Marx, Chapter II: Proletariats and Communists

Larry Boothe

Blog Post #4

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Chapter II: “Proletariats and Communists”

Marx contends that, most important to a Communist society, there is a need to abolish private property. However, he distinguishes property acquired directly through a man’s labor from bourgeois private property. The first kind of property, Marx claims, hardly exists because it has already been abolished by industry. The only “property” belonging to the proletariat is based on the exploitation of capital and wage labor. Wage labor simply creates capital which, in turn, is the “property” that exploits wage labor. This is the property of the bourgeoisie. Bourgeoisie private property is described as, “the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few”(805). Thus, in a capitalist society the bourgeoisie own all means of production, preventing the proletariat from having any way to provide for himself. In a pure Communist society all business and industry would be owned by the people, or nationalized, for the benefit of the citizen and party alone. While this lifestyle does seem ideal, it doesn’t seem to take into account the individual, along with his culture, religion, and ideology. Marx’s narrow focus is on the economic theme of class struggle. The lifestyle would be hard to maintain because the proletariat would be more vulnerable to exploitation than before. He would be completely dependent on the machine itself rather than the products of the machine. Once labor can no longer be converted to capital, the individuality of the person vanishes. A cultureless society would emerge. This would surely not endure for a long time until some one, or group, would dissent and challenge the party’s views. Since everyone is equal and can not subjugate another there would be no way to calm dissenters, and regime change would be very easy.