Week 2: Manifesto of the Communist Party

I was extremely excited to see the Communist Manifesto as part of this weeks reading. The Manifesto is in many ways Marx and Engels’ introduction to revolution in a capitalist society, the likes of which had never been seen before. This text is perhaps the most influential book in modern history, not because it fully outlines how, when and where to achieve revolution, but rather because of this books ability to serve as a symbol. This manifesto has inspired millions of individuals and has been the ideological backbone for many revolutions. The Manifesto of the Communist Party is the second best selling book of all time, behind the Bible. This fact alone should serve as a testament to how powerful this pamphlet really is. For me, this is the first piece of communist literature that I ever read. I believe I began reading it for the first time when I was 14 and despite not grasping all the key concepts (which to be honest, I still don’t grasp all of what Marx is saying) it served as definitive evidence for me that communism is not only inevitable, but also necessary for the evolution of human society. Marx’s outlining of the class distinctions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are central to his theme that it is class, which dictates the function of society. I firmly believe in this principle and Marx’s interpretation, as when we analyze society through a dialectical-materialist perspective it is evident that class structure and antagonisms are necessary for exploitation to exist. Marx cleverly points out how capitalism is dependent upon the suppression of the working class, on the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie through state forces. He explains how the power structures of the state cannot be broken and reformed through “bourgeoisie democracy” but must be taken by force. He and Engels explain the necessity for the workers to rise up and seize the means of production for themselves and why should they not? They are the labour power which contribute to the production of commodities and thus capital. The capitalist serves no function, as he performs no labour. Instead the capitalist only serves as a leech in which he extracts monetary value from the workers. The surplus value generated by the labour of the workers goes to this capitalist and thus exploitation occurs readily and rampantly throughout a capitalist system. The capitalist only puts forward capital to generate a commodity but this act in itself should not be seen as justification for the capitalist making profit. How did this capitalist generate the startup capital in the first place? Did they work for this capital (which is extremely rare) or was the capital taken by force then handed down through a single family throughout history (the latter being extremely common for these large corporations). We must remember that it is the people, the working class citizens, who hold all power in society, and the moment that we collectively realize that is the moment when the very foundations of our society will shake and crumble. In today’s troubling times we must remember the canonical words of the Manifesto, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

It should also be noted that we read Thomas Jefferson’s The “Tree of Liberty” Letter and Letter to James Madison, as well as Maximillien Robespierre’s “Justification of the Use of Terror”. These texts were very influential and important but with the limited time and word count I had (which I have already exceeded) I felt my opinions were best showcased while talking about the Communist Manifesto, the text I am most passionate about.