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The Communist Manifesto

History
The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. In 1847, Engels helped organize the Communist League in London; the following year, he and Marx drafted a statement of principles for the group, Manifesto of the Communist Party. It was written throughout the hardships suffered by nineteenth century workers in France, England and Germany. An apparent underclass of workers was happening during this time of the Industrial revolution, where people worked in terrible conditions with little, if any, political representation. This was written on the beginnings of the Revolution of 1848 in Germany. It was the later failure of this student run worker revolution that inspired Marx to go on to revise some of the statements made in the Manifesto. However, the structure of its original work has generally remained the same, including the familiar revolutionary tone.

Discussion Questions -Why do classes emerge in society? Should there be class distinctions in
society? Are some people better than others?
the whole history of mankind has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that the history of these class struggles form a series of evolutions in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached where the exploited and oppressed class--the proletariat--cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class--the bourgeoisie--without at the same time, and once and for all, emancipating society at large from all the exploitation, oppression, class distinction, and class struggles. (p.6)

-What is the best kind of economy to have? Do free markets and capitalism work? Could a planned or centralized economy work? What kind of economic system benefits the greatest number of people?
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his natural superiors, and has left no other nexus between people than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment... It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. (p.11)

-What is the best political system to live under? Does democracy work? Could communism ever work? Is there some better alternative?
A spectre is haunting Europe -- the spectre of communism. (p.3) Whatever portion of the working class had become convinced of the insufficiency of mere political revolutions, and had proclaimed the necessity of a total social change, called itself Communist. (p.5) It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. (p.21) The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. (p.21) Interesting Quotes The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air. (p.20) The guild-masters were pushed aside by the manufacturing middle class; division of labor between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labor in each single workshop. (p.10) The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere..The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization...In one word, it creates a world after its own image. (p.12-13)

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