The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, outlines how a society should be run under communism. The document provides truths to what is wrong with society; what causes these wrongs; how they can be fixed; and how this relates to humans and nature. Marx was a political philosopher of German ancestry. Marx and Engels split the document up into four sections: Section 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians, section 2: Proletarians and Communists, section 3: Socialists and Communist literature, and section 4: Positions of the Communists in relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties.

The first section, Bourgeoisie and Proletarians, focuses on the struggle between the classes created in society. Marx refers back to the Middle Ages to show how complicated the class system was. “In the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs…”(1) all made up different stratas of society. With all of these groups of different trades and economic stability, oppression was bound to happen. Society did not contain many groups and classes as in the middle ages. Society was formed from two basic groups, the Bourgeoisie and Proletarians. The bourgeoisie was a class constructed of people who owned property. These people were the wealthier half of society. The proletarians were those of the lowest class of society. Marx discusses how the bourgeoisie came to be such a strong member of society. This happened through the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution. New machinery changed all of industrial production. With these new advances, Marx describes that the middle class was destroyed and industrial millionaires resu...

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The fourth and final section, Positions of the Communists in relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties, talks about how communists work with different parties. Marx describes their relationship by stating that they try to find parties that hold similar beliefs. Communists try to find parties that believe in power to the working class and believe in the overthrowing of the bourgeoisie. Marx concludes by saying that the working class must unite and use force to overcome oppressors.

The Communist Manifesto, presents the basic beliefs of communism. Marx puts strong emphasis on the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. Marx believes that the proletarians must come together by recognizing that they are all alike and fight the bourgeoisie. Once this happens, then such oppressors will not hold down society as the bourgeoisie.

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