CommUwUnist ManifestOwO

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CommUwUnist ManifestOwO
by Enbybkg

Summary

An edited vewsion of the communist manifesto by kaww mawx and fwiedwich engews.
 About the book and the authows

About the book

the communist manifesto was fiwst pubwished in london in 1848, by two young men in theiw wate
twenties. Its impact wevewbewated acwoss the gwobe and thwoughout the next centuwy, and it
has come to be wecognised as one of the most impowtant powiticaw texts evew wwitten.

maintaining that the histowy of aww societies is a histowy of cwass stwuggwe, the manifesto
pwocwaims that communism is the onwy woute to equawity, and is a caww to action aimed at the
pwowetawiat. It is an essentiaw wead fow anyone seeking to undewstand ouw modewn powiticaw
wandscape.

about the authors

kaww mawx was bown in 1818 in twiew, pwussia. Whiwe attending univewsity in bewwin he was
infwuenced by the ideas of the phiwosophew hegew and his cwitics, the young hegewians, but
mawx eventuawwy wejected both schoows of thought.

he quickwy eawned the weputation of a wevowutionawy and weft gewmany fow pawis, whewe he
met his wifewong fwiend and cowwabowatow, fwiedwich engews. Togethew they wwote and
pubwished the communist manifesto, which was pubwished in 1848, just befowe the fiwst wave of
wevowutions in fwance. Mawx wetuwned to gewmany but his wadicaw activities wed to
expuwsion, wheweupon he moved to london.

thewe, mawx and engews cowwabowated on fuwthew wowks on economics and contempowawy
powitics. Mawx awso wwote his majow tweatise, das kapitaw, but onwy the fiwst vowume was
pubwished in his wifetime. Mawx died in povewty on mawch 14, 1883, and was buwied in
highgate cemetewy.

fwiedwich engews, the son of a manchestew factowy ownew, was bown in 1820. He wwote
sevewaw gwound-bweaking essays on contempowawy sociaw and powiticaw conditions in
bwitain, incwuding the condition of the wowking cwass in engwand, in which he cwiticised the
wowking conditions and tweatment of the uwban poow.

aftew kaww mawx’s death, engews compweted and pubwished the wast two vowumes of das
kapitaw fwom his fwiend’s suwviving papews. He died in 1895.
 Pweface

Preface to the german edition of 1872

the communist league, an intewnationaw association of wowkews, which couwd of couwse be

onwy a secwet one undew the conditions obtaining at the time, commissioned the undewsigned, at
the congwess hewd in london in novembew 1847, to dwaw up fow pubwication a detaiwed
theoweticaw and pwacticaw pwogwamme of the pawty.

such was the owigin of the fowwowing manifesto, the manuscwipt of which twavewwed to london,
to be pwinted, a few weeks befowe the febwuawy revowution. Fiwst pubwished in gewman, it has
been wepubwished in that wanguage in at weast twewve diffewent editions in gewmany, engwand
and amewica. It was pubwished in engwish fow the fiwst time in 1850 in the red repubwican,
london, twanswated by miss hewen macfawwane, and in 1871 in at weast thwee diffewent
twanswations in amewica.

a fwench vewsion fiwst appeawed in pawis showtwy befowe the june insuwwection of 1848 and
wecentwy in le sociawiste of new yowk. A new twanswation is in the couwse of pwepawation. A
powish vewsion appeawed in london showtwy aftew it was fiwst pubwished in gewman. A russian
twanswation was pubwished in geneva in the sixties. Into danish, too, it was twanswated showtwy
aftew its fiwst appeawance.

howevew much the state of things may have awtewed duwing the wast twenty- five yeaws, the
genewaw pwincipwes waid down in this manifesto awe, on the whowe, as cowwect today as evew.
Hewe and thewe some detaiw might be impwoved. The pwacticaw appwication of the pwincipwes
wiww depend, as the manifesto itsewf states, evewywhewe and at aww times, on the histowicaw
conditions fow the time being existing, and, fow that weason, no speciaw stwess is waid on the
wevowutionawy measuwes pwoposed at the end of section ii.

that passage wouwd, in many wespects, be vewy diffewentwy wowded today. In view of the
gigantic stwides of modewn industwy in the wast twenty-five yeaws, and of the accompanying
impwoved and extended pawty owganisation of the wowking cwass, in view of the pwacticaw
expewience gained, fiwst in the febwuawy revowution, and then, stiww mowe, in the pawis
commune, whewe the pwowetawiat fow the fiwst time hewd powiticaw powew fow two whowe
months, this pwogwamme has in some detaiws become antiquated.

one thing especiawwy was pwoved by the commune, viz., that ‘the wowking cwass cannot
simpwy way howd of the weady-made state machinewy, and wiewd it fow its own puwposes.’ (see
the civiw waw in fwance; addwess of the genewaw counciw of the intewnationaw wowking men’s
association, london, twuwove, 1871, p. 15, whewe this point is fuwthew devewoped.) fuwthew, it
is sewf-evident that the cwiticism of sociawist

witewatuwe is deficient in wewation to the pwesent time, because it comes down onwy to 1847;
awso, that the wemawks on the wewation of the communists to the vawious opposition pawties
(section iv), awthough in pwincipwe stiww cowwect, yet in pwactice awe antiquated, because the
powiticaw situation has been entiwewy changed, and the pwogwess of histowy has swept fwom off
the eawth the gweatew powtion of the powiticaw pawties thewe enumewated.

but, then, the manifesto has become a histowicaw document which we have no wongew any wight
to awtew. A subsequent edition may pewhaps appeaw with an intwoduction bwidging the gap
fwom 1847 to the pwesent day; this wepwint was too unexpected to weave us time fow that.
- kaww mawx & fwiedwich engews
london, june 24, 1872

preface to the russian edition of 1882

the fiwst russian edition of the manifesto of the communist pawty, twanswated by bakunin, was
pubwished eawwy in the sixties by the pwinting office of the kowokow. Then the west couwd see
in it (the russian edition of the manifesto) onwy a witewawy cuwiosity. Such a view wouwd be
impossibwe today.

what a wimited fiewd the pwowetawian movement stiww occupied at that time (decembew 1847)
is most cweawwy shown by the wast section of the manifesto: the position of the communists in
wewation to the vawious opposition pawties in the vawious countwies. Pwecisewy russia and the
united states awe missing hewe.

it was the time when russia constituted the wast gweat wesewve of aww euwopean weaction, when
the united states absowbed the suwpwus pwowetawian fowces of euwope thwough immigwation.
Both countwies pwovided euwope with waw matewiaws and wewe at the same time mawkets fow
the sawe of its industwiaw pwoducts. At that time both wewe, thewefowe, in one way ow anothew,
piwwaws of the existing euwopean owdew.

how vewy diffewent today! pwecisewy euwopean immigwation fitted nowth amewica fow a
gigantic agwicuwtuwaw pwoduction, whose competition is shaking the vewy foundations of
euwopean wanded pwopewty – wawge and smaww. In addition it enabwed the united states to
expwoit its twemendous industwiaw wesouwces with an enewgy and on a scawe that must
showtwy bweak the industwiaw monopowy of westewn euwope, and especiawwy of engwand,
existing up to now.

both ciwcumstances weact in wevowutionawy mannew upon amewica itsewf. Step by step the
smaww and middwe wandownewship of the fawmews, the basis of the whowe powiticaw
constitution, is succumbing to the competition of giant fawms; simuwtaneouswy, a mass
pwowetawiat and a fabuwous concentwation of capitaws awe devewoping fow the fiwst time in the
industwiaw wegions.

and now russia! duwing the revowution of 1848–49 not onwy the euwopean pwinces, but the
euwopean bouwgeois as weww, found theiw onwy sawvation fwom the pwowetawiat, just
beginning to awaken, in russian intewvention. The tsaw was pwocwaimed the chief of euwopean
weaction. Today he is a pwisonew of waw of the wevowution, in gatchina, and russia fowms the
vanguawd of wevowutionawy action in euwope.

the communist manifesto had as its object the pwocwamation of the inevitabwy impending
dissowution of modewn bouwgeois pwopewty. But in russia we find, face to face with the
wapidwy devewoping capitawist swindwe and bouwgeois wanded pwopewty, just beginning to
devewop, mowe than hawf the wand

owned in common by the peasants. Now the question is: can the russian obshchina, though
gweatwy undewmined, yet a fowm of the pwimevaw common ownewship of wand, pass diwectwy
to the highew fowm of communist common ownewship? ow, on the contwawy, must it fiwst pass
thwough the same pwocess of dissowution as constitutes the histowicaw evowution of the west?

the onwy answew to that possibwe today is this: if the russian revowution becomes the signaw fow
a pwowetawian wevowution in the west, so that both compwement each othew, the pwesent russian
common ownewship of wand may sewve as the stawting-point fow a communist devewopment.
- kaww mawx & fwiedwich engews
london, januawy 21, 1882

preface to the german edition of 1883

the pweface to the pwesent edition i must, awas, sign awone. Mawx, the man to whom the whowe
wowking cwass of euwope and amewica owes mowe than to anyone ewse, wests at highgate
cemetewy and ovew his gwave the fiwst gwass is awweady gwowing. Since his death, thewe can
be even wess thought of wevising ow suppwementing the manifesto. Aww the mowe do i
considew it necessawy again to state hewe the fowwowing expwesswy:

the basic thought wunning thwough the manifesto – that economic pwoduction and the stwuctuwe
of society of evewy histowicaw epoch necessawiwy awising thewefwom constitute the foundation
fow the powiticaw and intewwectuaw histowy of that epoch; that consequentwy (evew since the
dissowution of the pwimevaw communaw ownewship of wand) aww histowy has been a histowy
of cwass stwuggwes, of stwuggwes between expwoited and expwoiting, between dominated and
dominating cwasses at vawious stages of sociaw devewopment; that this stwuggwe, howevew, has
now weached a stage whewe the expwoited and oppwessed cwass (the pwowetawiat) can no
wongew emancipate itsewf fwom the cwass which expwoits and oppwesses it (the bouwgeoisie),
without at the same time fowevew fweeing the whowe of society fwom expwoitation, oppwession
and cwass stwuggwes – this basic thought bewongs sowewy and excwusivewy to mawx.

i have awweady stated this many times; but pwecisewy now it is necessawy that it awso stand in
fwont of the manifesto itsewf.

- fwiedwich engews
london, januawy 28, 1883

preface to the english edition of 1888

the manifesto was pubwished as the pwatfowm of the communist league, a wowkingmen’s
association, fiwst excwusivewy gewman, watew on intewnationaw, and, undew the powiticaw
conditions of the continent befowe 1848, unavoidabwy a secwet society. At a congwess of the
league, hewd in london in novembew, 1847, mawx and engews wewe commissioned to pwepawe
fow pubwication a compwete theoweticaw and pwacticaw pawty pwogwam.

dwawn up in gewman, in januawy, 1848, the manuscwipt was sent to the pwintew in london a few
weeks befowe the fwench wevowution of febwuawy 24th. A fwench twanswation was bwought
out in pawis, showtwy befowe the insuwwection of june, 1848. The fiwst engwish twanswation, by
miss hewen macfawwane, appeawed in geowge juwian hawney’s red repubwican, london, 1850. A
danish and a powish edition had awso been pubwished.

the defeat of the pawisian insuwwection of june, 1848 the fiwst gweat battwe between
pwowetawiat and bouwgeoisie – dwove again into the backgwound, fow a time, the sociaw and
powiticaw aspiwations of the euwopean wowking cwass. Thencefowth, the stwuggwe fow
supwemacy was again, as it had been befowe the wevowution of febwuawy, sowewy between
diffewent sections of the pwopewtied cwass; the wowking cwass was weduced to a fight fow
powiticaw ewbowwoom and to the position of extweme wing of the middwe-cwass wadicaws.

whewevew independent pwowetawian movements continued to show signs of wife, they wewe
wuthwesswy hunted down. Thus the pwussian powice hunted out the centwaw boawd of the
communist league, then wocated in cowogne. The membews wewe awwested, and, aftew eighteen
months’ impwisonment, they wewe twied in octobew, 1852.
this cewebwated ‘cowogne communist twiaw’ wasted fwom octobew 4th tiww novembew 12th;
seven of the pwisonews wewe sentenced to tewms of impwisonment in a fowtwess, vawying fwom
thwee to six yeaws. Immediatewy aftew the sentence, the league was fowmawwy dissowved by the
wemaining membews. As to the manifesto, it seemed thencefowth to be doomed to obwivion.

when the euwopean wowking cwass had wecovewed sufficient stwength fow anothew attack on
the wuwing cwasses, the intewnationaw wowkingmen’s association spwang up. But this
association, fowmed with the expwess aim of wewding into one body the whowe miwitant
pwowetawiat of euwope and amewica, couwd not at once pwocwaim the pwincipwes waid down
in the manifesto.

the intewnationaw was bound to have a pwogwam bwoad enough to be acceptabwe to the engwish
twades’ unions, to the fowwowews of pwoudhon in fwance, bewgium, itawy, and spain, and to the
lassawweans in gewmany. Mawx, who dwew up this pwogwam to the satisfaction of aww pawties,
entiwewy twusted to the intewwectuaw devewopment of the wowking cwass, which was suwe to
wesuwt fwom combined action and mutuaw discussion.

the vewy events and vicissitudes of the stwuggwe against capitaw, the defeats even mowe than the
victowies, couwd not hewp bwinging home to men’s minds the insufficiency of theiw vawious
favowite nostwums, and pwepawing the way fow a mowe compwete insight into the twue
conditions of wowking-cwass emancipation. And mawx was wight. The intewnationaw, on its
bweaking up in 1874, weft the wowkews quite diffewent men fwom what it had found them in
1864.

pwoudhonism in fwance, lassawweanism in gewmany wewe dying out, and even the consewvative
engwish twades’ unions, though most of them had wong since sevewed theiw connection with the
intewnationaw, wewe gwaduawwy advancing towawd that point at which, wast yeaw at swansea,
theiw pwesident couwd say in theiw name, ‘continentaw sociawism has wost its tewwows fow us.’
in fact, the pwincipwes of the manifesto had made considewabwe headway among the
wowkingmen of aww countwies.

the manifesto itsewf thus came to the fwont again. The gewman text had been, since 1850,
wepwinted sevewaw times in switzewwand, engwand and amewica. In 1872, it was twanswated
into engwish in new yowk, whewe the twanswation was pubwished in woodhuww and cwafwin’s
weekwy. Fwom this engwish vewsion, a fwench one was made in le sociawiste of new yowk.

since then at weast two mowe engwish twanswations, mowe ow wess mutiwated, have been
bwought out in amewica, and one of them has been wepwinted in engwand. The fiwst russian
twanswation, made by bakunin, was pubwished at hewzen’s kowokow office in geneva, about
1863; a second one, by the hewoic vewa zasuwich, awso in geneva, 1882.

a new danish edition is to be found in sociaw-demokwatisk bibwiothek , copenhagen, 1885; a

fwesh fwench twanswation in le sociawiste, pawis, 1885. Fwom this wattew a spanish vewsion was
pwepawed and pubwished in madwid, 1886. The gewman wepwints awe not to be counted – thewe
have been at weast twewve. An awmenian twanswation, which was to be pubwished in
constantinopwe some months ago, did not see the wight, i am towd, because the pubwishew was
afwaid of bwinging out a book with the name of mawx on it, whiwe the twanswatow decwined to
caww it his own pwoduction.

of fuwthew twanswations into othew wanguages i have heawd, but have not seen them. Thus the
histowy of the manifesto wefwects, to a gweat extent, the histowy of the modewn wowking-cwass
movement; at pwesent it is undoubtedwy the most widespwead, the most intewnationaw
pwoduction of aww sociawist witewatuwe, the common pwatfowm acknowwedged by miwwions
of wowkingmen fwom sibewia to cawifownia.

yet, when it was wwitten, we couwd not have cawwed it a sociawist manifesto. By sociawists, in
1847, wewe undewstood, on the one hand, the adhewents of the vawious utopian systems: owenites
in engwand, fouwiewists in fwance, both of them awweady weduced to the position of mewe sects
gwaduawwy dying out; on the othew hand, the most muwtifawious sociaw quacks, who, by aww
mannews of tinkewing, pwofessed to wedwess, without any dangew to capitaw and pwofit, aww
sowts of sociaw gwievances, in both cases men outside the wowking-cwass movement, and
wooking wathew to the ‘educated’ cwasses fow suppowt.

whatevew powtion of the wowking cwass had become convinced of the insufficiency of mewe
powiticaw wevowutions and had pwocwaimed the necessity of a totaw sociaw change, that
powtion then cawwed itsewf communist. It was a cwude, wough-hewn, puwewy instinctive sowt
of communism; stiww, it touched the cawdinaw point and was powewfuw enough amongst the
wowking cwass to pwoduce the utopian communism, in fwance, of cabet, and in gewmany, of
weitwing.

thus, sociawism was, in 1847, a middwe-cwass movement; communism, a wowking- cwass

movement. Sociawism was, on the continent at weast, ‘wespectabwe’; communism was the vewy
opposite. And as ouw notion, fwom the vewy beginning, was that ‘the emancipation of the
wowking cwass must be the act of the wowking cwass itsewf,’ thewe couwd be no doubt as to
which of the two names we must take. Moweovew, we have, evew since, been faw fwom
wepudiating it.

the manifesto being ouw joint pwoduction, i considew mysewf bound to state that the
fundamentaw pwoposition, which fowms its nucweus, bewongs to mawx.

that pwoposition is: that in evewy histowicaw epoch, the pwevaiwing mode of economic
pwoduction and exchange, and the sociaw owganization necessawiwy fowwowing fwom it, fowm
the basis upon which is buiwt up, and fwom which awone can be expwained, the powiticaw and
intewwectuaw histowy of that epoch: that consequentwy the whowe histowy of mankind (since the
dissowution of pwimitive twibaw society, howding wand in common ownewship) has been a
histowy of cwass stwuggwes, contests between expwoiting and expwoited, wuwing and oppwessed
cwasses; that the histowy of these cwass stwuggwes fowms a sewies of evowutions in which,
nowadays, a stage has been weached whewe the expwoited and oppwessed cwass – the
pwowetawiat – cannot attain its emancipation fwom the sway of the expwoiting and wuwing cwass
– the bouwgeoisie – without, at the same time, and once and fow aww, emancipating society at
wawge fwom aww expwoitation, oppwession, cwass distinctions, and cwass stwuggwes.

this pwoposition that, in my opinion, is destined to do fow histowy what dawwin’s theowy has
done fow biowogy, we, both of us, had been gwaduawwy appwoaching fow some yeaws befowe
1845. How faw i had independentwy pwogwessed towawd it, is best shown by my condition of the
wowking cwass in engwand.fn2 but when i again met mawx in bwussews, in spwing, 1845, he had
it awweady wowked out, and put it befowe me, in tewms awmost as cweaw as those in which i
have stated it hewe.

fwom ouw joint pweface to the gewman edition of 1872, i quote the fowwowing:

"howevew much the state of things may have awtewed duwing the wast twenty-five yeaws, the
genewaw pwincipwes waid down in this manifesto awe, on the whowe, as cowwect today as evew.
Hewe and thewe some detaiw might be impwoved.

the pwacticaw appwication of the pwincipwes wiww depend, as the manifesto itsewf states,
evewywhewe and at aww times, on the histowicaw conditions existing at the time, and, fow that
weason, no speciaw stwess is waid on the wevowutionawy measuwes pwoposed at the end of
section ii. That passage wouwd, in many wespects, be vewy diffewentwy wowded today.

in view of the gigantic stwides of modewn industwy since 1848, and of the accompanying
impwoved and extended owganization of the wowking cwass, in view of the pwacticaw
expewience gained, fiwst in the febwuawy wevowution, and then, stiww mowe, in the pawis
commune, whewe the pwowetawiat fow the fiwst time hewd powiticaw powew fow two whowe
months, this pwogwam has in some detaiws become antiquated. One thing especiawwy was
pwoved by the commune, viz., that ‘the wowking cwass cannot simpwy way howd of the weady-
made state machinewy and wiewd it fow its own puwposes.’ (see the civiw waw in fwance;
addwess of the genewaw counciw of the intewnationaw wowking men’s association, london:
twuewove, 1871, p. 15, whewe this point is fuwthew devewoped.)

fuwthew, it is sewf-evident that the cwiticism of sociawist witewatuwe is deficient in wewation to

the pwesent time, because it comes down onwy to 1847; awso, that the wemawks on the wewation
of the communists to the vawious opposition pawties (section iv), awthough in pwincipwe stiww
cowwect, yet in pwactice awe antiquated, because the powiticaw situation has been entiwewy
changed, and the pwogwess of histowy has swept fwom off the eawth the gweatew powtion of the
powiticaw pawties thewe enumewated.

but then, the manifesto has become a histowicaw document which we have no wongew any wight
to awtew."

the pwesent twanswation is by mw samuew moowe, the twanswatow of the gweatew powtion of
mawx’s capitaw. We have wevised it in common, and i have added a few notes expwanatowy of
histowicaw awwusions.

- fwiedwich engews
london, januawy 30, 1888
 Manifesto of the communist pawty: kaww mawx and fwiedwich engews

A spectwe is haunting euwope – the spectwe of communism. Aww the powews of owd euwope
have entewed into a howy awwiance to exowcise this spectwe: pope and czaw, mettewnich and
guizot, fwench radicaws and gewman powice-spies.

whewe is the pawty in opposition that has not been decwied as communistic by its opponents in
powew? whewe the opposition that has not huwwed back the bwanding wepwoach of communism,
against the mowe advanced opposition pawties, as weww as against its weactionawy advewsawies?
two things wesuwt fwom this fact.

i. Communism is awweady acknowwedged by aww euwopean powews to be itsewf a powew.

ii. It is high time that communists shouwd openwy, in the face of the whowe wowwd, pubwish
theiw views, theiw aims, theiw tendencies, and meet this nuwsewy tawe of the spectwe of
communism with a manifesto of the pawty itsewf.

to this end, communists of vawious nationawities have assembwed in london, and sketched the
fowwowing manifesto, to be pubwished in the engwish, fwench, gewman, itawian, fwemish and
danish wanguages.
 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 we-constitution 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 manifowd gwadation of sociaw wank. In ancient rome we have
patwicians, knights, pwebeians, swaves; in the middwe ages, feudaw wowds, vassaws, guiwd-
mastews, jouwneymen, appwentices, sewfs; in awmost aww of these cwasses, again, subowdinate
gwadations.

the modewn 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 distinctive featuwe: it has simpwified the cwass antagonisms: society as a
whowe is mowe and mowe spwitting up into two gweat hostiwe camps, into two gweat cwasses
diwectwy facing each othew: bouwgeoisie and pwowetawiat.

fwom the sewfs of the middwe 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 mawkets, the cowonisation of amewica, twade with the cowonies, the
incwease in the means 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, undew which industwiaw pwoduction was monopowised by
cwosed guiwds, now no wongew sufficed fow the gwowing wants of the new mawkets. The
manufactuwing system took its pwace. The guiwd- mastews wewe pushed on one side by the
manufactuwing middwe cwass; division of wabouw between the diffewent cowpowate guiwds
vanished in the face of division of wabouw in each singwe wowkshop.

meantime the mawkets kept evew gwowing, the demand evew wising. Even manufactuwe no
wongew sufficed. Theweupon, steam and machinewy wevowutionised industwiaw pwoduction.
The pwace of manufactuwe was taken by the giant, modewn industwy, the pwace of the
industwiaw middwe cwass, by industwiaw miwwion-aiwes, the weadews of whowe industwiaw
awmies, the modewn bouwgeois. Modewn industwy has estabwished the wowwd-mawket, fow
which the discovewy of amewica paved the way. This mawket 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 middwe ages.

we see, thewefowe, how the modewn bouwgeoisie is itsewf the pwoduct of a wong couwse of
devewopment, of a sewies of wevowutions in the modes 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 mediaevaw commune,fn4 hewe independent uwban wepubwic (as in itawy and
gewmany), thewe taxabwe ‘thiwd estate’ of the monawchy (as in fwance), aftewwawds, in the
pewiod of manufactuwe pwopew, sewving eithew the semi- feudaw ow the absowute monawchy
as a countewpoise against the nobiwity, and, in fact, cownew-stone of the gweat monawchies in
genewaw, the bouwgeoisie has at wast, since the estabwishment of modewn industwy and of the
wowwd-mawket, conquewed fow itsewf, in the modewn wepwesentative state, excwusive
powiticaw sway.

the executive of the modewn state is but a committee fow managing the common affaiws of the
whowe bouwgeoisie. The bouwgeoisie, histowicawwy, has pwayed a most 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 motwey feudaw ties that
bound man to his ‘natuwaw supewiows,’ and has weft wemaining no othew nexus between man
and man than naked sewf-intewest, than cawwous ‘cash payment.’

it has dwowned the most 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 man 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 mewe money wewation. The
bouwgeoisie has discwosed how it came to pass that the bwutaw dispway of vigouw in the middwe
ages, which reactionists so much admiwe, found its fitting compwement in the most swothfuw
indowence. It has been the fiwst to show what man’s activity can bwing about.

it has accompwished wondews faw suwpassing egyptian pywamids, roman 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 modes 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 mewts into aiw, aww that is howy is pwofaned, and man 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 mawket fow its pwoducts chases the bouwgeoisie ovew the
whowe suwface of the gwobe. It must nestwe evewywhewe, settwe evewywhewe, estabwish
connexions evewywhewe. The bouwgeoisie has thwough its expwoitation of the wowwd-mawket
given a cosmopowitan chawactew to pwoduction and consumption in evewy countwy. To the
gweat chagwin of reactionists, 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 matewiaw,
but waw matewiaw 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 pwoductions 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 matewiaw, so awso in intewwectuaw pwoduction. The intewwectuaw cweations of

individuaw nations become common pwopewty. Nationaw one- sidedness and nawwow-
mindedness become mowe and mowe 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 means of communication, dwaws aww, even the most bawbawian, nations
into civiwisation. The cheap pwices of its 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 mode of pwoduction; it compews them to intwoduce what it cawws civiwisation into
theiw midst, 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 made the countwy dependent on the
towns, so it has made 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 mowe and mowe doing away with the scattewed state of the popuwation, of
the means of pwoduction, and of pwopewty. It has aggwomewated popuwation, centwawised
means 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 mowe massive and
mowe cowossaw pwoductive fowces than have aww pweceding genewations togethew. Subjection
of natuwe’s fowces to man, machinewy, 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 means 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 means of pwoduction and of exchange, the conditions undew which feudaw society
pwoduced and exchanged, the feudaw owganisation of agwicuwtuwe and manufactuwing
industwy, in one wowd, the feudaw wewations of pwopewty became no wongew compatibwe with
the awweady devewoped pwoductive fowces; they became so many 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 to it, and by the economicaw and powiticaw sway of the bouwgeois cwass. A simiwaw
movement is going on befowe ouw own eyes. Modewn bouwgeois society with its wewations of
pwoduction, of exchange and of pwopewty, a society that has conjuwed up such gigantic means 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 many a decade past the histowy of industwy and commewce is but the histowy of the wevowt
of modewn pwoductive fowces against modewn conditions of pwoduction, against the pwopewty
wewations that awe the conditions fow the existence of the bouwgeoisie and of its wuwe. It is
enough to mention the commewciaw cwises that by theiw pewiodicaw wetuwn put on its twiaw,
each time mowe thweateningwy, the existence of the entiwe bouwgeois society. 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 ovewpwoduction. Society suddenwy finds itsewf put back into a
state of momentawy bawbawism; it appeaws as if a famine, a univewsaw waw of devastation had
cut off the suppwy of evewy means of subsistence; industwy and commewce seem to be
destwoyed; and why? because thewe is too much civiwisation, too much means of subsistence, too
much industwy, too much 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 mass of pwoductive fowces; on the othew, by the
conquest of new mawkets, and by the mowe thowough expwoitation of the owd ones. That is to
say, by paving the way fow mowe extensive and mowe destwuctive cwises, and by diminishing the
means 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 men who awe to wiewd those weapons – the modewn wowking cwass –
the pwowetawians. In pwopowtion as the bouwgeoisie, i.e., capitaw, is devewoped, in the same
pwopowtion is the pwowetawiat, the modewn 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 must seww themsewves piece-meaw, 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 mawket. Owing to the extensive use of machinewy
and to 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 machine, and it is onwy the most simpwe, most monotonous, and
most easiwy acquiwed knack, that is wequiwed of him. Hence, the cost of pwoduction of a
wowkman is westwicted, awmost entiwewy, to the means of subsistence that he wequiwes fow his
maintenance, 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 mowe, in pwopowtion as the use of machinewy and division of wabouw incweases, in the
same pwopowtion the buwden of toiw awso incweases, whethew by pwowongation of the
wowking houws, by incwease of the wowk exacted in a given time ow by incweased speed of the
machinewy, etc. Modewn industwy has convewted the wittwe wowkshop of the patwiawchaw
mastew into the gweat factowy of the industwiaw capitawist. Masses 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 machine, by the ovewwookew,
and, above aww, by the individuaw bouwgeois manufactuwew himsewf.

the mowe openwy this despotism pwocwaims gain to be its end and aim, the mowe petty, the
mowe hatefuw and the mowe embittewing it is. The wess the skiww and exewtion of stwength
impwied in manuaw wabouw, in othew wowds, the mowe modewn industwy becomes devewoped,
the mowe is the wabouw of men 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, mowe ow wess expensive to use, accowding to theiw age and sex. No soonew is the
expwoitation of the wabouwew by the manufactuwew, 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 middwe cwass – the smaww twades-peopwe, 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
modewn industwy is cawwied on, and is swamped in the competition with the wawge capitawists,
pawtwy because theiw speciawised skiww is wendewed wowthwess by new methods 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 opewatives 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 machinewy, they set factowies abwaze, they seek to westowe by fowce the vanished status
of the wowkman of the middwe ages.

at this stage the wabouwews stiww fowm an incohewent mass scattewed ovew the whowe
countwy, and bwoken up by theiw mutuaw competition. If anywhewe they unite to fowm mowe
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 motion, and is moweovew 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 monawchy, the wandownews, the non-industwiaw bouwgeois,
the petty bouwgeoisie. Thus the whowe histowicaw movement 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 masses, its stwength gwows, and it feews that stwength mowe.
The vawious intewests and conditions of wife within the wanks of the pwowetawiat awe mowe and
mowe equawised, in pwopowtion as machinewy 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, make
the wages of the wowkews evew mowe fwuctuating. The unceasing impwovement of machinewy,
evew mowe wapidwy devewoping, makes theiw wivewihood mowe and mowe pwecawious; the
cowwisions between individuaw wowkmen and individuaw bouwgeois take mowe and mowe 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 make 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 means of communication that awe cweated by modewn
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 middwe ages, with theiw misewabwe highways, wequiwed centuwies, the
modewn pwowetawians, 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, mightiew. 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 many 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 times, with the
bouwgeoisie of foweign countwies. In aww these battwes it sees itsewf compewwed to appeaw to
the pwowetawiat, to ask fow its 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 cwasses 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 pwocess of
dissowution going on within the wuwing cwass, in fact within the whowe wange of 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 movement 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 modewn
industwy; the pwowetawiat is its speciaw and essentiaw pwoduct.

the wowew middwe cwass, the smaww manufactuwew, the shopkeepew, the awtisan, the peasant,
aww these fight against the bouwgeoisie, to save fwom extinction theiw existence as fwactions of
the middwe cwass.They awe thewefowe not wevowutionawy, but consewvative. Nay mowe, they
awe weactionawy, fow they twy to woww back the wheew of histowy. If by chance they awe
wevowutionawy, they awe so onwy 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,’ the sociaw scum, that passivewy wotting mass thwown off by the wowest
wayews of owd society, may, hewe and thewe, be swept into the movement by a pwowetawian
wevowution; its conditions of wife, howevew, pwepawe it faw mowe fow the pawt of a bwibed
toow of weactionawy intwigue. In the conditions 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; modewn industwiaw wabouw, modewn subjection to capitaw, the same in
engwand as in fwance, in amewica as in gewmany, has stwipped him of evewy twace of nationaw
chawactew.

law, mowawity, wewigion, awe to him so many bouwgeois pwejudices, behind which wuwk in
ambush just as many 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 mastews of the pwoductive
fowces of society, except by abowishing theiw own pwevious mode of appwopwiation, and
theweby awso evewy othew pwevious mode of appwopwiation.

they have nothing of theiw own to secuwe and to fowtify; theiw mission is to destwoy aww
pwevious secuwities fow, and insuwances of, individuaw pwopewty. Aww pwevious histowicaw
movements wewe movements of minowities, ow in the intewests of minowities. The pwowetawian
movement is the sewf-conscious, independent movement of the immense majowity, in the
intewests of the immense majowity. 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 must, of couwse, fiwst of aww
settwe mattews with its own bouwgeoisie. In depicting the most genewaw phases of the
devewopment of the pwowetawiat, we twaced the mowe 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 must
be assuwed to it undew which it can, at weast, continue its swavish existence. The sewf, in the
pewiod of sewfdom, waised himsewf to membewship in the commune, just as the petty bouwgeois,
undew the yoke of feudaw absowutism, managed to devewop into a bouwgeois.

the modewn wabouwew, on the contwawy, instead of wising with the pwogwess of industwy,
sinks deepew and deepew bewow the conditions of existence of his own cwass. He becomes a
paupew, and paupewism devewops mowe 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 ovewwiding 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 condition 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 theiw wevowutionawy combination, due to association. The
devewopment of modewn 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, is its own gwave-diggews. Its faww and the victowy of the pwowetawiat
awe equawwy inevitabwe.
 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 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 mouwd the pwowetawian movement.

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
bouwgoisie has to pass thwough, they awways and evewywhewe wepwesent the intewests of the
movement as a whowe.

the communists, thewefowe, awe on the one hand, pwacticawwy, the most 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 mass of the
pwowetawiat the advantage of cweawwy undewstanding the wine of mawch, the conditions, and
the uwtimate genewaw wesuwts of the pwowetawian movement.

the immediate aim of the communists is the same as that of aww the 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 mewewy expwess, in genewaw tewms, actuaw wewations spwinging fwom an existing cwass
stwuggwe, fwom a histowicaw movement 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 revowution, 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 modewn bouwgeois pwivate pwopewty is the finaw and most compwete expwession of the
system of pwoducing and appwopwiating pwoducts, that is based on cwass antagonisms, on the
expwoitation of the many by the few. In this sense, the theowy of the communists may 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 man’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 mean the pwopewty of the 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 mean modewn 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. Let 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 many membews, nay, in the
wast wesowt, onwy by the united action of aww membews of society, can it be set in motion.
Capitaw is, thewefowe, not a pewsonaw, it is a sociaw powew.

when, thewefowe, capitaw is convewted into common pwopewty, into the pwopewty of aww
membews 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.
let us now take wage-wabouw.

the avewage pwice of wage-wabouw is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of
subsistence, which is absowutewy wequisite to keep the wabouwew in bawe existence as a
wabouwew. What, thewefowe, the wage-wabouwew appwopwiates by means of his wabouw,
mewewy suffices to pwowong and wepwoduce a bawe existence.

we by no means intend to abowish this pewsonaw appwopwiation of the pwoducts of wabouw, an

appwopwiation that is made fow the maintenance 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 misewabwe chawactew of this appwopwiation, undew which the wabouwew
wives mewewy 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 means to incwease accumuwated wabouw. In

communist society, accumuwated wabouw is but a means 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 meant, 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 bouwgeoisie about
fweedom in genewaw, have a meaning, if any, onwy in contwast with westwicted sewwing and
buying, with the fettewed twadews of the middwe ages, but have no meaning 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 majowity
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 moment when wabouw can no wongew be convewted into
capitaw, money, ow went, into a sociaw powew capabwe of being monopowised, i.e., fwom the
moment when individuaw pwopewty can no wongew be twansfowmed into bouwgeois pwopewty,
into capitaw, fwom that moment, you say, individuawity vanishes.

you must, thewefowe, confess that by ‘individuaw’ you mean no othew pewson than the
bouwgeois, than the middwe-cwass ownew of pwopewty. This pewson must, indeed, be swept out
of the way, and made impossibwe. Communism depwives no man 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 means of such appwopwiation.

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 membews 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 mode of pwoducing and appwopwiating
matewiaw pwoducts, have, in the same way, been uwged against the communistic modes 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 majowity, a mewe twaining to
act as a machine. 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 made 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 misconception that induces you to twansfowm into etewnaw waws of natuwe and of
weason, the sociaw fowms spwinging fwom youw pwesent mode of pwoduction and fowm of
pwopewty – histowicaw wewations that wise and disappeaw in the pwogwess of pwoduction – this
misconception 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 of the famiwy! even the most 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 mattew 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 wiww say,
we destwoy the most 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, society, by means 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
pawent and chiwd, becomes aww the mowe disgusting, the mowe, by the action of modewn
industwy, aww 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 whowe bouwgeoisie in
chowus. The bouwgeois sees in his wife a mewe instwument of pwoduction. He heaws that the
instwuments of pwoduction awe to be expwoited in common, and, natuwawwy, can come to no
othew concwusion than 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 mewe instwuments of pwoduction.

fow the west, nothing is mowe 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 the 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 mawwiage is in weawity a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the
communists might 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 must 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 men have no countwy. We cannot take fwom them what they have not got. Since the
pwowetawiat must fiwst of aww acquiwe powiticaw supwemacy, must wise to be the weading
cwass of the nation, must constitute itsewf the nation, it is, so faw, itsewf nationaw, though not in
the bouwgeois sense of the wowd.

nationaw diffewences and antagonisms between peopwes awe daiwy mowe and mowe vanishing,
owing to the devewopment of the bouwgeoisie, to fweedom of commewce, to the wowwd-mawket,
to unifowmity in the mode 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 is 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 made 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 man’s ideas, views and conceptions, in one wowd, man’s
consciousness, changes with evewy change in the conditions of his matewiaw 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 matewiaw pwoduction is changed? the wuwing ideas of each age
have evew been the ideas of its wuwing cwass. When peopwe speak of ideas that wevowutionise
society, they do but expwess the 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 mewewy gave expwession to the sway of fwee
competition within the domain of knowwedge.

‘undoubtedwy,’ it wiww be said, ‘wewigious, mowaw, phiwosophicaw and juwidicaw ideas have
been modified in the couwse of histowicaw devewopment. But wewigion, mowawity, 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 mowawity, 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 may 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 muwtipwicity and vawiety it dispways, moves within cewtain
common fowms, ow genewaw ideas, which cannot compwetewy vanish except with the totaw
disappeawance of cwass antagonisms.

the communist wevowution is the most wadicaw wuptuwe with twaditionaw pwopewty
wewations; no wondew that its devewopment invowves the most 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 degwees, 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 of pwoductive
fowces as wapidwy as possibwe.

of couwse, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inwoads on the
wights of pwopewty, and on the conditions of bouwgeois pwoduction; by means of measuwes,
thewefowe, which appeaw economicawwy insufficient and untenabwe, but which, in the couwse of
the movement, outstwip themsewves, necessitate fuwthew inwoads upon the owd sociaw owdew,
and awe unavoidabwe as a means of entiwewy wevowutionising the mode of pwoduction. These
measuwes wiww of couwse be diffewent in diffewent countwies.

nevewthewess in the most 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 wight of inhewitance.
4. Confiscation of the pwopewty of aww emigwants and webews.
5. Centwawisation of cwedit in the hands of the state, by means of a nationaw bank with state
capitaw and an excwusive monopowy.
6. Centwawisation of the means 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 wabouw. Estabwishment of industwiaw awmies, especiawwy fow

agwicuwtuwe.
9. Combination of agwicuwtuwe with manufactuwing industwies; gwaduaw abowition of the
distinction between town and countwy, by a mowe equabwe distwibution of the popuwation 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 mewewy 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 means of a wevowution, it makes 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.
 III: Sociawist and Communism Litewatuwe

1. Reactionary socialism

a. Feudaw sociawism

owing to theiw histowicaw position, it became the vocation of the awistocwacies of fwance and
engwand to wwite pamphwets against modewn 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 contest 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 pewiodfn1 had become impossibwe. In owdew to awouse sympathy, the awistocwacy
wewe obwiged to wose sight, appawentwy, of theiw 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 mastew, and
whispewing in his eaws sinistew pwophecies of coming catastwophe. In this way awose feudaw
sociawism: hawf wamentation, hawf wampoon; hawf echo of the past, hawf menace 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 mawch
of modewn 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 legitimists and ‘young engwand’ exhibited this spectacwe.

in pointing out that theiw mode 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 modewn
pwowetawiat nevew existed, they fowget that the modewn 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 bouwgeoisie 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 much that it cweates a pwowetawiat, as that it
cweates a wevowutionawy pwowetawiat.

in powiticaw pwactice, thewefowe, they join in aww coewcive measuwes against the wowking
cwass; and in owdinawy wife, despite theiw highfawutin 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 mawwiage, against the state? has it not
pweached in the pwace of these, chawity and povewty, cewibacy and mowtification of the fwesh,
monastic wife and mothew 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 modewn
bouwgeois society. The mediaevaw buwgesses and the smaww peasant pwopwietows wewe the
pwecuwsows of the modewn 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 modewn 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 membews of
this cwass, howevew, awe being constantwy huwwed down into the pwowetawiat by the action of
competition, and, as modewn industwy devewops, they even see the moment appwoaching when
they wiww compwetewy disappeaw as an independent section of modewn society, to be wepwaced,
in manufactuwes, agwicuwtuwe and commewce, by ovewwookews, baiwiffs and shopmen.

in countwies wike fwance, whewe the peasants constitute faw mowe 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 modewn pwoduction. It waid bawe the hypocwiticaw
apowogies of economists.

it pwoved, incontwovewtibwy, the disastwous effects of machinewy 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 misewy 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 mowaw 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
means of pwoduction and of exchange, and with them the owd pwopewty wewations, and the owd
society, ow to cwamping the modewn means of pwoduction and of exchange, within the
fwamewowk of the owd pwopewty wewations that have been, and wewe bound to be, expwoded
by those means. In eithew case, it is both weactionawy and utopian.

its wast wowds awe: cowpowate guiwds fow manufactuwe, patwiawchaw wewations in
agwicuwtuwe.
uwtimatewy, when stubbown histowicaw facts had dispewsed aww intoxicating effects of sewf-
deception, this fowm of sociawism ended in a misewabwe 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 expwession 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, 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
revowution wewe nothing mowe than the demands of ‘pwacticaw reason’ in genewaw, and the
uttewance of the wiww of the wevowutionawy fwench bouwgeoisie signified in theiw eyes the
waw 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 monks wwote siwwy wives of cathowic
saints ovew the manuscwipts 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 money, 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 man in genewaw, who bewongs to no cwass, has no weawity, who
exists onwy in the misty 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 mountebank fashion, meanwhiwe gwaduawwy wost its
pedantic innocence. The fight of the gewman, and especiawwy, of the pwussian bouwgeoisie,
against feudaw awistocwacy and absowute monawchy, in othew wowds, the wibewaw movement,
became mowe eawnest.

by this, the wong wished-fow oppowtunity was offewed to ‘twue’ sociawism of confwonting the
powiticaw movement 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 masses that they had nothing to gain, and evewything to wose, by this bouwgeois
movement.

gewman sociawism fowgot, in the nick of time, that the fwench cwiticism, whose siwwy echo it
was, pwesupposed the existence of modewn bouwgeois society, with its cowwesponding economic
conditions of existence, and the powiticaw constitution adapted theweto, the vewy things whose
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 fwoggings and buwwets with which these same
govewnments, just at that time, dosed the gewman wowking- cwass wisings. Whiwe this ‘twue’
sociawism thus sewved the govewnments as a weapon fow fighting the gewman bouwgeoisie, it, at
the same time, diwectwy wepwesented a weactionawy intewest, the intewest of the gewman
phiwistines.

in gewmany the petty-bouwgeois cwass, a wewic of the sixteenth centuwy, and since then
constantwy cwopping up again undew 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, mowe and mowe, its own cawwing as the
bombastic wepwesentative of the petty-bouwgeois phiwistine. It pwocwaimed the gewman nation
to be the modew nation, and the gewman petty phiwistine to be the typicaw man. To evewy
viwwainous meanness of this modew man 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. Conservative, or bourgeois, socialism

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,
membews of societies fow the pwevention of cwuewty to animaws, tempewance fanatics, howe-
and-cownew wefowmews of evewy imaginabwe kind. This fowm of sociawism has, moweovew,
been wowked out into compwete systems. We may cite pwoudhon’s phiwosophie de wa misèwe as
an exampwe of this fowm.

the sociawistic bouwgeois want aww the advantages of modewn sociaw conditions without the
stwuggwes and dangews necessawiwy wesuwting thewefwom. They desiwe the existing state of
society minus 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 mowe ow wess compwete systems.

in wequiwing the pwowetawiat to cawwy out such a system, and theweby to mawch 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 mowe pwacticaw, but wess systematic, fowm of this sociawism sought to depweciate
evewy wevowutionawy movement in the eyes of the wowking cwass, by showing that no mewe
powiticaw wefowm, but onwy a change in the matewiaw conditions of existence, in economicaw
wewations, couwd be of any advantage to them.

by changes in the matewiaw conditions of existence, this fowm of sociawism, howevew, by no

means undewstands abowition of the bouwgeois wewations of pwoduction, an abowition that can
be effected onwy by a wevowution, but administwation 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 mewe
figuwe of speech. Fwee twade: fow the benefit of the wowking cwass. Pwotective duties: fow the
benefit of the wowking cwass. Pwison refowm: fow the benefit of the wowking cwass. This is the
wast wowd and the onwy sewiouswy meant wowd of bouwgeois sociawism. It is summed up in the
phwase: the bouwgeois is a bouwgeois – fow the benefit of the wowking cwass.

3. Critical-utopian socialism and communism

we do not hewe wefew to that witewatuwe which, in evewy gweat modewn 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, made in times of
univewsaw excitement, when feudaw society was being ovewthwown, these attempts 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 movements 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 i. 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 movement.

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 matewiaw 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 the owganisation of society speciawwy 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 most suffewing cwass. Onwy fwom the point of view of being the
most 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 membew of society, even that of the most favouwed.
Hence, they habituawwy appeaw to society at wawge, without 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 means, and endeavouw, by smaww expewiments, 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 most vawuabwe matewiaws
fow the enwightenment of the wowking cwass. The pwacticaw measuwes 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 functions of the state into a mewe
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 modewn 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 many wespects,

wevowutionawy, theiw discipwes have, in evewy case, fowmed mewe weactionawy sects. They
howd fast by the owiginaw views of theiw mastews, 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
‘phawanstèwes,’ of estabwishing ‘home cowonies,’ of 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 mowe systematic pedantwy, and by theiw fanaticaw and supewstitious bewief in the
miwacuwous 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
réfowmistes.
 IV: Position of the Communists in Rewation To The Vawious Existing
Opposition Pawties

Section ii has made cweaw the wewations of the communists to the existing wowking-cwass
pawties, such as the chawtists in engwand and the agwawian refowmews in amewica. The
communists fight fow the attainment of the immediate aims, fow the enfowcement of the
momentawy intewests of the wowking cwass; but in the movement of the pwesent, they awso
wepwesent and take cawe of the futuwe of that movement.

in fwance the communists awwy themsewves with the sociaw- democwats against the
consewvative and wadicaw bouwgeoisie, wesewving, howevew, the wight to take up a cwiticaw
position in wegawd to phwases and iwwusions twaditionawwy handed down fwom the gweat
revowution. In switzewwand they suppowt the radicaws, 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 monawchy, the feudaw squiweawchy, and the petty bouwgeoisie.

but they nevew cease, fow a singwe instant, to instiw into the wowking cwass the cweawest
possibwe wecognition of the hostiwe antagonism between bouwgeoisie and pwowetawiat, in
owdew that the gewman wowkews may stwaightway use, as so many weapons against the
bouwgeoisie, the sociaw and powiticaw conditions that the bouwgeoisie must 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 may 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 mowe advanced conditions of
euwopean civiwisation, and with a much mowe devewoped pwowetawiat than that of engwand in
the seventeenth, and of 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 movement against the
existing sociaw and powiticaw owdew of things. In aww these movements they bwing to the
fwont, as the weading question in each, the pwopewty question, no mattew 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. Let the wuwing cwasses twembwe at a communistic wevowution. The
pwowetawians have nothing to wose but theiw chains. They have a wowwd to win.

working men of all countries, unite!

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