The communist manifesto that was published in 1848 for the communist league which was considered the first Marxist political party. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels were members of the league and thus are the ones who drafted the communist manifesto. It was written at the time in history when communism was developing. The prime objective of writing it was to establish a foundation on which the existing classes, the working and socialism, could be united since they were different and sometimes hostile to each other as each of the classes struggled for control and power over the society at that time (Marx and Engels).
The manifesto was authored at an era when the bourgeoisie and the proletariat were in direct opposition of each other as the proletariats who were socially under the bourgeoisie strived to gain control and abolish the existing system which they considered not suitable. At that time, the bourgeoisie were the ones who owned most of the property where the proletariats worked in and paid them and hence they were considered too powerful by the workers in their properties. Karl Marx referred the bourgeoisie as the wealthy top level and property owners at that time who were considered powerful and hence could no longer be controlled. In the manifesto he explains this class “a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, it is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world when he has called up by his spells”. The proletariat, on the other hand, were the rapidly rising industrial working class at that time who work for the bourgeoisie (Marx and Engels).
The conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat originated from the ancient society where the wealthy people at that time oppressed slaves to work for them and hence accumulated wealth. As time went on new technologies were invented and the existing market forces grew stronger hence the middle class who initially owned very little property gained resources from trade and agriculture thus had capital to acquire properties and thus started to challenge the existing leaders. A new struggle emerged between the bourgeoisie and proletariat over control as the bourgeoisie were considered too powerful hence not suitable.
The conflict between these two classes was inevitable as it was based on exploitation and class struggle where the bourgeoisie depended on the proletariat as a source of their profits from the sale of goods produced by the proletariats and the proletariat depended on the bourgeoisie for income from salaries paid from the employments at the industries. The profit the bourgeoisie earned was from the less amount of money they paid the proletariat compared to the high value of the goods they were producing. The proletariats viewed this as exploitation hence started to reject it thus leading to the conflict.
Marx explains that the goal of the proletariats was to displace the capitalist system with the proletariats’ system where the social relationships underpinning the class systems where to be abolished and then developing a communist society where there was free development for all, on the other hand the bourgeoisie who supported capitalism theory believed for the theory to be successful there must be an underpinned social class to be exploited hence did not accept communism.
The proletariats began to fight for their rights through organizing go-slows and sabotage in their places of work. They also formed worker's unions to assist them advocate their rights. The bourgeoisie in return started fining the workers and fired the uncooperative workers in an effort to break these workers unions and avoid strikes. The main reasons why the struggle intensified were polarization between the classes, a growing deprivation and wretchedness of the proletariat and declining rates of profit for the bourgeoisie. The proletariats knowing the need for collective ownership of property came together confronted the police, overthrew capitalism and took over means of production, a process which Marx termed as dictatorship of the proletarians (Marx and Engels).
The conflict continued over a period where many workers unions were formed, and the workers organized boycotts and go-slows in their workplaces. The strikes were considered violent by the owners of the factories hence the police were often called to stop the strikes and minimize damage and thus this led to the workers battling directly with the police leading to death of some workers. The owners also imposed fines on the workers after they resumed work and fired the main perpetrators of these strikes in an effort to control the occurrence of future strikes however the activities of the proletariats began to be successful as more workers joined these unions and the capitalist society started to collapse due to the damages caused by non-cooperation of the workers in the factories.
The proletariats succeeded in overthrowing the bourgeoisie and thus they took over means of production and class struggle continued against the remnants of the bourgeoisie until all classes were finally abolished and a new classless communist society was established where land, industry, labor were shared between all people (Marx and Engels).
Works Cited
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto-A Modern Edition. New York: Verso books, 2012. Printed.
