The Communist manifesto of 1848

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Part of Socialism today

Title: The Communist manifesto of 1848
Language: English
Source: Socialism today August 1936
Year: 1936
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Fulltext: August; 19.86 SOCIALISM TODAY JHE COM.MUNISI l'ANIFESTO· Of 1848 By KARL MARX and FRIEDRICH ENGELS (Cont. from las'i iss~.) • again by the competition between the workers ·themselves. ·But it ever rises At -this· stage, therefore, the proleta- up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It rians; do not 'fight their -~nemies, but the compels legislative recognition of pare enemies· qf · \heir enemies, . the remnants ticular interests of the workers by taltof absolute ·monarchy, the landowners, , ing ~dvantage of the divisions among the the pon-.i:ndustrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie itself. ~Thus the ten hours' bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical bill in England was carried. 'movement is concentrated in the hand~ qf Altogether collisions between the .clasthe bourgeoisie, every victory so obtained ses of the, old society further, in many i~ a victQry for the bourgeoisie.- ' ways, the course of development of the Page 7 their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are tl~erefore ·not ~ev~ lutionary, but conservative. N"ay more; they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance they are revolutionary, they are so only, in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not_ their present, but their fµture interests; they desl!rt their own. standpo-int to place themselves at that Of the proletariat. The "dangerous class," the social s_cum, that passively rotting mass thrown off. by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there, be swept into the· movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far niore for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. In' the conditions of the proletariat, those of the old society at large are ·already virtually swamped. The proleta.rian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations; modern industrial labor, modern subjection to capital, the same But with the d~v'elopment qf industry proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself the proletariat Rot only increases in num- involved in a constant· battle. At first her; i{lfr beco_mes concentrated in greater with the a,ristocracy; !liter on, with those masses, its strength grows and it feels portions of the bourgeoisie itself whose that strength 'more. The various inter- interests have become antagonistic to the ests and coriditions of. life within the progress of industry; at an· times, with ra,nks ·of. the prolet.arjat are more and the bourgeoisie·. of fore\gn countries. In more equalized, in proportion as machin- all these battles it sees itself compelled ·ery obliterates all distinc(ions of labor, 'to ap.peal to the· proletariat, to ask for and nearly everywhere reduces wages to its help, and thus, to drag it into the pothe s'i"me low level. The giowing com- litical arena. The bourgeoisie. itself, petition among the bourgeois, ana the re- therefore, supplies the proletariat with su-lting commercial . cr1s1s,· make the its OWi\ elements ·Of ·political and general wages of ·the workers ever more flue- education; in other words, it furnishes iuating. The increasing improvement of the proletariat with weapons for fighting ,machinery, ever more rapidly developing, the bourgeoisie. · in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, 'morality, religiol'l, are to him SQ many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as. many bourgeois interests. makes their livelihood more and more Furth~r, as we have already seen, enprecarious; the. collisions between tndi- tire' sections of the ruling classes are, ,11idual workmen and incwvidual bourgeoi!L by the advance of industry, precipitated take more and more the character of col- into the proletariat, or are at least lii:.ions between t"'o classes. Thereupon . threatened in their conditions of existthe workers begin to form combinations e.nce. These also ~supply the proleta(Trades ·Unions) against the'bourgeois; riat_ with fresh elements of enlightenthey club together in order to keep up ment and progre!!S· · the rate of wages; they ·found perma- Finally, in times when the class-strugnent associations ii;,i order to make pro- gle nears the decisive hour, the process vision _before hand for these o~casiona.l of dissolution going on within the riling revolts: Here and there the· contest class-in fact, wit_hin the whole range breaks out into riots. of an old society-assumes ·such a violent, Now and then the workers arj! victo- glaring character that a small section of ~ious, but only for a time... The real the ruling class ·cut. sitsel:{ adrift and fruit of tJieir battle lies not in the im- 'joins the revolutionary class, the class .mediate result but in the' ever-expand- that holds the future in its hands, Just ing union 'of workers. This union•is as, th'erefore, at· an earlier period; a. sechelped on py the improved means <>f com- tion of the nobility went over to the bourmunication that are created by Modern .geoisie, so now a portion of the bourIndustry, and tqat places tM w~rkers of geoisie goes· over to the proletariat, arid different localities in contac~ with one in particular, a· portion of the bourgeois another. It was just this contact that ·ideologists, who have rajsed themselyes was· needed to centralize the numerous to the level of comprehending theoretical- · .:1C1Cal struggles,. all of the same character, ly the historical movements as a whole. int• one national struggle between clu- Of all the classes that stand face to ses.. But every class struggle is a poli- . :face with the bourgeoisie to-day the protical struggle. And that· uniQn, to at- letariat alone is.:. a reaily r~volutionary taJ~ which: th!l-> burghers· of ·~he Middle' ·cla'Ss. Theother'classee deca-y and finalJ\tes :With; tQ.e1r mi~er&ble hiihwayll' re- ly .llisappear i~ . the face of modern in~wru centu~1el!,· t.lle mode:fu ,proiMar ·.dll'Qtry; ~he proleta.~iat is it~ ~p~ial and _,rja\1.s, tl;ia'n\s · to ll&il)"~Y8• a.Cbleve in a ·· esst!ntial product. · ' • r8w.Jre&l'J!;. '' :, ' ' '· ' ' ' ' The lower. middle ;elaeis, the 'timall' ,; 'l'hi& orga11izat~on :of tile: prol~tarians · manUlact-twel'; the· shopkeeper; the arti. inw:;ii. ~ .. ~and con~eq.:tllil~tlt:· ~to. a. ;p."' ~··· sal1, •the. pe~sa11t, all these ftght· jgainlt lfticii.1. pfi.?.ty, is c»~··:~ lUlae\ • th(!; boil~g~ ~ ii&• fn'm extinetion All the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to fortify their. already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of approp1:iation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their own to secure and to fort!fy; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for and insurances of individ. ual property. All previous historical movements were mo\rements of' minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proleta'riap movement is the selfconscious, independ-• ent movement of .the immense majol'ity. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being' sprun~ into the air. Though not in substance, yet pi fqrrn, the struggle of the proletariat with_ the· bourgeoisie is at first a national strug-. gle. The proletariat 'of each .country must, of course,•first of all settle ·niat: te'rs w{th its own bourgeoisie: In depicting the most general phases of the development of· the · proletariat, we traced the more o'.r less veiled civil' war; raging within existing ~ociety; up to the point where the war breitks out (CCmtim&ed· ,on: nuzt· JX!,U6) Page 8 The· Communist Manifesto._. (Continued from page 7) into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie, lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. Hitherto every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at least, contin.ue its slavish existence. 'The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He bec.9mes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose . its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule, because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie; in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage labor. Wage labor rests exclusive-. ly on competition between the laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labarers, due to competition, by their involuntary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very .foundation on which the bourgeoisie prdduces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. II. Proletarians and Communists -In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole? The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other workingclass parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as -a whole. They do not set up any sectarian· prin-. ciples· of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian inovement. The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by SOCIALISM TODAY The Soviet Style .. (Continued- from pai;e &) has been. done· and on the le~gt~- of time the person has worked. Preference is. given to those who -have been ihcapacitated as a result of occupational accident or di.sease. Such persons if they are completely incapacitated receive 100 per cent of their former wage, no matter how short' or how long a,, time they have been working. Should the degree of a person's dtsability change, he Is transferred to a different invalid group and the pension is adjusted accordingly. , Old age pensions as such· 011ly began to be paid in 1928. Before ~hat time,_ people who were incapacitated by old age were taken care of under the laws for general invalidism. In 1928, however, the payment of pension upon reaching a definite age was. established for certain groups of wage-earners, and since then it has b'een extended until it covers all the main groups of workers. Those who work underground or i~ other hazardous kinds of work are eligible for pension at the age of fifty if they have worked for ' a period of twenty years. In other branches of labor, men are eligible at sixty after . having worked tw~ty-five years, and women at fifty-five after twenty years of work. The size of pension varies from 50 to 65 per cent of the average wage for the last twelve months of employment, depending on the type of work that has been performed. Dependents of. insured persons who h-ave died or whose 'whereabouts ·is unknown also receive a pension. It must be noted that in the Soviet Union rent varies with the wages_ received, so that a person receiving a pension smaller than his previous wage would pay less rent .. Als!J when the ~ost._ of b~ead went up in 1935 at the time of discarding ration cards, ·pensions; were likewise raised. Moreciver p~rsons· receiving pensions are encoura~ed ta work in addition' ·to their pension, llnless the sum of the two exceed the -former wage. In that case the pension is qecreased. All these pensions and aids are vitally important, for it is by them that So- . viet social insurance protects the worker. Nagging fear of the future is removed. this only: 1. In the national struggles . of the proletarians of the different coun., tries, they point out and bring to the · front the common interests of the entire, proletari~t, independently of. all na~ tionality. 2. In the various stages-- ot deyelopment which . the struggle of the working class against the 1?<>u1·gepisie 'has to fass thri;iugh, they always and everywhere represent the interests· of . , the movem~t as a .. \Vhole. . (Tn, be continued) Augl.lSt, ; 1~36 :Jbe-~ New- Giants ., . . ···(co!'-tmued from. .wo~· :6) - • very ·efficiently; according to Raizer, · wP.o explained that while the largest furnaces of -the Makeyevka Pll'nt, each ·with . a 'volume .of .930 cu. m., are smelting one :ton of pig. iron· per 0.80 cu. m. of usec .ful volume of furnace (on the best. da~s achieving a coefficient cif 0.77), the new blast furnaces should proP.uce a ton of metal per 0.75 ~nd even 0.70 cu .. m. Though the_best technical achievements of other Sov,iet and fo~eign blast fur-· naces will be employed in the new ones, and though thjlir. control will I?e ·entirely automatic, nevertheless, they wll! not cost more to build than th~ Magnitogorsk furnaces. According to plan, each of the new blast furnaces ·should produce 1,300 tons of pig iron a day. With the application - o.f Stakhanov methods, howevE!r, prod,uction from 20 to 30 per cent above plan - is anticipated. The workers are ab'ie to fae,e life without dread as to what will happen to themselves or to their faimly if they fall iii or are injured. ·They do n~t have the constant spectre of doi;tor's bills .nor of funeral costs. A woman does not need to be anxiOUf!, Jest -having a baby· Will cause 'het to loi;;e her job. A. man cr+n work without constant worry as to what 'Will happen to his family if he dies.1AU: this m~ans security. It is an essential part of human happiness, of that joy in life which is becoming so evident in the Soviet Union. Soviet social insurance does not :confine itself, however, me.rely .to taking care of eventualities. It tries to pre-vent them. It contributes large sums to 'Promoting good health among the workers. Money i11 set asil:ie for the buildil)g and support .0£ rest homes and sanitar.i~ms .. Large sums are spent on children's camps,· nurseries and kindergartens, · ·cin ptbviding ~tra food for. school children or milk for babies. There is a special fund for· improving .housing cohditions. All these· contributions, as is the money spent by social insurance on medical care, are !of· couiise additional to w}\at comes froll) the· government budget for such purposes. It· is most. noteworthy. tha,t the proportion of the social :in~ur ance budge_t that goe§ to this indjrect aid is il'icrea!!iri.g. . The obj~ct of the Soviet State is t~at the workers therein .. sh1>uld Qe healtpy and happy, free of ahxiety ·about ihe future and so' free -to develop their manifold creative abilities both in their work and. in outside c.ultural and soc~al ai:tivitie$. Sovfe,t ·sor,,i~l · insµrance js one of the paths' toward thio1~oa1,