Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

February 1848

Bourgeois & Proletarians:class struggle

• Class struggle shapes history, as it always has• Although all previous historical periods featured social divisions

between ruling and subordinate orders, the capitalist mode of production simplifies class divisions into "two hostile camps": • a ruling class that owns the means of production (bourgeoisie) • a subordinate class (proletariat) that lacks the means of production

and the ability to sustain itself without selling its labor power to the ruling class

• Simplified class divisions sharpen class consciousness

Bourgeois & Proletarians:economics and politics

• As the bourgeoisie advanced economically, it also advanced politically

• "The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” (55)• Government represents the interests of the ruling class,

regardless of its claims to act in the general interest• To simplify: economic relations politics

secularization, globalization, urbanization

• Capitalism promotes secularization and materialism:• All previous social bonds – to family, religion, nation, tradition,

etc. – are replaced by the “cold cash nexus"

• Capitalism promotes globalization: • "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products

chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe."

• Capitalism promotes urbanization:• Forces people to leave rural areas and look for work as wage

laborers in cities • "The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the

towns."

Crisis

• Due to its inherent contradictions, capitalism is prone to periodic crises, each one more threatening to the system than the last

• There develops an "epidemic of over-production," a glut of commodities that no one buys

Over-production of oranges, Hapolis, Brazil

Bourgeois & Proletarians:proletarianization

• Workers who must sell their labor in the market become just another commodity

• As the use of machines and the division of labor intensifies, work loses all individual character and charm for the worker• “He becomes an appendage of the machine…”

• The industrial factory comes to be organized more and more despotically, in an almost military fashion

• The lower strata of the middle class sink gradually into the proletariat, due to relative lack of investment capital and

de-skilling (deterioration of specialized skills)

Stencil graffiti expresses themes found in Marx’s writings