Analysis of the Communist Manifesto and the importance of the 4 chapters
Introduction
Through 32 pages, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels declare, in 4 summary chapters, the bases and ideas that govern communism, as well as the change that seeks and how it plans to obtain it. For this reason, this is one of the most read books in history.
It is necessary to know that the manifesto of the Communist Party must be treated, as thought, as a kind of brochure;This, the thickness and true importance of Karl Marx’s economic and political ideas is found in the 3 volumes that make up the magnum opus of him: Das Kapital (Capital). However, the communist manifesto should not be subtracted, since it is through this that Marx’s revolutionary ideas expanded to the target class: workers, people without education and little heritage that dedicated much of their lifeto sell its force to capitalist through the industry.
In this essay, it will be reviewed that composes the 4 chapters, the importance of these for the working class and, in turn, it is intended to answer the following questions: Is the communist manifesto a book with ideas relevant to the modern world andcurrent era? And if so, how would that interpretation under the paradigms posed by the 21st century?
Developing
The book begins in an attractive and captivating way, challenging the reader to think and analyze about a spectrum, "the spectrum of communism" according to Marx’s words, the one that transcended by the heavens from his native Germany to all of Europe;In turn, it celebrates two great milestones of its current: being considered an important threat to the states of several countries, and that already has supporters who are not afraid to support it externally and to everyone who listens to. From there, we proceed to the first chapter, about the bourgeois and proletarians: this is where Marx makes the reader known the "class struggle" that, according to him, governs the whole story (giving examples such as the patricians and commoners in Rome,and the feudal lords and farmers in the Middle Ages);It is in this way that he introduces his theory to the time he lived, with the bourgeois (oppressive class) and the proletariat (oppressed class).
Comments on how the discovery of new routes for commerce or America allowed the free expansion and strengthening of capitalism, which was supplanting feudalism. This also brought with it, the notorious and very rapIndustry, commerce, navigation, railroads were dilated, the bourgeoisie developed, their capitals grew, it was displacing and vanating all the inherited classes of the Middle Ages ”(the communist manifesto, p3). Marx noticed in industrialization the death of feudalism and its class system.
But what system supplant to feudal classes? The bourgeois, capitalist and hard towards others and himself, because he was the capitalist who reduced everything to the value of the currency, destroying his convictions and moral principles to lay the foundations of a metal tintineo wherever he arrived, because it is this tintineoIn summation that makes him respected in front of other capitalists. Something that Marx highlights as the importance of the revolution that brings the bourgeoisie is just its constant evolution towards better forms of gain and exploitation of the proletariat, obtained through a constant and agitated displacement of production, by the uninterrupted commotion of all relations of all relationssocial, for an endless restlessness;This endlessly forces the bourgeois "to contemplate his life and his relationship with others" (the communist manifesto, P4). In summary, Marx considered that the need to find markets moved the bourgeoisie to carry out settlements and commercial relations around the world, or not the civilization they visited, the bourgeois achieved their mission and expanded more and more the free market and competition, thus they had to destroy the local economy of artisans or the small, rural (useless, therefore) cities.
It is under these ideas that Marx introduces a reason for his contempt to the system: capitalism is not expansive in a friendly way, it is conqueror, subjecting the field to the empire of the city, creating huge cities, intensifying the urban population in a strong proportion and startingto a considerable part of the people of the rural life field. This, according to Marx, led to a political centralization regime where independent territories and with little or no relationship, with different interests, different laws and governments and customs lines, were associated and plunged into a unique nation, under a unique government with aUnique Law that pursued a unique national interest in a single customs line. It is under this centralized government that the worker is treated as a merchandise anyone subject to all changes, modalities and fluctuations of the market;subtracting value and initiative from the proletarian worker.
Then, the second chapter is reached, of the proletarians and the communists: here it portrays the interrelation and importance of both classes, both being the same, being the most remarkable difference that the communist is the most determined part given that they always stand out and claimThe common and peculiar interests of the entire proletariat of the whole world, and in which whatever the stage in which the class struggle moves maintain the approach of the communist movement: “Form the class consciousness of the proletariat, overthrow the regime ofthe bourgeoisie and take the proletariat to the conquest of power ”(the communist manifesto, P13). But this abolition of private property carries with it the abolition of bourgeois private property, which is the largest expression of production and appropriation of what is produced by exploiting the proletariat in its surplus value. It intends, then, the capitalist as a use of his position to enjoy more than the proletariat of social power (capital) that he creates. And how did the creative worker of this capital thank? With the minimum wage that only covered the sum of food necessary to sustain the continuous work of the employee, all according to the interest of how the bourgeois class that live the lower class intends;regime that communism aspires to destroy, because they considered that private property was in essence, only 1/10 part of the population, the bourgeois owners of capital, and everyone who was not bourgeois was treated as a simple production.
Once this is treated, the third chapter, socialist and communist literature:
- Feudal socialism: where the French and English aristocracy dedicated himself to writing against the modern bourgeois society. To gain sympathies, the aristocracy "forget" its bourgeois interests and accuse the same bourgeoisie under the flag of the interest of the working class;in order to provoke the adversary with threats and disturb him by writing more or less catastrophic prophecies. Being a mixture of lament, echo of the past and rumor deaf del Porvenir;A socialism that, although it gave its atino and blows to the new system, almost always caused penalty for its total misunderstanding of the march of modern history.
- Small-bourgeois socialism: it occurred in countries where the industry did not reach a sufficient level of development, but a certain degree of progress compared to the fief. This society, when the industry was developed, lost its value or substance, being supplanted in commerce, in manufacturing and agriculture. He took as a rule to criticize the bourgeois regime, the interests of the little bourgeois and the peasants sympathizing for the working cause with the ideology of the little bourgeoisie;more only seeks to restore the old means of production with its traditional regime of property and society.
- German socialism: his concern was to relate the new French ideas with his old philosophy, this through translation. German writers used French literature as they adjusted their philosophy to the original, giving cases such as the original idea criticized money, they exhibited it as the "expropriation of the human being", among others. However, this socialism tried not to deal with the French criticism that spoke of its past as a country, presupposing the existence of modern bourgeois society, with its peculiar living conditions and political organization;Thus, proclaiming the German nation as a model and the German governed as the exemplary type of man, hiding their deficiencies and vices under a socialist sense.
- Conservative socialism: It sought to mitigate social injustices in order to guarantee the survival of bourgeois society. Formed by economists, philanthropos and humanitarian, they considered ideal the living conditions of modern society without the struggles or dangers that led to. His ideal is bourgeois society without the proletariat, representing, as well as the best of possible systems;For this he invites the proletariat to reject any revolutionary movement telling him that what interests are not those political changes, but certain improvements in the material and economic conditions of his life. All bourgeois socialism can be reduced to the bourgeois must continue to be with the support of the working class.
- Critical-utopian communism: It happens when the proletariat collides with its lack of development and the absence of the material conditions for its emancipation, thus creating a reactionary, clumsy and vague literature;And although the class struggle and the action of the solvent elements created by the ruling society, do not agree to see in the proletariat their own political movement, be treated rustically. In turn, they lack the industry to emancipate their class, and are dedicated to wasting time creating social science and social laws. In summary, for them the course of history is encased in propaganda for a practice execution of its social plans, the revolution by the peaceful and quasi-fantastic route.
Finally, the fourth chapter will be analyzed, of the attitude of the communists in front of other opposition parties: it is in the end when Marx defines the relations of the communist with the other existing workers’ parties, with the English cartists and with the agrarian reformers. Declares that communists represent a future within social movements. Whether in France, Switzerland, Poland or Germany, all other parties treated by the author alienated the democratic-socialist party against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie;And although contradictory or totality are contradictory to their ideas under the magnifying glass of communism, the author exalts the intention to revolutionize behind all those movements, since he reaffirms his theory while approaches and numbs more and more the basis of what that communism will beWhat was so looking for. And it is due to their quality and work of workers, that his conscience is vindicated from time to time to starThe spirit of revolution that capitalism itself creates in its subordinates, thus following the words of Marx "capitalism creates its sepulores".
In short: Communists support all the revolutionary movements that arise against the dominant social and political regime, this criticism is born from the desire for a communion and intelligence of the democratic parties of all countries. Proud of not hiding their ideas and interests, the communists declare their head high that violence is necessary to overthrow the social order that dominates them, demanding the capitalist bourgeois to be frightened and trembled by their threats, because it is a matter of time of timethat the definitive revolution happens and start of power, because the workers of the world have nothing more than their chains to lose and the world to win.
conclusion
Through the past pages there was a summary of the issues presented by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the Communist Party Manifesto;Small book, with the analyzed version with only 32 pages, since as stated in the introduction, it intended to reach the illiterate and little cult proletariat of Europe. Knowing your ideas will allow you to answer the introductory questions of the essay: Is the communist manifesto a book with ideas relevant to the modern world and current time? And if so, how would that interpretation under the paradigms posed by the 21st century?
The communist manifesto remains relevant to our ideas since it exposes the last milethat the revolution through weapons allows to overthrow the exploiting system of worker’s surplus value. That idea can, contemporary society, take it to a chest and initiate a violent revolution, to look for it through peace and diplomacy (as the critical-utopian communism poses) or interpret it under other foci to obtain different results applied in different objectives applied in different objectives in different objectivesin tune with the liberation of the proletariat. Under the 21st century, he reiterates, everyone is free to interpret the manifesto as he wishes;Although always respecting the rights of the proletariat like those of a known appreciated, since the entire middle class and lower class is the one that loads the work force of the world, which makes them the true economic and political power of the globe.
Bibliography
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. (1848). Manifesto of the Communist Party. Germany: Marx-Engels
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