“The Communist Manifesto”

by

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles

A Book Review

The Communist Manifesto is a political pamphlet that was written and published by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. The document was originally known as The Manifesto of the Communist Party. It provides an outline as to how society should be run under the rule of communism. The Communist Manifesto “introduced their concept of socialism as a natural result of the conflicts inherent in the capitalist system.”¹ The focus of this “Manifesto,” however, concerns the class structure of society, capitalism, and the capitalist ways involving production as opposed to expounding on communism and its future. The document begins with a short preamble and then it is divided into four sections: section 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians, section 2: Proletarians and Communists, section 3: Socialist and Communist Literature, and section 4: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties.²

In the first section, titled “Bourgeois and Proletarians,” Karl Marx viewed the structure of society as a function of its major classes and the struggle between these classes. In the first chapter of the “Manifesto,” he states that “in the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank.”³ He also explains that each of the class struggles throughout history such as the “freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another.”⁴ During his time, Marx saw society as being split between two great classes, the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat. Also, a class, according to Marx, is defined as the ownership of property, which gives the owner the power to disregard others from the property and enable the owner to use it for personal purposes.

In section two, titled “Proletarians and Communists,” the bourgeois are defined as those who own the means of production such as the machinery and factory buildings, and their source of income is profit. The proletariat are those who own their labor and sell it for wages. In this way, a class is determined by property and not be income or status. Marx perceived the struggle between classes was previously limited to individual properties, but as capitalism matured, there eventually appeared a growing disparity between the social conditions of the bourgeois and the proletariat. This class conflict was displayed at the societal level, and the struggle for political power ensues. At this point, classes become political forces. Political power is then determined by power overproduction, which is capital, and because conditions for the exploited worker declines so much that a proletarian revolution occurs. The triumph of the workers will eliminate class division of property through public ownership through production. What results from all of this is a classless society.⁵

 

Section three and four of the “Manifesto” distinguished communism from other opposition movements and parties of the time, setting it apart from socialism. The important thing here is the assertion that communism does not aim to make the system better but to simply change it altogether. This, of course, can be achieved by overthrowing capitalism and to make way for the new era of a classless society.

The Three Phases Necessary to Achieve Marx’s Utopia⁶

Phase 1: The existing government must be overthrown by means of a revolution. Marx specified a complete destruction of the entire system in order to move on to phase 2.

Phase 2: A leader must emerge in order to gain control over the proletariat. In this phase, the new government exerts absolute control over the citizens’ personal choices. This includes religion, education, employment, and even marriage. Also, there has to be a collectivization of personal property and wealth.

Phase 3: Here utopia is attained, but in the real world, this has never happened. In order to achieve this, all non-communists must be destroyed for the Communist Party to accomplish its goal of supreme equality. This means a one-class system where property and wealth are shared by all. The government would control all of the production to keep everything at status quo. 

The Catholic Church’s Teachings Regarding Socialism

            In his encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII discussed the situation of the poor and workers in the industrialized nations. He addressed the destitution of the masses and the wealth of a few by stating “the vast expansion of industrial pursuits and the marvelous discoveries of science; in the changed relations between masters and workmen; in the enormous fortunes of some few individuals, and the utter poverty of the masses.”⁷ He stated that “to remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man’s envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies.”⁸

The Pope argued that this was wrong and it would cause workers to suffer first. He defined property or capital simply as another form of wages. This means then that socialism assaults the heart of what labor is for, which is the free use of what one has earned. In addition, he asserts that the socialist principle in contradiction of private property counters the virtue of justice because private property is a natural right. Also, permanent possession of things is part of human life, which extends into the future as well.

Pope Pius XI also spoke against the rise of socialism as an economic system in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. He stated that God created economic activity to serve humanity, not humanity to serve the economy. Moral laws are what guide the actions in the economic compass, in the same manner, it does in everything else. In economics, men should not seek to consider only individual interests, but also the common good.⁹

According to St. John Paul II in his encyclical Laborem Exercens, he states that “as a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process; independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity.”¹⁰ Additionally, since work is personal, it should also be respected. John Paul II articulates that “human work has an ethical value of its own which clearly and directly remain linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a person, a conscious and free subject, that is to say a subject that decides about himself.”¹¹

Conclusion

The theory that Marx and Engels developed should be understood in the context of the difficulties that were suffered during the 19^th century. The Industrial Revolution produced a situation upon which the wealth was distributed to a very few while most people lived in poverty under horrible working conditions and with little to no political representation. The system seems to work in theory, but not necessarily in practice.

It seems that time and history have invalidated the assumptions and predictions of Marx concerning the class conflict. The capitalist ownership and control of production have been separated. Most of the industrial sector is controlled by managers who do not own capital, and these companies are formed by joint stock companies. Furthermore, workers have been divided and subdivided based on the different skillsets rather than being standardized. Instead of an increase in extreme wealth and poverty, we see more social mobility and the expansion of a large middle class. We also see that the strike has been established through collective bargaining and the legalization of strikes also, which have been the most severe demonstration of conflict between the workers and capitalist. There is definitely value in what Marx purports throughout history, but it is not necessarily as clear-cut as he claims. It seems that Marx was able to diagnose some of the ills of capitalist societies, but his remedies did not work and were probably much worse than the social ills he diagnosed, mainly because of the loss of liberty, which is apparent in the abolishment of private property.

The fundamental thing is the need for religion. It is only in living the Gospel that can eliminate evil at its root. The Church will always remain faithful in helping those in society that are in need and defending their rights. In considering the dignity of the worker, we must remember that although man is called to work, it is work that is for man, not the other way around. The subjective meaning of work must have priority over the objective meaning of work. Prioritizing the objective meaning of work means that the goods and services produced are valued over the individual who produced them. This denies the dignity of the person and treats him as the means to a purely material end.

Endnotes

¹ "Karl Marx - Facts & Summary." HISTORY.com. Accessed April 26, 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/karl-marx.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ "How Communism Works." HowStuffWorks. Last modified February 25, 2008. https://people.howstuffworks.com/communism1.htm.

⁷ "Rerum Novarum (May 15, 1891) | LEO XIII." Vatican. Accessed April 8, 2018. http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html. § 1.

⁸ Ibid, § 4.

⁹ "Quadragesimo Anno (May 15, 1931) | PIUS XI." Vatican. Accessed April 8, 2018. http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html. § 49.

¹⁰ "Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981) | John Paul II." Vatican. Accessed April 8, 2018. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html. § 6.

¹¹ Ibid.