This page is referenced by:

• 1 2017-04-25T17:15:33-07:00 Page 8 6 plain 2017-04-25T18:27:50-07:00             “The Communist Manifesto” highlights various problems associated with the capitalist system of society. The first is that modern work is alienated. Marx argues that work can be the source of our greatest joys. In order to be fulfilled at work, workers need to see themselves in the objects they have created. By doing this, we externalize what is good inside all of us. The modern world is especially specialized, highly efficient, and can lead to alienation of the working class. This alienation would result in a feeling of disconnect between what you do all day and what you feel you really are. The second is that modern work is insecure. Capitalism makes the individual dispensable and vulnerable to harm and abandonment. Instead, communism wants us to believe and know we belong to a society that is a community.
              The reality of capitalism is that the workers get paid little while capitalists get rich, by shrinking the wages of workers as low as possible to increase profits. Where capitalism sees profit as a reward for ingenuity and technological talent, Marx was far more skeptical (Joseph, 2006). To Marx, profit is simply theft. What is being stolen is the talent and hard work of the working class. However much one dresses up the fundamentals of capitalism, Marx insists that capitalism means paying the worker one price for doing something and then selling it to somebody else at a much higher price (Joseph, 2006). In other words, profit is the fancy term for exploitation.
               Over the centuries, capitalism has been very unstable and volatile. Marx proposed that capitalist systems are characterized by crises (Joseph, 2006). Crises are prevalent to capitalism and competing sides cause them. The fact that we are able to produce too much is itself a crisis of abundance. Today, our factories and systems are so efficient if we wanted to we could give everyone on this planet a car, a house, access to a decent school and hospital. There is less of a need than ever to work today because the modern economy is so productive. While unemployment in a capitalist system is considered a bad thing, under communism could it be considered a freedom? We complain about not working, but really if we controlled our own means of production we would not mind this freedom. Today, unemployment is common because we are so advanced and capable of making things we no longer need the vast supplies of labor. Marx also would argue we are not all needed, but in that case, we should make leisure something that is admirable (Bottomore, 1973). In addition, he would say we should redistribute the wealth of the massive corporations that make so much surplus money and instead give it to everyone (Bottomore, 1973). This is a very beautiful dream, but is it realistic?
   
• 1 2017-03-21T15:22:30-07:00 Page 4 5 plain 2017-04-25T18:14:36-07:00
              “The Communist Manifesto” presented an analytical approach to the class struggle, the problems of capitalism, and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism’s potential future forms (Joseph, 2006). The communist manifesto is divided into four sections. The manifesto begins by proclaiming “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.” (Marx, Engels, & Pozner, 1992, p. 16). The first section, “Bourgeois and Proletarians” examines class struggle and the development of societies through conflict. Marx asserts, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx et al., 1992, p. 17). Marx goes on to write “what the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” (Marx et al., 1992, p. 32).  The second section, “Proletarians and Communists” begins by stating the relationship of communists around the world and the need to defend the common interests of the world’s proletariat. The sections end by outlining a set of short-term demands such as the “abolition of inheritances and private property; free public education; nationalization of the means of transport and communication; centralization of credit via a national bank – the implementation of which would result in the precursor to a stateless and classless society” (The Communist Manifesto, 2017). Marx sums this section up by saying, “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.” (Marx et al., 1992, p. 43). The third section, “Socialist and Communist Literature” distinguishes communism from other socialist doctrines such as reactionary socialism, bourgeois socialism, and critical-utopian socialism (Marx et al., 1992). All these are dismissed for advocating reformism and failing to recognize the pre-eminent revolutionary role of the working class (The Communist Manifesto, 2017). The concluding section, “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Opposition Parities” discusses the communist position on struggles in specific countries such as France, Switzerland, Poland, and Germany (Marx et al., 1992). It ends by declaring support for other communist revolutions and calls for united international proletarian action. Marx concludes his manifesto by declaring, “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!” (Marx et al., 1992, p. 58).