When the Manifesto of the Communist Party was published by Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels in 1848, there were a number of important events occurring in Europe, and all over the rest of the world. The Industrial Revolution was the most important economic development of the 19th century, an ongoing transformation in how goods were produced and labor was accommodated that lasted for at least a century. The Manifesto of the Communist Party advocates for the proletariat (the working class), and key passages help understand the historical and cultural context of the time, shed light on the overall work and its importance, and are open to critique.
“The Communist Manifesto” is a pioneering work of economic and political theory. One of its key passages illuminates the historical period of the mid-19th century. From the Manifesto: ‘The bourgeois claptrap about the family and education, about the hallowed correlation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of modern industry, all family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor.’ (Marx & Engels). Thus, Marx and Engels show their contempt for the faux values of capitalism. A product of their times, Marx and Engels hold great contempt for the class divisions they viewed as deepening – as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and its constant need for capital. The Industrial Revolution was fueled by the ongoing flow of capital, in order to build, transport, and distribute goods to rapidly-growing urban areas. Thus, like many philosophers of their day, including Henry David Thoreau, they perceive the values of the Industrial Revolution, and the overnight growth of congested, polluted cities as far less than ideal circumstances for a “civil” society. Marx and Engels want to see a workers’ revolution where the workers own the means of production. Seventy year later, the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II, and the rise of the Communist Party in Russia fulfilled their vision.
Such a key passage shows how much spite the rest of the Manifesto has for the middle and upper classes of society. Not only do Marx and Engels hold capitalism responsible for the family’s dissolution, they point out that the bourgeoisie are so insulated by their well-to-do status that they are able to extol the virtues of the good life to the lower class, but show no goodwill to the have-nots. Meanwhile, the middle class does the bidding of the upper class, and in the process, destroys the family unit of the lower class – turning their families upside down in the machinery of capitalism.
While Marx and Engels are clearly wrong about the duration of the workers’ revolution, their manifesto points out many of the flaws of capitalism in a prophetic manner. However, it is now the middle class of America has been gutted by the upper classes through tax policies, income inequality, and government corruption at every level. Moreover, just as communism lost its steam in the 20th century, we are now, just as Engels and Marx predicted, witnessing the demise of no-holds barred capitalism.
Capitalism still demands wage slavery, and the ownership has a steady source of wage slaves in the Orient, as constant war rages on the planet in the name of environmental exploitation, and modern colonialism. Marx and Engels dialectic materialism is just as applicable to modern-day capitalism as it was to feudalism. Seemingly, the only difference is that the names have changed. Communism may have been a miserable experiment, but laissez-faire capitalism, as Marx and Engels point out, is devoid of family and cultural values. Instead, as Marx and Engels remarked more than 150 years ago, industry’s goal is to destroy such basic human values.
Work Cited
Marx, Karl, & Engels, Frederick. “The Manifesto of the Communist Party.” Feb. 1848. Web. 24 Jun. 2016.
