The Communist Manifesto

The communist manifesto is a document published on 21 February 1848 by Karl Marx and Friederich Engels, commissioned by the communist league and laid out the league’s purposes and program.

The manuscript was very influential in it’s time, acting as an attempt to explain the aims and ideas of communism. Although it was Engels who first pursued the piece when he was elected into the communist league in 1847, the manuscript itself was mainly the works of Marx. The manifesto was first known to the Uk when it was first published in London by a group of German political refuges in 1848.

The main claim of the manifesto is that across Europe, communism is feared, but not understood and thus communists ought to make their views known with a manifesto, in order for those opinions to made with a fair judgement – with the theory of freedom of speech, you can’t complain can you?

So the communists began their pursuit and outlined their main values. One of the most infamous discussions that take place in the manifesto is the debate between the Proletariat and the Bourgeois, which in all fairness sums up what the communist league is all about.

The proletariat is a lower social class – their only wealth being their sons. This represents a capitalist society that does not have ownership of the means of production and whose only subsistence is to sell their labour power for a wage or salary.

The Bourgeois on the other are a social class characterised by their ownership of capital and their related culture. Unlike the proletariat, they own their means of production. Marxism views this group as emergent are from wealthy urban classes and also constantly exploiting the proletariats for their manual labour and cheap wages. However, Marxists also believed that proletariats would rise to a greater power. Although even in this century we have not seen this come to play straight away, the modern day proletariats and bourgeois are seen more as equals and having their own special way of contributing to society, despite the idea that we do not live in a communist society.

I personally thought that I would never agree with a communist party but I am defiantly supporting the rise of the proletariat, maybe because out of the two, I would place myself into this category, much like other students would!