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1-Page Summary of The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto is an explanation of the goals and theory behind Communism. It notes that class struggles are what drive historical developments, as well as a new class becoming dominant when it’s time for revolution.

Modern society today is characterized by the struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. However, capitalism’s ability to produce more will soon be at odds with this exploitative relationship. Therefore, workers will lead a revolution that will change everything we know about previous revolutions: Previous revolutions simply reallocated property in favor of new rulers; however, because they have no way of appropriating property themselves, when workers obtain control they’ll have to destroy all ownership of private property and classes themselves will disappear.

The Manifesto argues that the development of capitalism is inevitable and will result in its collapse. The Communists argue that social classes cannot be eliminated through changes to government or reforms; a revolution will be required.

The Communist Manifesto has four sections. In the first section, it discusses how history is a struggle between classes and that the proletariat will eventually win. The second section explains what the Communists’ relationship with workers should be like. The third section addresses why other works on socialism are wrong, while this one is right. Finally, in the fourth section, it describes how other parties can work together with them to achieve their goals of a socialist society.

Context

In 1847, a group of radical workers commissioned Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to write a manifesto on their behalf. The Communist Manifesto was written by Marx with help from Engels. It was originally published in London in 1848, and it is the most influential document of modern socialism.

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were both German philosophers, economists, and revolutionaries. They met in Paris after 1843, when Marx moved there from Germany. Both men are best known for their revolutionary writings about Communism. One of Marx’s primary intellectual influences was the work of philosopher G.W.F Hegel; he took Hegel’s idea that history is a process through which the world becomes self-aware as spirit and furthered it by arguing that material progress causes man to feel increasingly alienated from himself until revolution forces him to reconnect with his true nature as spirit.

Marx and Engels were not only theorists, but activists who believed that by spreading information about communism they could influence history. The Communist Manifesto is one such attempt to spread information about the communist movement.

Karl Marx’s theory should be understood in the context of England, France and Germany after the Industrial Revolution. The working conditions were terrible for many people during that time. As a result, they had little political representation and no way out of their miserable situations. This led to some revolutions by workers and students who wanted more rights. However, those revolutions failed miserably because there was too much oppression from government officials at that time, so Karl Marx revised his theories to reflect this failure while keeping the same basic ideas intact.

Introduction and Section 1, Bourgeois and Proletarians (Part 1)

Communism is a threat to Europe. All of the European nations are against Communism, and they often discredit its ideas. Therefore, Communists have gathered in London to make public their views on Communism and dispel misconceptions about it.

The Manifesto starts off by addressing class struggle. Marx says that all of history is the history of class struggles. We see this throughout time; there are oppressors and oppressed, who fight each other until either a revolution occurs or they both go down together.