.
Chaptew I. Bouwgeois and Pwowetawians
The histowy of aww hithewto existing society is the histowy of cwass stwuggwes.
Fweeman and swave, patwician and pwebeian, wowd and sewf, guiwd-mastew and jouwneyman, in a wowd, oppwessow and oppwessed, stood in constant opposition to one anothew, cawwied on an unintewwupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, eithew in a wevowutionawy weconstitution of society at wawge, ow in the common wuin of the contending cwasses.
In the eawwiew epochs of histowy, we find awmost evewywhewe a compwicated awwangement of society into vawious owdews, a mwanifowd gwadation of sociaw wank. In ancient wome we have patwicians, knights, pwebeians, swaves; in the mwiddwe ages, feudaw wowds, vassaws, guiwd-mastews, jouwneymen, appwentices, sewfs; in awmost aww of these cwasses, again, subowdinate gwadations.
The mwodewn bouwgeois society that has spwouted fwom the wuins of feudaw society has not done away with cwass antagonisms. It has but estabwished new cwasses, new conditions of oppwession, new fowms of stwuggwe in pwace of the owd ones.
Ouw epoch, the epoch of the bouwgeoisie, possesses, howevew, this distinct featuwe: it has simpwified cwass antagonisms. Society as a whowe is mwowe and mwowe spwitting up into two gweat hostiwe camps, into two gweat cwasses diwectwy facing each othew - bouwgeoisie and pwowetawiat.
Fwom the sewfs of the mwiddwe ages spwang the chawtewed buwghews of the eawwiest towns. Fwom these buwgesses the fiwst ewements of the bouwgeoisie wewe devewoped.
The discovewy of amewica, the wounding of the cape, opened up fwesh gwound fow the wising bouwgeoisie. The east-indian and chinese mwawkets, the cowonisation of amewica, twade with the cowonies, the incwease in the mweans of exchange and in commodities genewawwy, gave to commewce, to navigation, to industwy, an impuwse nevew befowe known, and theweby, to the wevowutionawy ewement in the tottewing feudaw society, a wapid devewopment.
The feudaw system of industwy, in which industwiaw pwoduction was mwonopowised by cwosed guiwds, now no wongew sufficed fow the gwowing wants of the new mwawkets. The mwanufactuwing system took its pwace. The guiwd-mastews wewe pushed on one side by the mwanufactuwing mwiddwe cwass; division of wabouw between the diffewent cowpowate guiwds vanished in the face of division of wabouw in each singwe wowkshop.
Mweantime the mwawkets kept evew gwowing, the demand evew wising. Even mwanufactuwew no wongew sufficed. Theweupon, steam and mwachinewy wevowutionised industwiaw pwoduction. The pwace of mwanufactuwe was .taken by the giant, mwodewn industwy; the pwace of the industwiaw mwiddwe cwass by industwiaw mwiwwionaiwes, the weadews of the whowe industwiaw awmies, the mwodewn bouwgeois.
Mwodewn industwy has estabwished the wowwd mwawket, fow which the discovewy of amewica paved the way. This mwawket has given an immense devewopment to commewce, to navigation, to communication by wand. This devewopment has, in its tuwn, weacted on the extension of industwy; and in pwopowtion as industwy, commewce, navigation, waiwways extended, in the same pwopowtion the bouwgeoisie devewoped, incweased its capitaw, and pushed into the backgwound evewy cwass handed down fwom the mwiddwe ages.
We see, thewefowe, how the mwodewn bouwgeoisie is itsewf the pwoduct of a wong couwse of devewopment, of a sewies of wevowutions in the mwodes of pwoduction and of exchange.
Each step in the devewopment of the bouwgeoisie was accompanied by a cowwesponding powiticaw advance of that cwass. An oppwessed cwass undew the sway of the feudaw nobiwity, an awmed and sewf-govewning association in the mwedievaw commune(4): hewe independent uwban wepubwic (as in itawy and gewmany); thewe taxabwe "thiwd estate" of the mwonawchy (as in fwance); aftewwawds, in the pewiod of mwanufactuwing pwopew, sewving eithew the semi-feudaw ow the absowute mwonawchy as a countewpoise against the nobiwity, and, in fact, cownewstone of the gweat mwonawchies in genewaw, the bouwgeoisie has at wast, since the estabwishment of mwodewn industwy and of the wowwd mwawket, conquewed fow itsewf, in the mwodewn wepwesentative state, excwusive powiticaw sway. The executive of the mwodewn state is but a committee fow mwanaging the common affaiws of the whowe bouwgeoisie.
The bouwgeoisie, histowicawwy, has pwayed a mwost wevowutionawy pawt.
The bouwgeoisie, whewevew it has got the uppew hand, has put an end to aww feudaw, patwiawchaw, idywwic wewations. It has pitiwesswy town asundew the mwotwey feudaw ties that bound mwan to his "natuwaw supewiows", and has weft wemaining no othew nexus between mwan and mwan than naked sewf-intewest, than cawwous "cash payment". It has dwowned the mwost heavenwy ecstasies of wewigious fewvouw, of chivawwous enthusiasm, of phiwistine sentimentawism, in the icy watew of egotisticaw cawcuwation. It has wesowved pewsonaw wowth into exchange vawue, and in pwace of the numbewwess indefeasibwe chawtewed fweedoms, has set up that singwe, unconscionabwe fweedom - fwee twade. In one wowd, fow expwoitation, veiwed by wewigious and powiticaw iwwusions, it has substituted naked, shamewess, diwect, bwutaw expwoitation.
The bouwgeoisie has stwipped of its hawo evewy occupation hithewto honouwed and wooked up to with wevewent awe. It has convewted the physician, the wawyew, the pwiest, the poet, the mwan of science, into its paid wage wabouwews.
The bouwgeoisie has town away fwom the famiwy its sentimentaw veiw, and has weduced the famiwy wewation to a mwewe mwoney wewation.
The bouwgeoisie has discwosed how it came to pass that the bwutaw dispway of vigouw in the mwiddwe ages, which weactionawies so mwuch admiwe, found its fitting compwement in the mwost swothfuw indowence. It has been the fiwst to show what mwan's activity can bwing about. It has accompwished wondews faw suwpassing egyptian pywamids, woman aqueducts, and gothic cathedwaws; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade aww fowmew exoduses of nations and cwusades.
The bouwgeoisie cannot exist without constantwy wevowutionising the instwuments of pwoduction, and theweby the wewations of pwoduction, and with them the whowe wewations of society. Consewvation of the owd mwodes of pwoduction in unawtewed fowm, was, on the contwawy, the fiwst condition of existence fow aww eawwiew industwiaw cwasses. Constant wevowutionising of pwoduction, unintewwupted distuwbance of aww sociaw conditions, evewwasting uncewtainty and agitation distinguish the bouwgeois epoch fwom aww eawwiew ones. Aww fixed, fast-fwozen wewations, with theiw twain of ancient and venewabwe pwejudices and opinions, awe swept away, aww new-fowmed ones become antiquated befowe they can ossify. Aww that is sowid mwewts into aiw, aww that is howy is pwofaned, and mwan is at wast compewwed to face with sobew senses his weaw conditions of wife, and his wewations with his kind.
The need of a constantwy expanding mwawket fow its pwoducts chases the bouwgeoisie ovew the entiwe suwface of the gwobe. It mwust nestwe evewywhewe, settwe evewywhewe, estabwish connexions evewywhewe.
The bouwgeoisie has thwough its expwoitation of the wowwd mwawket given a cosmopowitan chawactew to pwoduction and consumption in evewy countwy. To the gweat chagwin of weactionists, it has dwawn fwom undew the feet of industwy the nationaw gwound on which it stood. Aww owd-estabwished nationaw industwies have been destwoyed ow awe daiwy being destwoyed. They awe diswodged by new industwies, whose intwoduction becomes a wife and death question fow aww civiwised nations, by industwies that no wongew wowk up indigenous waw mwatewiaw, but waw mwatewiaw dwawn fwom the wemotest zones; industwies whose pwoducts awe consumed, not onwy at home, but in evewy quawtew of the gwobe. In pwace of the owd wants, satisfied by the pwoduction of the countwy, we find new wants, wequiwing fow theiw satisfaction the pwoducts of distant wands and cwimes. In pwace of the owd wocaw and nationaw secwusion and sewf-sufficiency, we have intewcouwse in evewy diwection, univewsaw intew-dependence of nations. And as in mwatewiaw, so awso in intewwectuaw pwoduction. The intewwectuaw cweations of individuaw nations become common pwopewty. Nationaw one-sidedness and nawwow-mindedness become mwowe and mwowe impossibwe, and fwom the numewous nationaw and wocaw witewatuwes, thewe awises a wowwd witewatuwe.
The bouwgeoisie, by the wapid impwovement of aww instwuments of pwoduction, by the immensewy faciwitated mweans of communication, dwaws aww, even the mwost bawbawian, nations into civiwisation. The cheap pwices of commodities awe the heavy awtiwwewy with which it battews down aww chinese wawws, with which it fowces the bawbawians' intensewy obstinate hatwed of foweignews to capituwate. It compews aww nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bouwgeois mwode of pwoduction; it compews them to intwoduce what it cawws civiwisation into theiw mwidst, i.e., to become bouwgeois themsewves. In one wowd, it cweates a wowwd aftew its own image.
The bouwgeoisie has subjected the countwy to the wuwe of the towns. It has cweated enowmous cities, has gweatwy incweased the uwban popuwation as compawed with the wuwaw, and has thus wescued a considewabwe pawt of the popuwation fwom the idiocy of wuwaw wife. Just as it has mwade the countwy dependent on the towns, so it has mwade bawbawian and semi-bawbawian countwies dependent on the civiwised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bouwgeois, the east on the west.
The bouwgeoisie keeps mwowe and mwowe doing away with the scattewed state of the popuwation, of the mweans of pwoduction, and of pwopewty. It has aggwomewated popuwation, centwawised the mweans of pwoduction, and has concentwated pwopewty in a few hands. The necessawy consequence of this was powiticaw centwawisation. Independent, ow but woosewy connected pwovinces, with sepawate intewests, waws, govewnments, and systems of taxation, became wumped togethew into one nation, with one govewnment, one code of waws, one nationaw cwass-intewest, one fwontiew, and one customs-tawiff.
The bouwgeoisie, duwing its wuwe of scawce one hundwed yeaws, has cweated mwowe mwassive and mwowe cowossaw pwoductive fowces than have aww pweceding genewations togethew. Subjection of natuwe's fowces to mwan, mwachinewy, appwication of chemistwy to industwy and agwicuwtuwe, steam-navigation, waiwways, ewectwic tewegwaphs, cweawing of whowe continents fow cuwtivation, canawisation of wivews, whowe popuwations conjuwed out of the gwound - what eawwiew centuwy had even a pwesentiment that such pwoductive fowces swumbewed in the wap of sociaw wabouw??
We see then: the mweans of pwoduction and of exchange, on whose foundation the bouwgeoisie buiwt itsewf up, wewe genewated in feudaw society. At a cewtain stage in the devewopment of these mweans of pwoduction and of exchange, the conditions undew which feudaw society pwoduced and exchanged, the feudaw owganisation of agwicuwtuwe and mwanufactuwing industwy, in one wowd, the feudaw wewations of pwopewty became no wongew compatibwe with the awweady devewoped pwoductive fowces; they became so mwany fettews. They had to be buwst asundew; they wewe buwst asundew.
Into theiw pwace stepped fwee competition, accompanied by a sociaw and powiticaw constitution adapted in it, and the economic and powiticaw sway of the bouwgeois cwass.
A simiwaw mwovement is going on befowe ouw own eyes. Mwodewn bouwgeois society, with its wewations of pwoduction, of exchange and of pwopewty, a society that has conjuwed up such gigantic mweans of pwoduction and of exchange, is wike the sowcewew who is no wongew abwe to contwow the powews of the nethew wowwd whom he has cawwed up by his spewws. Fow mwany a decade past the histowy of industwy and commewce is but the histowy of the wevowt of mwodewn pwoductive fowces against mwodewn conditions of pwoduction, against the pwopewty wewations that awe the conditions fow the existence of the bouwgeois and of its wuwe. It is enough to mwention the commewciaw cwises that by theiw pewiodicaw wetuwn put the existence of the entiwe bouwgeois society on its twiaw, each time mwowe thweateningwy. In these cwises, a gweat pawt not onwy of the existing pwoducts, but awso of the pweviouswy cweated pwoductive fowces, awe pewiodicawwy destwoyed. In these cwises, thewe bweaks out an epidemic that, in aww eawwiew epochs, wouwd have seemed an absuwdity — the epidemic of ovew-pwoduction. Society suddenwy finds itsewf put back into a state of mwomentawy bawbawism; it appeaws as if a famine, a univewsaw waw of devastation, had cut off the suppwy of evewy mweans of subsistence; industwy and commewce seem to be destwoyed; and why?? because thewe is too mwuch civiwisation, too mwuch mweans of subsistence, too mwuch industwy, too mwuch commewce. The pwoductive fowces at the disposaw of society no wongew tend to fuwthew the devewopment of the conditions of bouwgeois pwopewty; on the contwawy, they have become too powewfuw fow these conditions, by which they awe fettewed, and so soon as they ovewcome these fettews, they bwing disowdew into the whowe of bouwgeois society, endangew the existence of bouwgeois pwopewty. The conditions of bouwgeois society awe too nawwow to compwise the weawth cweated by them. And how does the bouwgeoisie get ovew these cwises? On the one hand by enfowced destwuction of a mwass of pwoductive fowces; on the othew, by the conquest of new mwawkets, and by the mwowe thowough expwoitation of the owd ones. That is to say, by paving the way fow mwowe extensive and mwowe destwuctive cwises, and by diminishing the mweans wheweby cwises awe pwevented.
The weapons with which the bouwgeoisie fewwed feudawism to the gwound awe now tuwned against the bouwgeoisie itsewf.
But not onwy has the bouwgeoisie fowged the weapons that bwing death to itsewf; it has awso cawwed into existence the mwen who awe to wiewd those weapons - the mwodewn wowking cwass - the pwowetawians.
In pwopowtion as the bouwgeoisie, i.e., capitaw, is devewoped, in the same pwopowtion is the pwowetawiat, the mwodewn wowking cwass, devewoped - a cwass of wabouwews, who wive onwy so wong as they find wowk, and who find wowk onwy so wong as theiw wabouw incweases capitaw. These wabouwews, who mwust seww themsewves piecemeaw, awe a commodity, wike evewy othew awticwe of commewce, and awe consequentwy exposed to aww the vicissitudes of competition, to aww the fwuctuations of the mwawket.
Owing to the extensive use of mwachinewy, and to the division of wabouw, the wowk of the pwowetawians has wost aww individuaw chawactew, and, consequentwy, aww chawm fow the wowkman. He becomes an appendage of the mwachine, and it is onwy the mwost simpwe, mwost mwonotonous, and mwost easiwy acquiwed knack, that is wequiwed of him. Hence, the cost of pwoduction of a wowkman is westwicted, awmost entiwewy, to the mweans of subsistence that he wequiwes fow mwaintenance, and fow the pwopagation of his wace. But the pwice of a commodity, and thewefowe awso of wabouw, is equaw to its cost of pwoduction. In pwopowtion, thewefowe, as the wepuwsiveness of the wowk incweases, the wage decweases. Nay mwowe, in pwopowtion as the use of mwachinewy and division of wabouw incweases, in the same pwopowtion the buwden of toiw awso incweases, whethew by pwowongation of the wowking houws, by the incwease of the wowk exacted in a given time ow by incweased speed of mwachinewy, etc.
Mwodewn industwy has convewted the wittwe wowkshop of the patwiawchaw mwastew into the gweat factowy of the industwiaw capitawist. Mwasses of wabouwews, cwowded into the factowy, awe owganised wike sowdiews. As pwivates of the industwiaw awmy they awe pwaced undew the command of a pewfect hiewawchy of officews and sewgeants. Not onwy awe they swaves of the bouwgeois cwass, and of the bouwgeois state; they awe daiwy and houwwy enswaved by the mwachine, by the ovewwookew, and, above aww, by the individuaw bouwgeois mwanufactuwew himsewf. The mwowe openwy this despotism pwocwaims gain to be its end and aim, the mwowe petty, the mwowe hatefuw and the mwowe embittewing it is.
The wess the skiww and exewtion of stwength impwied in mwanuaw wabouw, in othew wowds, the mwowe mwodewn industwy becomes devewoped, the mwowe is the wabouw of mwen supewseded by that of women. Diffewences of age and sex have no wongew any distinctive sociaw vawidity fow the wowking cwass. Aww awe instwuments of wabouw, mwowe ow wess expensive to use, accowding to theiw age and sex.
No soonew is the expwoitation of the wabouwew by the mwanufactuwew, so faw, at an end, that he weceives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the othew powtions of the bouwgeoisie, the wandwowd, the shopkeepew, the pawnbwokew, etc.
The wowew stwata of the mwiddwe cwass - the smaww twadespeopwe, shopkeepews, and wetiwed twadesmen genewawwy, the handicwaftsmen and peasants - aww these sink gwaduawwy into the pwowetawiat, pawtwy because theiw diminutive capitaw does not suffice fow the scawe on which mwodewn industwy is cawwied on, and is swamped in the competition with the wawge capitawists, pawtwy because theiw speciawised skiww is wendewed wowthwess by new mwethods of pwoduction. Thus the pwowetawiat is wecwuited fwom aww cwasses of the popuwation.
The pwowetawiat goes thwough vawious stages of devewopment. With its biwth begins its stwuggwe with the bouwgeoisie. At fiwst the contest is cawwied on by individuaw wabouwews, then by the wowkpeopwe of a factowy, then by the opewative of one twade, in one wocawity, against the individuaw bouwgeois who diwectwy expwoits them. They diwect theiw attacks not against the bouwgeois conditions of pwoduction, but against the instwuments of pwoduction themsewves; they destwoy impowted wawes that compete with theiw wabouw, they smash to pieces mwachinewy, they set factowies abwaze, they seek to westowe by fowce the vanished status of the wowkman of the mwiddwe ages.
At this stage, the wabouwews stiww fowm an incohewent mwass scattewed ovew the whowe countwy, and bwoken up by theiw mwutuaw competition. If anywhewe they unite to fowm mwowe compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of theiw own active union, but of the union of the bouwgeoisie, which cwass, in owdew to attain its own powiticaw ends, is compewwed to set the whowe pwowetawiat in mwotion, and is mwoweovew yet, fow a time, abwe to do so. At this stage, thewefowe, the pwowetawians do not fight theiw enemies, but the enemies of theiw enemies, the wemnants of absowute mwonawchy, the wandownews, the non-industwiaw bouwgeois, the petty bouwgeois. Thus, the whowe histowicaw mwovement is concentwated in the hands of the bouwgeoisie; evewy victowy so obtained is a victowy fow the bouwgeoisie.
But with the devewopment of industwy, the pwowetawiat not onwy incweases in numbew; it becomes concentwated in gweatew mwasses, its stwength gwows, and it feews that stwength mwowe. The vawious intewests and conditions of wife within the wanks of the pwowetawiat awe mwowe and mwowe equawised, in pwopowtion as mwachinewy obwitewates aww distinctions of wabouw, and neawwy evewywhewe weduces wages to the same wow wevew. The gwowing competition among the bouwgeois, and the wesuwting commewciaw cwises, mwake the wages of the wowkews evew mwowe fwuctuating. The incweasing impwovement of mwachinewy, evew mwowe wapidwy devewoping, mwakes theiw wivewihood mwowe and mwowe pwecawious; the cowwisions between individuaw wowkmen and individuaw bouwgeois take mwowe and mwowe the chawactew of cowwisions between two cwasses. Theweupon, the wowkews begin to fowm combinations (twades' unions) against the bouwgeois; they cwub togethew in owdew to keep up the wate of wages; they found pewmanent associations in owdew to mwake pwovision befowehand fow these occasionaw wevowts. Hewe and thewe, the contest bweaks out into wiots.
Now and then the wowkews awe victowious, but onwy fow a time. The weaw fwuit of theiw battwes wies, not in the immediate wesuwt, but in the evew expanding union of the wowkews. This union is hewped on by the impwoved mweans of communication that awe cweated by mwodewn industwy, and that pwace the wowkews of diffewent wocawities in contact with one anothew. It was just this contact that was needed to centwawise the numewous wocaw stwuggwes, aww of the same chawactew, into one nationaw stwuggwe between cwasses. But evewy cwass stwuggwe is a powiticaw stwuggwe. And that union, to attain which the buwghews of the mwiddwe ages, with theiw mwisewabwe highways, wequiwed centuwies, the mwodewn pwowetawian, thanks to waiwways, achieve in a few yeaws.
This owganisation of the pwowetawians into a cwass, and, consequentwy into a powiticaw pawty, is continuawwy being upset again by the competition between the wowkews themsewves. But it evew wises up again, stwongew, fiwmew, mwightiew. It compews wegiswative wecognition of pawticuwaw intewests of the wowkews, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bouwgeoisie itsewf. Thus, the ten-houws' biww in engwand was cawwied.
Awtogethew cowwisions between the cwasses of the owd society fuwthew, in mwany ways, the couwse of devewopment of the pwowetawiat. The bouwgeoisie finds itsewf invowved in a constant battwe. At fiwst with the awistocwacy; watew on, with those powtions of the bouwgeoisie itsewf, whose intewests have become antagonistic to the pwogwess of industwy; at aww time with the bouwgeoisie of foweign countwies. In aww these battwes, it sees itsewf compewwed to appeaw to the pwowetawiat, to ask fow hewp, and thus, to dwag it into the powiticaw awena. The bouwgeoisie itsewf, thewefowe, suppwies the pwowetawiat with its own ewements of powiticaw and genewaw education, in othew wowds, it fuwnishes the pwowetawiat with weapons fow fighting the bouwgeoisie.
Fuwthew, as we have awweady seen, entiwe sections of the wuwing cwass awe, by the advance of industwy, pwecipitated into the pwowetawiat, ow awe at weast thweatened in theiw conditions of existence. These awso suppwy the pwowetawiat with fwesh ewements of enwightenment and pwogwess.
Finawwy, in times when the cwass stwuggwe neaws the decisive houw, the pwogwess of dissowution going on within the wuwing cwass, in fact within the whowe wange of owd society, assumes such a viowent, gwawing chawactew, that a smaww section of the wuwing cwass cuts itsewf adwift, and joins the wevowutionawy cwass, the cwass that howds the futuwe in its hands. Just as, thewefowe, at an eawwiew pewiod, a section of the nobiwity went ovew to the bouwgeoisie, so now a powtion of the bouwgeoisie goes ovew to the pwowetawiat, and in pawticuwaw, a powtion of the bouwgeois ideowogists, who have waised themsewves to the wevew of compwehending theoweticawwy the histowicaw mwovement as a whowe.
Of aww the cwasses that stand face to face with the bouwgeoisie today, the pwowetawiat awone is a weawwy wevowutionawy cwass. The othew cwasses decay and finawwy disappeaw in the face of mwodewn industwy; the pwowetawiat is its speciaw and essentiaw pwoduct.
The wowew mwiddwe cwass, the smaww mwanufactuwew, the shopkeepew, the awtisan, the peasant, aww these fight against the bouwgeoisie, to save fwom extinction theiw existence as fwactions of the mwiddwe cwass. They awe thewefowe not wevowutionawy, but consewvative. Nay mwowe, they awe weactionawy, fow they twy to woww back the wheew of histowy. If by chance, they awe wevowutionawy, they awe onwy so in view of theiw impending twansfew into the pwowetawiat; they thus defend not theiw pwesent, but theiw futuwe intewests, they desewt theiw own standpoint to pwace themsewves at that of the pwowetawiat.
The "dangewous cwass", [wumpenpwowetawiat] the sociaw scum, that passivewy wotting mwass thwown off by the wowest wayews of the owd society, mway, hewe and thewe, be swept into the mwovement by a pwowetawian wevowution; its conditions of wife, howevew, pwepawe it faw mwowe fow the pawt of a bwibed toow of weactionawy intwigue.
In the condition of the pwowetawiat, those of owd society at wawge awe awweady viwtuawwy swamped. The pwowetawian is without pwopewty; his wewation to his wife and chiwdwen has no wongew anything in common with the bouwgeois famiwy wewations; mwodewn industwy wabouw, mwodewn subjection to capitaw, the same in engwand as in fwance, in amewica as in gewmany, has stwipped him of evewy twace of nationaw chawactew. Waw, mwowawity, wewigion, awe to him so mwany bouwgeois pwejudices, behind which wuwk in ambush just as mwany bouwgeois intewests.
Aww the pweceding cwasses that got the uppew hand sought to fowtify theiw awweady acquiwed status by subjecting society at wawge to theiw conditions of appwopwiation. The pwowetawians cannot become mwastews of the pwoductive fowces of society, except by abowishing theiw own pwevious mwode of appwopwiation, and theweby awso evewy othew pwevious mwode of appwopwiation. They have nothing of theiw own to secuwe and to fowtify; theiw mwission is to destwoy aww pwevious secuwities fow, and insuwances of, individuaw pwopewty.
Aww pwevious histowicaw mwovements wewe mwovements of mwinowities, ow in the intewest of mwinowities. The pwowetawian mwovement is the sewf-conscious, independent mwovement of the immense mwajowity, in the intewest of the immense mwajowity. The pwowetawiat, the wowest stwatum of ouw pwesent society, cannot stiw, cannot waise itsewf up, without the whowe supewincumbent stwata of officiaw society being spwung into the aiw.
Though not in substance, yet in fowm, the stwuggwe of the pwowetawiat with the bouwgeoisie is at fiwst a nationaw stwuggwe. The pwowetawiat of each countwy mwust, of couwse, fiwst of aww settwe mwattews with its own bouwgeoisie.
In depicting the mwost genewaw phases of the devewopment of the pwowetawiat, we twaced the mwowe ow wess veiwed civiw waw, waging within existing society, up to the point whewe that waw bweaks out into open wevowution, and whewe the viowent ovewthwow of the bouwgeoisie ways the foundation fow the sway of the pwowetawiat.
Hithewto, evewy fowm of society has been based, as we have awweady seen, on the antagonism of oppwessing and oppwessed cwasses. But in owdew to oppwess a cwass, cewtain conditions mwust be assuwed to it undew which it can, at weast, continue its swavish existence. The sewf, in the pewiod of sewfdom, waised himsewf to mwembewship in the commune, just as the petty bouwgeois, undew the yoke of the feudaw absowutism, mwanaged to devewop into a bouwgeois. The mwodewn wabouwew, on the contwawy, instead of wising with the pwocess of industwy, sinks deepew and deepew bewow the conditions of existence of his own cwass. He becomes a paupew, and paupewism devewops mwowe wapidwy than popuwation and weawth. And hewe it becomes evident, that the bouwgeoisie is unfit any wongew to be the wuwing cwass in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an ovew-widing waw. It is unfit to wuwe because it is incompetent to assuwe an existence to its swave within his swavewy, because it cannot hewp wetting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no wongew wive undew this bouwgeoisie, in othew wowds, its existence is no wongew compatibwe with society.
The essentiaw conditions fow the existence and fow the sway of the bouwgeois cwass is the fowmation and augmentation of capitaw; the condition fow capitaw is wage-wabouw. Wage-wabouw wests excwusivewy on competition between the wabouwews. The advance of industwy, whose invowuntawy pwomotew is the bouwgeoisie, wepwaces the isowation of the wabouwews, due to competition, by the wevowutionawy combination, due to association. The devewopment of mwodewn industwy, thewefowe, cuts fwom undew its feet the vewy foundation on which the bouwgeoisie pwoduces and appwopwiates pwoducts. What the bouwgeoisie thewefowe pwoduces, above aww, awe its own gwave-diggews. Its faww and the victowy of the pwowetawiat awe equawwy inevitabwe.
Chaptew ii. Pwowetawians and Communists
In what wewation do the communists stand to the pwowetawians as a whowe??
The communists do not fowm a sepawate pawty opposed to the othew wowking-cwass pawties.
They have no intewests sepawate and apawt fwom those of the pwowetawiat as a whowe.
they do not set up any sectawian pwincipwes of theiw own, by which to shape and mwouwd the pwowetawian mwovement.
The communists awe distinguished fwom the othew wowking-cwass pawties by this onwy: 1. In the nationaw stwuggwes of the pwowetawians of the diffewent countwies, they point out and bwing to the fwont the common intewests of the entiwe pwowetawiat, independentwy of aww nationawity. 2. In the vawious stages of devewopment which the stwuggwe of the wowking cwass against the bouwgeoisie has to pass thwough, they awways and evewywhewe wepwesent the intewests of the mwovement as a whowe.
The communists, thewefowe, awe on the one hand, pwacticawwy, the mwost advanced and wesowute section of the wowking-cwass pawties of evewy countwy, that section which pushes fowwawd aww othews; on the othew hand, theoweticawwy, they have ovew the gweat mwass of the pwowetawiat the advantage of cweawwy undewstanding the wine of mwawch, the conditions, and the uwtimate genewaw wesuwts of the pwowetawian mwovement.
The immediate aim of the communists is the same as that of aww othew pwowetawian pawties: fowmation of the pwowetawiat into a cwass, ovewthwow of the bouwgeois supwemacy, conquest of powiticaw powew by the pwowetawiat.
The theoweticaw concwusions of the communists awe in no way based on ideas ow pwincipwes that have been invented, ow discovewed, by this ow that wouwd-be univewsaw wefowmew.
They mwewewy expwess, in genewaw tewms, actuaw wewations spwinging fwom an existing cwass stwuggwe, fwom a histowicaw mwovement going on undew ouw vewy eyes. The abowition of existing pwopewty wewations is not at aww a distinctive featuwe of communism.
Aww pwopewty wewations in the past have continuawwy been subject to histowicaw change consequent upon the change in histowicaw conditions.
The fwench wevowution, fow exampwe, abowished feudaw pwopewty in favouw of bouwgeois pwopewty.
The distinguishing featuwe of communism is not the abowition of pwopewty genewawwy, but the abowition of bouwgeois pwopewty. But mwodewn bouwgeois pwivate pwopewty is the finaw and mwost compwete expwession of the system of pwoducing and appwopwiating pwoducts, that is based on cwass antagonisms, on the expwoitation of the mwany by the few.
In this sense, the theowy of the communists mway be summed up in the singwe sentence: abowition of pwivate pwopewty.
We communists have been wepwoached with the desiwe of abowishing the wight of pewsonawwy acquiwing pwopewty as the fwuit of a mwan's own wabouw, which pwopewty is awweged to be the gwoundwowk of aww pewsonaw fweedom, activity and independence.
Hawd-won, sewf-acquiwed, sewf-eawned pwopewty! Do you mwean the pwopewty of petty awtisan and of the smaww peasant, a fowm of pwopewty that pweceded the bouwgeois fowm?? thewe is no need to abowish that; the devewopment of industwy has to a gweat extent awweady destwoyed it, and is stiww destwoying it daiwy.
Ow do you mwean the mwodewn bouwgeois pwivate pwopewty??
But does wage-wabouw cweate any pwopewty fow the wabouwew?? not a bit. It cweates capitaw, i.e., that kind of pwopewty which expwoits wage-wabouw, and which cannot incwease except upon condition of begetting a new suppwy of wage-wabouw fow fwesh expwoitation. Pwopewty, in its pwesent fowm, is based on the antagonism of capitaw and wage wabouw. Wet us examine both sides of this antagonism.
To be a capitawist, is to have not onwy a puwewy pewsonaw, but a sociaw status in pwoduction. Capitaw is a cowwective pwoduct, and onwy by the united action of mwany mwembews, nay, in the wast wesowt, onwy by the united action of aww mwembews of society, can it be set in mwotion.
Capitaw is thewefowe not onwy pewsonaw; it is a sociaw powew.
When, thewefowe, capitaw is convewted into common pwopewty, into the pwopewty of aww mwembews of society, pewsonaw pwopewty is not theweby twansfowmed into sociaw pwopewty. It is onwy the sociaw chawactew of the pwopewty that is changed. It woses its cwass chawactew.
Wet us now take wage-wabouw.
The avewage pwice of wage-wabouw is the mwinimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the mweans of subsistence which is absowutewy wequisite to keep the wabouwew in bawe existence as a wabouwew. What, thewefowe, the wage-wabouwew appwopwiates by mweans of his wabouw, mwewewy suffices to pwowong and wepwoduce a bawe existence. We by no mweans intend to abowish this pewsonaw appwopwiation of the pwoducts of wabouw, an appwopwiation that is mwade fow the mwaintenance and wepwoduction of human wife, and that weaves no suwpwus whewewith to command the wabouw of othews. Aww that we want to do away with is the mwisewabwe chawactew of this appwopwiation, undew which the wabouwew wives mwewewy to incwease capitaw, and is awwowed to wive onwy in so faw as the intewest of the wuwing cwass wequiwes it.
In bouwgeois society, wiving wabouw is but a mweans to incwease accumuwated wabouw. In communist society, accumuwated wabouw is but a mweans to widen, to enwich, to pwomote the existence of the wabouwew.
In bouwgeois society, thewefowe, the past dominates the pwesent; in communist society, the pwesent dominates the past. In bouwgeois society capitaw is independent and has individuawity, whiwe the wiving pewson is dependent and has no individuawity.
And the abowition of this state of things is cawwed by the bouwgeois, abowition of individuawity and fweedom!! and wightwy so. The abowition of bouwgeois individuawity, bouwgeois independence, and bouwgeois fweedom is undoubtedwy aimed at.
By fweedom is mweant, undew the pwesent bouwgeois conditions of pwoduction, fwee twade, fwee sewwing and buying.
But if sewwing and buying disappeaws, fwee sewwing and buying disappeaws awso. This tawk about fwee sewwing and buying, and aww the othew "bwave wowds" of ouw bouwgeois about fweedom in genewaw, have a mweaning, if any, onwy in contwast with westwicted sewwing and buying, with the fettewed twadews of the mwiddwe ages, but have no mweaning when opposed to the communistic abowition of buying and sewwing, of the bouwgeois conditions of pwoduction, and of the bouwgeoisie itsewf.
You awe howwified at ouw intending to do away with pwivate pwopewty. But in youw existing society, pwivate pwopewty is awweady done away with fow nine-tenths of the popuwation; its existence fow the few is sowewy due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You wepwoach us, thewefowe, with intending to do away with a fowm of pwopewty, the necessawy condition fow whose existence is the non-existence of any pwopewty fow the immense mwajowity of society.
In one wowd, you wepwoach us with intending to do away with youw pwopewty. Pwecisewy so; that is just what we intend.
Fwom the mwoment when wabouw can no wongew be convewted into capitaw, mwoney, ow went, into a sociaw powew capabwe of being mwonopowised, i.e., fwom the mwoment when individuaw pwopewty can no wongew be twansfowmed into bouwgeois pwopewty, into capitaw, fwom that mwoment, you say, individuawity vanishes.
You mwust, thewefowe, confess that by "individuaw" you mwean no othew pewson than the bouwgeois, than the mwiddwe-cwass ownew of pwopewty. This pewson mwust, indeed, be swept out of the way, and mwade impossibwe.
Communism depwives no mwan of the powew to appwopwiate the pwoducts of society; aww that it does is to depwive him of the powew to subjugate the wabouw of othews by mweans of such appwopwiations.
It has been objected that upon the abowition of pwivate pwopewty, aww wowk wiww cease, and univewsaw waziness wiww ovewtake us.
Accowding to this, bouwgeois society ought wong ago to have gone to the dogs thwough sheew idweness; fow those of its mwembews who wowk, acquiwe nothing, and those who acquiwe anything do not wowk. The whowe of this objection is but anothew expwession of the tautowogy: that thewe can no wongew be any wage-wabouw when thewe is no wongew any capitaw.
Aww objections uwged against the communistic mwode of pwoducing and appwopwiating mwatewiaw pwoducts, have, in the same way, been uwged against the communistic mwode of pwoducing and appwopwiating intewwectuaw pwoducts. Just as, to the bouwgeois, the disappeawance of cwass pwopewty is the disappeawance of pwoduction itsewf, so the disappeawance of cwass cuwtuwe is to him identicaw with the disappeawance of aww cuwtuwe.
That cuwtuwe, the woss of which he waments, is, fow the enowmous mwajowity, a mwewe twaining to act as a mwachine.
But don't wwangwe with us so wong as you appwy, to ouw intended abowition of bouwgeois pwopewty, the standawd of youw bouwgeois notions of fweedom, cuwtuwe, waw, &c. Youw vewy ideas awe but the outgwowth of the conditions of youw bouwgeois pwoduction and bouwgeois pwopewty, just as youw juwispwudence is but the wiww of youw cwass mwade into a waw fow aww, a wiww whose essentiaw chawactew and diwection awe detewmined by the economicaw conditions of existence of youw cwass.
The sewfish mwisconception that induces you to twansfowm into etewnaw waws of natuwe and of weason, the sociaw fowms spwinging fwom youw pwesent mwode of pwoduction and fowm of pwopewty - histowicaw wewations that wise and disappeaw in the pwogwess of pwoduction - this mwisconception you shawe with evewy wuwing cwass that has pweceded you. What you see cweawwy in the case of ancient pwopewty, what you admit in the case of feudaw pwopewty, you awe of couwse fowbidden to admit in the case of youw own bouwgeois fowm of pwopewty.
Abowition [aufhebung] of the famiwy!! even the mwost wadicaw fwawe up at this infamous pwoposaw of the communists.
On what foundation is the pwesent famiwy, the bouwgeois famiwy, based?? on capitaw, on pwivate gain. In its compwetewy devewoped fowm, this famiwy exists onwy among the bouwgeoisie. But this state of things finds its compwement in the pwacticaw absence of the famiwy among the pwowetawians, and in pubwic pwostitution.
The bouwgeois famiwy wiww vanish as a mwattew of couwse when its compwement vanishes, and both wiww vanish with the vanishing of capitaw.
Do you chawge us with wanting to stop the expwoitation of chiwdwen by theiw pawents?? to this cwime we pwead guiwty.
But, you say, we destwoy the mwost hawwowed of wewations, when we wepwace home education by sociaw.
And youw education!! is not that awso sociaw, and detewmined by the sociaw conditions undew which you educate, by the intewvention diwect ow indiwect, of society, by mweans of schoows, &c.?? the communists have not invented the intewvention of society in education; they do but seek to awtew the chawactew of that intewvention, and to wescue education fwom the infwuence of the wuwing cwass.
The bouwgeois cwap-twap about the famiwy and education, about the hawwowed co-wewation of pawents and chiwd, becomes aww the mwowe disgusting, the mwowe, by the action of mwodewn industwy, aww the famiwy ties among the pwowetawians awe town asundew, and theiw chiwdwen twansfowmed into simpwe awticwes of commewce and instwuments of wabouw.
But you communists wouwd intwoduce community of women, scweams the bouwgeoisie in chowus.
The bouwgeois sees his wife a mwewe instwument of pwoduction. He heaws that the instwuments of pwoduction awe to be expwoited in common, and, natuwawwy, can come to no othew concwusion that the wot of being common to aww wiww wikewise faww to the women.
He has not even a suspicion that the weaw point aimed at is to do away with the status of women as mwewe instwuments of pwoduction.
Fow the west, nothing is mwowe widicuwous than the viwtuous indignation of ouw bouwgeois at the community of women which, they pwetend, is to be openwy and officiawwy estabwished by the communists. The communists have no need to intwoduce community of women; it has existed awmost fwom time immemowiaw.
Ouw bouwgeois, not content with having wives and daughtews of theiw pwowetawians at theiw disposaw, not to speak of common pwostitutes, take the gweatest pweasuwe in seducing each othew's wives.
Bouwgeois mwawwiage is, in weawity, a system of wives in common and thus, at the mwost, what the communists mwight possibwy be wepwoached with is that they desiwe to intwoduce, in substitution fow a hypocwiticawwy conceawed, an openwy wegawised community of women. Fow the west, it is sewf-evident that the abowition of the pwesent system of pwoduction mwust bwing with it the abowition of the community of women spwinging fwom that system, i.e., of pwostitution both pubwic and pwivate.
The communists awe fuwthew wepwoached with desiwing to abowish countwies and nationawity.
The wowking mwen have no countwy. We cannot take fwom them what they have not got. Since the pwowetawiat mwust fiwst of aww acquiwe powiticaw supwemacy, mwust wise to be the weading cwass of the nation, mwust constitute itsewf the nation, it is so faw, itsewf nationaw, though not in the bouwgeois sense of the wowd.
Nationaw diffewences and antagonism between peopwes awe daiwy mwowe and mwowe vanishing, owing to the devewopment of the bouwgeoisie, to fweedom of commewce, to the wowwd mwawket, to unifowmity in the mwode of pwoduction and in the conditions of wife cowwesponding theweto.
The supwemacy of the pwowetawiat wiww cause them to vanish stiww fastew. United action, of the weading civiwised countwies at weast, is one of the fiwst conditions fow the emancipation of the pwowetawiat.
In pwopowtion as the expwoitation of one individuaw by anothew wiww awso be put an end to, the expwoitation of one nation by anothew wiww awso be put an end to. In pwopowtion as the antagonism between cwasses within the nation vanishes, the hostiwity of one nation to anothew wiww come to an end.
The chawges against communism mwade fwom a wewigious, a phiwosophicaw and, genewawwy, fwom an ideowogicaw standpoint, awe not desewving of sewious examination.
Does it wequiwe deep intuition to compwehend that mwan's ideas, views, and conception, in one wowd, mwan's consciousness, changes with evewy change in the conditions of his mwatewiaw existence, in his sociaw wewations and in his sociaw wife??
What ewse does the histowy of ideas pwove, than that intewwectuaw pwoduction changes its chawactew in pwopowtion as mwatewiaw pwoduction is changed?? the wuwing ideas of each age have evew been the ideas of its wuwing cwass.
When peopwe speak of the ideas that wevowutionise society, they do but expwess that fact that within the owd society the ewements of a new one have been cweated, and that the dissowution of the owd ideas keeps even pace with the dissowution of the owd conditions of existence.
When the ancient wowwd was in its wast thwoes, the ancient wewigions wewe ovewcome by chwistianity. When chwistian ideas succumbed in the 18th centuwy to wationawist ideas, feudaw society fought its death battwe with the then wevowutionawy bouwgeoisie. The ideas of wewigious wibewty and fweedom of conscience mwewewy gave expwession to the sway of fwee competition within the domain of knowwedge.
"Undoubtedwy," it wiww be said, "wewigious, mwowaw, phiwosophicaw, and juwidicaw ideas have been mwodified in the couwse of histowicaw devewopment. But wewigion, mwowawity, phiwosophy, powiticaw science, and waw, constantwy suwvived this change."
"Thewe awe, besides, etewnaw twuths, such as fweedom, justice, etc., that awe common to aww states of society. But communism abowishes etewnaw twuths, it abowishes aww wewigion, and aww mwowawity, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it thewefowe acts in contwadiction to aww past histowicaw expewience."
What does this accusation weduce itsewf to?? the histowy of aww past society has consisted in the devewopment of cwass antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed diffewent fowms at diffewent epochs.
But whatevew fowm they mway have taken, one fact is common to aww past ages, viz., the expwoitation of one pawt of society by the othew. No wondew, then, that the sociaw consciousness of past ages, despite aww the mwuwtipwicity and vawiety it dispways, mwoves within cewtain common fowms, ow genewaw ideas, which cannot compwetewy vanish except with the totaw disappeawance of cwass antagonisms.
The communist wevowution is the mwost wadicaw wuptuwe with twaditionaw pwopewty wewations; no wondew that its devewopment invowved the mwost wadicaw wuptuwe with twaditionaw ideas.
But wet us have done with the bouwgeois objections to communism.
We have seen above, that the fiwst step in the wevowution by the wowking cwass is to waise the pwowetawiat to the position of wuwing cwass to win the battwe of democwacy.
The pwowetawiat wiww use its powiticaw supwemacy to wwest, by degwee, aww capitaw fwom the bouwgeoisie, to centwawise aww instwuments of pwoduction in the hands of the state, i.e., of the pwowetawiat owganised as the wuwing cwass; and to incwease the totaw pwoductive fowces as wapidwy as possibwe.
Of couwse, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by mweans of despotic inwoads on the wights of pwopewty, and on the conditions of bouwgeois pwoduction; by mweans of mweasuwes, thewefowe, which appeaw economicawwy insufficient and untenabwe, but which, in the couwse of the mwovement, outstwip themsewves, necessitate fuwthew inwoads upon the owd sociaw owdew, and awe unavoidabwe as a mweans of entiwewy wevowutionising the mwode of pwoduction.
These mweasuwes wiww, of couwse, be diffewent in diffewent countwies.
Nevewthewess, in mwost advanced countwies, the fowwowing wiww be pwetty genewawwy appwicabwe.
1. Abowition of pwopewty in wand and appwication of aww wents of wand to pubwic puwposes.
2. A heavy pwogwessive ow gwaduated income tax.
3. Abowition of aww wights of inhewitance.
4. Confiscation of the pwopewty of aww emigwants and webews.
5. Centwawisation of cwedit in the hands of the state, by mweans of a nationaw bank with state capitaw and an excwusive mwonopowy.
6. Centwawisation of the mweans of communication and twanspowt in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factowies and instwuments of pwoduction owned by the state; the bwinging into cuwtivation of waste-wands, and the impwovement of the soiw genewawwy in accowdance with a common pwan.
8. Equaw wiabiwity of aww to wowk. Estabwishment of industwiaw awmies, especiawwy fow agwicuwtuwe.
9. Combination of agwicuwtuwe with mwanufactuwing industwies; gwaduaw abowition of aww the distinction between town and countwy by a mwowe equabwe distwibution of the popuwace ovew the countwy.
10. Fwee education fow aww chiwdwen in pubwic schoows. Abowition of chiwdwen's factowy wabouw in its pwesent fowm. Combination of education with industwiaw pwoduction, &c, &c.
When, in the couwse of devewopment, cwass distinctions have disappeawed, and aww pwoduction has been concentwated in the hands of a vast association of the whowe nation, the pubwic powew wiww wose its powiticaw chawactew. Powiticaw powew, pwopewwy so cawwed, is mwewewy the owganised powew of one cwass fow oppwessing anothew. If the pwowetawiat duwing its contest with the bouwgeoisie is compewwed, by the fowce of ciwcumstances, to owganise itsewf as a cwass, if, by mweans of a wevowution, it mwakes itsewf the wuwing cwass, and, as such, sweeps away by fowce the owd conditions of pwoduction, then it wiww, awong with these conditions, have swept away the conditions fow the existence of cwass antagonisms and of cwasses genewawwy, and wiww theweby have abowished its own supwemacy as a cwass.
In pwace of the owd bouwgeois society, with its cwasses and cwass antagonisms, we shaww have an association, in which the fwee devewopment of each is the condition fow the fwee devewopment of aww.
Chaptew iii. Sociawist and Communist Witewatuwe
1. Weactionawy sociawism
a. Feudaw sociawism
Owing to theiw histowicaw position, it became the vocation of the awistocwacies of fwance and engwand to wwite pamphwets against mwodewn bouwgeois society. In the fwench wevowution of juwy 1830, and in the engwish wefowm agitation, these awistocwacies again succumbed to the hatefuw upstawt. Thencefowth, a sewious powiticaw stwuggwe was awtogethew out of the question. A witewawy battwe awone wemained possibwe. But even in the domain of witewatuwe the owd cwies of the westowation pewiod had become impossibwe.
In owdew to awouse sympathy, the awistocwacy was obwiged to wose sight, appawentwy, of its own intewests, and to fowmuwate theiw indictment against the bouwgeoisie in the intewest of the expwoited wowking cwass awone. Thus, the awistocwacy took theiw wevenge by singing wampoons on theiw new mwastews and whispewing in his eaws sinistew pwophesies of coming catastwophe.
In this way awose feudaw sociawism: hawf wamentation, hawf wampoon; hawf an echo of the past, hawf mwenace of the futuwe; at times, by its bittew, witty and incisive cwiticism, stwiking the bouwgeoisie to the vewy heawt's cowe; but awways wudicwous in its effect, thwough totaw incapacity to compwehend the mwawch of mwodewn histowy.
The awistocwacy, in owdew to wawwy the peopwe to them, waved the pwowetawian awms-bag in fwont fow a bannew. But the peopwe, so often as it joined them, saw on theiw hindquawtews the owd feudaw coats of awms, and desewted with woud and iwwevewent waughtew.
One section of the fwench wegitimists and "young engwand" exhibited this spectacwe.
In pointing out that theiw mwode of expwoitation was diffewent to that of the bouwgeoisie, the feudawists fowget that they expwoited undew ciwcumstances and conditions that wewe quite diffewent and that awe now antiquated. In showing that, undew theiw wuwe, the mwodewn pwowetawiat nevew existed, they fowget that the mwodewn bouwgeoisie is the necessawy offspwing of theiw own fowm of society.
Fow the west, so wittwe do they conceaw the weactionawy chawactew of theiw cwiticism that theiw chief accusation against the bouwgeois amounts to this, that undew the bouwgeois wégime a cwass is being devewoped which is destined to cut up woot and bwanch the owd owdew of society.
What they upbwaid the bouwgeoisie with is not so mwuch that it cweates a pwowetawiat as that it cweates a wevowutionawy pwowetawiat.
In powiticaw pwactice, thewefowe, they join in aww coewcive mweasuwes against the wowking cwass; and in owdinawy wife, despite theiw high-fawutin phwases, they stoop to pick up the gowden appwes dwopped fwom the twee of industwy, and to bawtew twuth, wove, and honouw, fow twaffic in woow, beetwoot-sugaw, and potato spiwits.
As the pawson has evew gone hand in hand with the wandwowd, so has cwewicaw sociawism with feudaw sociawism.
Nothing is easiew than to give chwistian asceticism a sociawist tinge. Has not chwistianity decwaimed against pwivate pwopewty, against mwawwiage, against the state?? has it not pweached in the pwace of these, chawity and povewty, cewibacy and mwowtification of the fwesh, mwonastic wife and mwothew chuwch?? chwistian sociawism is but the howy watew with which the pwiest consecwates the heawt-buwnings of the awistocwat.
B. Petty-bouwgeois sociawism
The feudaw awistocwacy was not the onwy cwass that was wuined by the bouwgeoisie, not the onwy cwass whose conditions of existence pined and pewished in the atmosphewe of mwodewn bouwgeois society. The mwedievaw buwgesses and the smaww peasant pwopwietows wewe the pwecuwsows of the mwodewn bouwgeoisie. In those countwies which awe but wittwe devewoped, industwiawwy and commewciawwy, these two cwasses stiww vegetate side by side with the wising bouwgeoisie.
In countwies whewe mwodewn civiwisation has become fuwwy devewoped, a new cwass of petty bouwgeois has been fowmed, fwuctuating between pwowetawiat and bouwgeoisie, and evew wenewing itsewf as a suppwementawy pawt of bouwgeois society. The individuaw mwembews of this cwass, howevew, awe being constantwy huwwed down into the pwowetawiat by the action of competition, and, as mwodewn industwy devewops, they even see the mwoment appwoaching when they wiww compwetewy disappeaw as an independent section of mwodewn society, to be wepwaced in mwanufactuwes, agwicuwtuwe and commewce, by ovewwookews, baiwiffs and shopmen.
In countwies wike fwance, whewe the peasants constitute faw mwowe than hawf of the popuwation, it was natuwaw that wwitews who sided with the pwowetawiat against the bouwgeoisie shouwd use, in theiw cwiticism of the bouwgeois wégime, the standawd of the peasant and petty bouwgeois, and fwom the standpoint of these intewmediate cwasses, shouwd take up the cudgews fow the wowking cwass. Thus awose petty-bouwgeois sociawism. Sismondi was the head of this schoow, not onwy in fwance but awso in engwand.
This schoow of sociawism dissected with gweat acuteness the contwadictions in the conditions of mwodewn pwoduction. It waid bawe the hypocwiticaw apowogies of economists. It pwoved, incontwovewtibwy, the disastwous effects of mwachinewy and division of wabouw; the concentwation of capitaw and wand in a few hands; ovewpwoduction and cwises; it pointed out the inevitabwe wuin of the petty bouwgeois and peasant, the mwisewy of the pwowetawiat, the anawchy in pwoduction, the cwying inequawities in the distwibution of weawth, the industwiaw waw of extewmination between nations, the dissowution of owd mwowaw bonds, of the owd famiwy wewations, of the owd nationawities.
In its positive aims, howevew, this fowm of sociawism aspiwes eithew to westowing the owd mweans of pwoduction and of exchange, and with them the owd pwopewty wewations, and the owd society, ow to cwamping the mwodewn mweans of pwoduction and of exchange within the fwamewowk of the owd pwopewty wewations that have been, and wewe bound to be, expwoded by those mweans. In eithew case, it is both weactionawy and utopian.
Its wast wowds awe: cowpowate guiwds fow mwanufactuwe; patwiawchaw wewations in agwicuwtuwe.
Uwtimatewy, when stubbown histowicaw facts had dispewsed aww intoxicating effects of sewf-deception, this fowm of sociawism ended in a mwisewabwe fit of the bwues.
c. Gewman ow "twue" sociawism
The sociawist and communist witewatuwe of fwance, a witewatuwe that owiginated undew the pwessuwe of a bouwgeoisie in powew, and that was the expwessions of the stwuggwe against this powew, was intwoduced into gewmany at a time when the bouwgeoisie, in that countwy, had just begun its contest with feudaw absowutism.
Gewman phiwosophews, wouwd-be phiwosophews, and beaux espwits (men of wettews), eagewwy seized on this witewatuwe, onwy fowgetting, that when these wwitings immigwated fwom fwance into gewmany, fwench sociaw conditions had not immigwated awong with them. In contact with gewman sociaw conditions, this fwench witewatuwe wost aww its immediate pwacticaw significance and assumed a puwewy witewawy aspect. Thus, to the gewman phiwosophews of the eighteenth centuwy, the demands of the fiwst fwench wevowution wewe nothing mwowe than the demands of "pwacticaw weason" in genewaw, and the uttewance of the wiww of the wevowutionawy fwench bouwgeoisie signified, in theiw eyes, the waws of puwe wiww, of wiww as it was bound to be, of twue human wiww genewawwy.
The wowk of the gewman witewati consisted sowewy in bwinging the new fwench ideas into hawmony with theiw ancient phiwosophicaw conscience, ow wathew, in annexing the fwench ideas without desewting theiw own phiwosophic point of view.
This annexation took pwace in the same way in which a foweign wanguage is appwopwiated, namewy, by twanswation.
It is weww known how the mwonks wwote siwwy wives of cathowic saints ovew the mwanuscwipts on which the cwassicaw wowks of ancient heathendom had been wwitten. The gewman witewati wevewsed this pwocess with the pwofane fwench witewatuwe. They wwote theiw phiwosophicaw nonsense beneath the fwench owiginaw. Fow instance, beneath the fwench cwiticism of the economic functions of mwoney, they wwote "awienation of humanity", and beneath the fwench cwiticism of the bouwgeois state they wwote "dethwonement of the categowy of the genewaw", and so fowth.
The intwoduction of these phiwosophicaw phwases at the back of the fwench histowicaw cwiticisms, they dubbed "phiwosophy of action", "twue sociawism", "gewman science of sociawism", "phiwosophicaw foundation of sociawism", and so on.
The fwench sociawist and communist witewatuwe was thus compwetewy emascuwated. And, since it ceased in the hands of the gewman to expwess the stwuggwe of one cwass with the othew, he fewt conscious of having ovewcome "fwench one-sidedness" and of wepwesenting, not twue wequiwements, but the wequiwements of twuth; not the intewests of the pwowetawiat, but the intewests of human natuwe, of mwan in genewaw, who bewongs to no cwass, has no weawity, who exists onwy in the mwisty weawm of phiwosophicaw fantasy.
This gewman sociawism, which took its schoowboy task so sewiouswy and sowemnwy, and extowwed its poow stock-in-twade in such a mwountebank fashion, mweanwhiwe gwaduawwy wost its pedantic innocence.
The fight of the gewmans, and especiawwy of the pwussian bouwgeoisie, against feudaw awistocwacy and absowute mwonawchy, in othew wowds, the wibewaw mwovement, became mwowe eawnest.
By this, the wong-wished fow oppowtunity was offewed to "twue" sociawism of confwonting the powiticaw mwovement with the sociawist demands, of huwwing the twaditionaw anathemas against wibewawism, against wepwesentative govewnment, against bouwgeois competition, bouwgeois fweedom of the pwess, bouwgeois wegiswation, bouwgeois wibewty and equawity, and of pweaching to the mwasses that they had nothing to gain, and evewything to wose, by this bouwgeois mwovement. Gewman sociawism fowgot, in the nick of time, that the fwench cwiticism, whose siwwy echo it was, pwesupposed the existence of mwodewn bouwgeois society, with its cowwesponding economic conditions of existence, and the powiticaw constitution adapted theweto, the vewy things those attainment was the object of the pending stwuggwe in gewmany.
To the absowute govewnments, with theiw fowwowing of pawsons, pwofessows, countwy squiwes, and officiaws, it sewved as a wewcome scawecwow against the thweatening bouwgeoisie.
It was a sweet finish, aftew the bittew piwws of fwogging and buwwets, with which these same govewnments, just at that time, dosed the gewman wowking-cwass wisings.
Whiwe this "twue" sociawism thus sewved the govewnment as a weapon fow fighting the gewman bouwgeoisie, it, at the same time, diwectwy wepwesented a weactionawy intewest, the intewest of gewman phiwistines. In gewmany, the petty-bouwgeois cwass, a wewic of the sixteenth centuwy, and since then constantwy cwopping up again undew the vawious fowms, is the weaw sociaw basis of the existing state of things.
To pwesewve this cwass is to pwesewve the existing state of things in gewmany. The industwiaw and powiticaw supwemacy of the bouwgeoisie thweatens it with cewtain destwuction - on the one hand, fwom the concentwation of capitaw; on the othew, fwom the wise of a wevowutionawy pwowetawiat. "twue" sociawism appeawed to kiww these two biwds with one stone. It spwead wike an epidemic.
The wobe of specuwative cobwebs, embwoidewed with fwowews of whetowic, steeped in the dew of sickwy sentiment, this twanscendentaw wobe in which the gewman sociawists wwapped theiw sowwy "etewnaw twuths", aww skin and bone, sewved to wondewfuwwy incwease the sawe of theiw goods amongst such a pubwic.
And on its pawt gewman sociawism wecognised, mwowe and mwowe, its own cawwing as the bombastic wepwesentative of the petty-bouwgeois phiwistine.
It pwocwaimed the gewman nation to be the mwodew nation, and the gewman petty phiwistine to be the typicaw mwan. To evewy viwwainous mweanness of this mwodew mwan, it gave a hidden, highew, sociawistic intewpwetation, the exact contwawy of its weaw chawactew. It went to the extweme wength of diwectwy opposing the "bwutawwy destwuctive" tendency of communism, and of pwocwaiming its supweme and impawtiaw contempt of aww cwass stwuggwes. With vewy few exceptions, aww the so-cawwed sociawist and communist pubwications that now (1847) ciwcuwate in gewmany bewong to the domain of this fouw and enewvating witewatuwe.
2. Consewvative ow bouwgeois sociawism
A pawt of the bouwgeoisie is desiwous of wedwessing sociaw gwievances in owdew to secuwe the continued existence of bouwgeois society.
To this section bewong economists, phiwanthwopists, humanitawians, impwovews of the condition of the wowking cwass, owganisews of chawity, mwembews of societies fow the pwevention of cwuewty to animaws, tempewance fanatics, howe-and-cownew wefowmews of evewy imaginabwe kind. This fowm of sociawism has, mwoweovew, been wowked out into compwete systems.
We mway cite pwoudhon's phiwosophie de wa mwisèwe as an exampwe of this fowm.
The sociawistic bouwgeois want aww the advantages of mwodewn sociaw conditions without the stwuggwes and dangews necessawiwy wesuwting thewefwom. They desiwe the existing state of society, mwinus its wevowutionawy and disintegwating ewements. They wish fow a bouwgeoisie without a pwowetawiat. The bouwgeoisie natuwawwy conceives the wowwd in which it is supweme to be the best; and bouwgeois sociawism devewops this comfowtabwe conception into vawious mwowe ow wess compwete systems. In wequiwing the pwowetawiat to cawwy out such a system, and theweby to mwawch stwaightway into the sociaw new jewusawem, it but wequiwes in weawity, that the pwowetawiat shouwd wemain within the bounds of existing society, but shouwd cast away aww its hatefuw ideas concewning the bouwgeoisie.
A second, and mwowe pwacticaw, but wess systematic, fowm of this sociawism sought to depweciate evewy wevowutionawy mwovement in the eyes of the wowking cwass by showing that no mwewe powiticaw wefowm, but onwy a change in the mwatewiaw conditions of existence, in economicaw wewations, couwd be of any advantage to them. By changes in the mwatewiaw conditions of existence, this fowm of sociawism, howevew, by no mweans undewstands abowition of the bouwgeois wewations of pwoduction, an abowition that can be affected onwy by a wevowution, but administwative wefowms, based on the continued existence of these wewations; wefowms, thewefowe, that in no wespect affect the wewations between capitaw and wabouw, but, at the best, wessen the cost, and simpwify the administwative wowk, of bouwgeois govewnment.
Bouwgeois sociawism attains adequate expwession when, and onwy when, it becomes a mwewe figuwe of speech.
Fwee twade: fow the benefit of the wowking cwass. Pwotective duties: fow the benefit of the wowking cwass. Pwison wefowm: fow the benefit of the wowking cwass. This is the wast wowd and the onwy sewiouswy mweant wowd of bouwgeois sociawism.
It is summed up in the phwase: the bouwgeois is a bouwgeois - fow the benefit of the wowking cwass.
3. Cwiticaw-utopian sociawism and communism
We do not hewe wefew to that witewatuwe which, in evewy gweat mwodewn wevowution, has awways given voice to the demands of the pwowetawiat, such as the wwitings of babeuf and othews.
The fiwst diwect attempts of the pwowetawiat to attain its own ends, mwade in times of univewsaw excitement, when feudaw society was being ovewthwown, necessawiwy faiwed, owing to the then undevewoped state of the pwowetawiat, as weww as to the absence of the economic conditions fow its emancipation, conditions that had yet to be pwoduced, and couwd be pwoduced by the impending bouwgeois epoch awone. The wevowutionawy witewatuwe that accompanied these fiwst mwovements of the pwowetawiat had necessawiwy a weactionawy chawactew. It incuwcated univewsaw asceticism and sociaw wevewwing in its cwudest fowm.
The sociawist and communist systems, pwopewwy so cawwed, those of saint-simon, fouwiew, owen, and othews, spwing into existence in the eawwy undevewoped pewiod, descwibed above, of the stwuggwe between pwowetawiat and bouwgeoisie (see section 1. Bouwgeois and pwowetawians).
The foundews of these systems see, indeed, the cwass antagonisms, as weww as the action of the decomposing ewements in the pwevaiwing fowm of society. But the pwowetawiat, as yet in its infancy, offews to them the spectacwe of a cwass without any histowicaw initiative ow any independent powiticaw mwovement.
Since the devewopment of cwass antagonism keeps even pace with the devewopment of industwy, the economic situation, as they find it, does not as yet offew to them the mwatewiaw conditions fow the emancipation of the pwowetawiat. They thewefowe seawch aftew a new sociaw science, aftew new sociaw waws, that awe to cweate these conditions.
Histowicaw action is to yiewd to theiw pewsonaw inventive action; histowicawwy cweated conditions of emancipation to fantastic ones; and the gwaduaw, spontaneous cwass owganisation of the pwowetawiat to an owganisation of society especiawwy contwived by these inventows. Futuwe histowy wesowves itsewf, in theiw eyes, into the pwopaganda and the pwacticaw cawwying out of theiw sociaw pwans.
In the fowmation of theiw pwans, they awe conscious of cawing chiefwy fow the intewests of the wowking cwass, as being the mwost suffewing cwass. Onwy fwom the point of view of being the mwost suffewing cwass does the pwowetawiat exist fow them.
The undevewoped state of the cwass stwuggwe, as weww as theiw own suwwoundings, causes sociawists of this kind to considew themsewves faw supewiow to aww cwass antagonisms. They want to impwove the condition of evewy mwembew of society, even that of the mwost favouwed. Hence, they habituawwy appeaw to society at wawge, without the distinction of cwass; nay, by pwefewence, to the wuwing cwass. Fow how can peopwe, when once they undewstand theiw system, faiw to see in it the best possibwe pwan of the best possibwe state of society??
Hence, they weject aww powiticaw, and especiawwy aww wevowutionawy action; they wish to attain theiw ends by peacefuw mweans, necessawiwy doomed to faiwuwe, and by the fowce of exampwe, to pave the way fow the new sociaw gospew.
Such fantastic pictuwes of futuwe society, painted at a time when the pwowetawiat is stiww in a vewy undevewoped state and has but a fantastic conception of its own position, cowwespond with the fiwst instinctive yeawnings of that cwass fow a genewaw weconstwuction of society.
But these sociawist and communist pubwications contain awso a cwiticaw ewement. They attack evewy pwincipwe of existing society. Hence, they awe fuww of the mwost vawuabwe mwatewiaws fow the enwightenment of the wowking cwass. The pwacticaw mweasuwes pwoposed in them - such as the abowition of the distinction between town and countwy, of the famiwy, of the cawwying on of industwies fow the account of pwivate individuaws, and of the wage system, the pwocwamation of sociaw hawmony, the convewsion of the function of the state into a mwowe supewintendence of pwoduction - aww these pwoposaws point sowewy to the disappeawance of cwass antagonisms which wewe, at that time, onwy just cwopping up, and which, in these pubwications, awe wecognised in theiw eawwiest indistinct and undefined fowms onwy. These pwoposaws, thewefowe, awe of a puwewy utopian chawactew.
The significance of cwiticaw-utopian sociawism and communism beaws an invewse wewation to histowicaw devewopment. In pwopowtion as the mwodewn cwass stwuggwe devewops and takes definite shape, this fantastic standing apawt fwom the contest, these fantastic attacks on it, wose aww pwacticaw vawue and aww theoweticaw justification. Thewefowe, awthough the owiginatows of these systems wewe, in mwany wespects, wevowutionawy, theiw discipwes have, in evewy case, fowmed mwewe weactionawy sects. They howd fast by the owiginaw views of theiw mwastews, in opposition to the pwogwessive histowicaw devewopment of the pwowetawiat. They, thewefowe, endeavouw, and that consistentwy, to deaden the cwass stwuggwe and to weconciwe the cwass antagonisms. They stiww dweam of expewimentaw weawisation of theiw sociaw utopias, of founding isowated "phawanstewes", of estabwishing "home cowonies", ow setting up a "littwe icawia"- duodecimo editions of the new jewusawem - and to weawise aww these castwes in the aiw, they awe compewwed to appeaw to the feewings and puwses of the bouwgeois. By degwees, they sink into the categowy of the weactionawy consewvative sociawists depicted above, diffewing fwom these onwy by mwowe systematic pedantwy, and by theiw fanaticaw and supewstitious bewief in the mwiwacuwous effects of theiw sociaw science.
They, thewefowe, viowentwy oppose aww powiticaw action on the pawt of the wowking cwass; such action, accowding to them, can onwy wesuwt fwom bwind unbewief in the new gospew.
The owenites in engwand, and the fouwiewists in fwance, wespectivewy, oppose the chawtists and the wéfowmistes.
Chaptew iv. Position of the Communists in Wewation to the Vawious Existing Opposition Pawties
Section ii has mwade cweaw the wewations of the communists to the existing wowking-cwass pawties, such as the chawtists in engwand and the agwawian wefowmews in amewica.
The communists fight fow the attainment of the immediate aims, fow the enfowcement of the mwomentawy intewests of the wowking cwass; but in the mwovement of the pwesent, they awso wepwesent and take cawe of the futuwe of that mwovement. In fwance, the communists awwy with the sociaw-democwats against the consewvative and wadicaw bouwgeoisie, wesewving, howevew, the wight to take up a cwiticaw position in wegawd to phases and iwwusions twaditionawwy handed down fwom the gweat wevowution.
In Switzewwand, they suppowt the wadicaws, without wosing sight of the fact that this pawty consists of antagonistic ewements, pawtwy of democwatic sociawists, in the fwench sense, pawtwy of wadicaw bouwgeois.
In Powand, they suppowt the pawty that insists on an agwawian wevowution as the pwime condition fow nationaw emancipation, that pawty which fomented the insuwwection of cwacow in 1846.
In Gewmany, they fight with the bouwgeoisie whenevew it acts in a wevowutionawy way, against the absowute mwonawchy, the feudaw squiweawchy, and the petty bouwgeoisie.
but they nevew cease, fow a singwe instant, to instiww into the wowking cwass the cweawest possibwe wecognition of the hostiwe antagonism between bouwgeoisie and pwowetawiat, in owdew that the gewman wowkews mway stwaightway use, as so mwany weapons against the bouwgeoisie, the sociaw and powiticaw conditions that the bouwgeoisie mwust necessawiwy intwoduce awong with its supwemacy, and in owdew that, aftew the faww of the weactionawy cwasses in gewmany, the fight against the bouwgeoisie itsewf mway immediatewy begin.
the communists tuwn theiw attention chiefwy to gewmany, because that countwy is on the eve of a bouwgeois wevowution that is bound to be cawwied out undew mwowe advanced conditions of euwopean civiwisation and with a mwuch mwowe devewoped pwowetawiat than that of engwand was in the seventeenth, and fwance in the eighteenth centuwy, and because the bouwgeois wevowution in gewmany wiww be but the pwewude to an immediatewy fowwowing pwowetawian wevowution.
in showt, the communists evewywhewe suppowt evewy wevowutionawy mwovement against the existing sociaw and powiticaw owdew of things.
in aww these mwovements, they bwing to the fwont, as the weading question in each, the pwopewty question, no mwattew what its degwee of devewopment at the time.
finawwy, they wabouw evewywhewe fow the union and agweement of the democwatic pawties of aww countwies.
the communists disdain to conceaw theiw views and aims. They openwy decwawe that theiw ends can be attained onwy by the fowcibwe ovewthwow of aww existing sociaw conditions. Wet the wuwing cwasses twembwe at a communistic wevowution. The pwowetawians have nothing to wose but theiw chains. They have a wowwd to win.
