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Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The Communist Manifesto: main points explained and summarized

The Communist Manifesto includes an introduction, three main chapters and a chapter with conclusions. It begins with a famous phrase: " A ghost walks through Europe - the ghost of communism " and ends with the expression, no less known, " Proletarians of all countries, unite! ”

The Communist Manifesto claims that in human history, there has always been a class war. The upper class suppresses the lower class. The bourgeoisie measures each person according to what he gives. The bourgeoisie has run a contractual company. The hired laborer works in a monotonous job, the opposite of a person's desire to know as much as possible.

The results of the revolution: either the decline of both classes or a change in society. Assuming a change, a third class arose, which would one day seize power. This body will create a new historical dimension in relation to its predecessor, and will be built of two classes with an internal conflict, which will again give rise to a revolution and return This process is called a dialectical process - anything that exists now or in the past produces something new. The new will create something new that will change it as well.

Marx did not know how the revolution would happen but he knew it would happen. The proletariat has a group that understands the move and the historical necessity to rebel - a group called the Communists. Their role is to instill class consciousness in the proletariat. To organize them into a struggle. They will be the avant-garde (going forward) towards change. The workers must take over and change the bourgeoisie by abolishing the right to private property.

* Marx denies nationalism: Nationalism is a patent of the bourgeoisie to preserve their status. They argue that the country should be developed, but in practice the rich get richer and the poor become poorer.

* He also denies the utopian socialists , because they seek only minor amendments in favor of the workers within the existing framework, and do not seek to change it.

The main social changes provided for in the Manifesto of the Communist Party are:

1. Expropriation of land ownership and use of land rent to cover state expenses.
2. Strongly progressive tax.
3. Abolition of the right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state with the help of a national bank with state capital and exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of all means of transport in the hands of the state.
7. Increasing the number of state-owned factories, production tools, land clearing and improvement according to a general plan.
8. Equal obligation to work for all, the organization of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combining agricultural and industrial work, measures aimed at gradually removing the opposition between the village and the city.
10. Free public education for all children. Prohibition of factory work for children, in its current form. Combining education with material production, etc., etc.