The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx

Marx also believed, like Parson’s, that family is a main contributor to the social system. He believed that family prepares the children for work in later life by teaching them to obey their parents like an employee would obey their boss. Marx views family as being important for the bourgeoisie

Marx begins by writing, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. (Jones, 219)” The existing society was divided between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat, as I stated before. The Bourgeoisie consisted of the social class who owns the means of production. The Proletariat consisted of wage-laborers who have no means of production of their own and they are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live (Jones 219). As you can see the bourgeoisie had the upper hand because they were the people who were mainly in charge of the proletariat. Marx believed that the

     Marx describes the problem in great detail in the first chapter. He feels there is a problem between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. The bourgeoisie were the oppressed class before the French Revolution and he argues that they are now the oppressors. The proletarians are the new working class, which works in the large factory and industries. He says that through mass industry they have sacrificed everything from the old way of religion, employment, to a man’s self worth and replaced it with monetary value. He is mad that the people of ole that use to be upper class such as skills man, trades people, & shopkeepers, are now slipping into the proletarians or working class. He

Marx viewed society as a conflict between two classes in competition for material goods. He looked at the history of class conflicts and determined that the coming of the industrial age was what strengthened the capitalist revolution. Marx called the dominant class in the capitalist society the bourgeoisie and the laborers the proletariat. The bourgeoisie owned or controlled the means of production, exploited laborers, and controlled the goods produced for its own needs. He believed that the oppressed class of laborers was in a position to organize itself against the dominating class. He felt that it was the course of nature, that is, it is the way that society evolves and that the communist society would be free of class conflict, "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Marx & Engels 1948, 37)

Revolutionary socialist Karl Marx believed that the economic calculation problem should be solved adopting a communist approach; he expressed his ideas in his most notable work “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848. Marx believed that capitalism should be replaced by socialism and eventually communism and it should be done through abolishing markets, prices and private property. To understand Marx’s ideas it is important to define capitalism socialism and communism. Capitalism can be defined as ‘an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state’. On the other hand socialism can be defined as ‘a political and economic theory of social organization, which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole’.

“to a mere money relation,” (Marx and Engels [1848] 2013:35]. Marx, saw the tear down of the old as the only way for the bourgeoisie to survive. Periodically, a crisis occurred where productive forces threatened their conditions and bourgeoisie would have to bring in new productive forces and destroy the old. Marx believed that these changes to technology and productive capacity were the main influence on how society and the economy were organized. The bourgeoisie had to push for the modern world to quickly and continually develop to protect capitalists’ monopolies. However, constant development caused continual disturbances of social conditions by breaking down stable aspects of human life. Capitalist used their power to push the world to advance so that they could prosper with no concerns to the possible effects on the economy, which would have been most detrimental to the proletariat. For Marx, this showed that capitalists’ self-interest pushed economic progress, which led to societal progress but also risked crisis. Capitalism not only affected society through the creation and separation of social classes but also in influencing societal progress and social relations.

Karl Marx witnessed first hand the rise of the industrial revolution and the beginning of capitalism. He also became one of capitalisms biggest critics. Marx believed that society needed a better way of distrusting wealth but also a better way a finding people’s full human potential or what he called “species-essence”. Marx believed that what we do connects to who we are, for example, work is what makes us human. It fulfills our species essence, as he puts it. Work allows us to be creative and flourish. However, in the 19th century Europe work did the quit opposite, it destroyed workers, particularly those who had nothing to sell but their labor. To the mill and factory owners a worker was simply an abstract idea with a stomach that needed to be filled. The workers had no choice but to work for long hours for a pathetic wage. Even worse, their labor alienated them. Alienation is a disorienting sense of exclusion and separation. Factory labor, under capitalism, alienated the workers from the product of their labor. They made stuff they couldn’t afford to buy themselves. The products they made were shipped out to other places far way to make money

As we know from Karl Marx, in “Communist Manifesto”, felt that society was divided into two, the haves (capitalist) and the haves-not. Marx felt that this was unfair and it would not work because there would be a constant struggle over resources between the two different groups. Karl Marx felt that this created a division between the two and essentially leads to the unfair and imbalanced distributions over wealth within a society that could stem and create many problems. Marx felt that there were many evils in the capitalist society some of which led to exploitation. One these evils were a surplus of labor. He felt that the bourgeoisie would acquire labor for less than their worth from individuals, which created an imbalance of worth. He felt

Marx’s primarily aims to explain how communism will free men, end the class struggle. The work argues that class struggles, and the exploitation of one class by another is the source of all inequality. Marx’s theories become one the motivating force behind all historical developments. The work strongly advocates the freedom of the proletariats which Marx’s claims can only be achieved when property and other goods cease to be privately owned. He see’s that private property has been a problem through out history, capital that aids the ruling class to maintain control. Marx argues that the lower class come together in a revolution and gain power and eventually take the power away from the upper class.

Karl Marx advocated that we should omit capitalism from society because it is crisis prone and produces internal tensions. With capitalism dominating the western world, modern work becomes alienated. In order to be fulfilled at work, Marx believed workers should see themselves in the work they have created. Modern work is incredibly concentrated, making the economy efficient by achieving maximum productivity with no room for wasted expense. This makes it impossible for any worker to attain a sense of genuine effort they are contributing to humanity. Workers feel disconnected from the completion of their everyday tasks and what they could potentially be producing to society. Another flaw Marx brings up about the capitalist system is that capitalism makes individuals easily replaceable “The middle class begins to sink into the proletariat… their specialized skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production,” (Marx 299). In the force of production, the second costs begin to rise, the necessity rate for laborers is lowered due to the fact that savings can be made through technology. Marx biggest concern is that capitalists reduce the wages of laborers as much as possible in order to achieve a high profit margin “The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of workers ever more fluctuating,” (Marx 300). Capitalism manipulate and pays workers lower wages for producing work that can be sold for a much higher price. A capitalist’s theory of profit comes as a reward for innovation and technological achievements. Marx sees this idea of profit as theft because capitalists are stripping their work force of creativity and hard labor.

There is deep substance and many common themes that arose throughout Marx’s career as a philosopher and political thinker. A common expressed notion throughout his and Fredrick Engels work consists of contempt for the industrial capitalist society that was growing around him during the industrial revolution. Capitalism according to Marx is a “social system with inherent exploitation and injustice”. (Pappenheim, p. 81) It is a social system, which intrinsically hinders all of its participants and specifically debilitates the working class. Though some within the capitalist system may benefit with greater monetary gain and general acquisition of wealth, the structure of the system is bound to alienate all its

Instead, the business owners made choices for them and used the workers for their own rewards. The bourgeoisie were the owners "the formation of the bourgeoisie public sphere was ideological to the extent that it secured the domination of one class over another."3 The problem with the bourgeoisie class was that they saw no wrong in their system because they reasoned it to be the right way. The owners controlled the means of production, but it was the people under them that actually knew what they were doing. The oppressed people were controlled by the oppressors and could not make decisions about the work they did, political matters, or equality in the workplace but held the responsibility of making the businesses successful. There was huge clashing between the workers and the owners because the owners made the choices while the workers were forced to take responsibility for them.

Although the relationship between the classes was based highly on economic standards set by society, Marx described the class relationships as social exploitation rather than an object of the labor market.5 Marx’s class relationship is described “in these two ways the worker becomes a slave to his object: firstly he receives an object of labor, that is he receives labor, and secondly, he receives the means of subsistence.”6 Marx believed that the Bourgeoisie would eventually lose its power to the working class, which would rebel against its exploitation and eventually bring about the creation of a middle class.

Marxists have very critical view of the family and society. They adopt a structural perspective, but put it in the class nature of the society. The starting point for the most Marxist analyses of gender and the family is Friedrich Engels’ (1820-1895) The Origin of the

Marx theories were in the time of the industrial revolution, where dramatic changes were happening such as the government passing enclosure acts in 1700’s and 1800’s, meaning that ordinary people no longer had the rights to live on some lands as the rich could now afford to buy them. This forced a growth in population in cities and towns and resulted in poorer families not being able to grow their own food but wold now must purchase it. Forcing men to go out and look for work. Few people owned factories, shops and businesses, and the employees would have no choice but to work very hard for minimal pay, something Marx was very much against. He believed that the industrial revolution promoted capitalist’s way of thinking and was a good way of keeping the rich rich, and the poor poor. Marx did also believe that one day the proletariat would rise and realise that they had the power to change this and overthrow those who treated them unfairly. Vladimer Lenin in The three sources and three component parts of Marxism (1913) also believed this was a possibility and hoped for this outcome. Engels in The origins of the family, private property and the state (1884), criticized Marx and said that the shift to private ownership had a huge effect on the status of the woman. Something Marx had not acknowledged. he states that because of the separation in class, women were now more controlled by men of the ruling class, giving a divide and gender oppression between the sexes as well as between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The men would be paid to go out to work but yet the women had to do domestic labour that was unpaid. The working man is also not treated fairly as his whole value is based upon his labour, Marx and Weber both agree on this, as In both theories man is never valued on his self-worth only on