Hon 172
Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Section I: Bourgeois & Proletarians:
The Main Claims:
1. Introduction: class struggle and increasing polarization;
and the terms, B & P
2. The emergence of bourgeois civilization or capitalism;
its rise to economic power; its conquest of political power.
3. The character of capitalist civilization—a world of
permanent revolution and creative destruction.
4. The repetition of the pattern: the birth of the proletariat;
polarization and the crises of overproduction; the prediction of proletarian
revolution, under "communist" leadership.
Section II: Proletarians and Communists:
The Main Claims:
1. Introduction: offers us the "communists" as the natural
leaders of proletarian parties.
2. And then you get the centerpiece of the section: Marx's
and Engels' brilliant handling of the counter-argument that communism poses
a threat to property, individual freedom, the family, work itself, and even
the "nation."
3. The radicalism of that section forms quite a contrast with
the ten startlingly familiar immediate demands of the communists, don't they?
4. But the notion of "an association in which the free
development of each is the condition for the free development of all" pretty
much speaks for itself, rather like "from each according to her ability,
to each according to her needs."
The most glaring weakness of Marx's predictions has to do with "nations."
Socialism has yet to master nationalism – to date, it is Capital that has
had the truly effective "International" reach.