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1 KARL MARX & FREDERICK ENGELS INTERNA T IONAL - ' PUBLISHERS
MANIFESTO OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY BY KARL MARX AND FREDERlCK ENGELS
AUTIlORlZED ENGUSH TRANSLATION
EDITED .AND ANNOT.A TEO BY FREDERICK ENGEL~
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
PREFACE By FREDERICK ENGELS
All rt/ererut nllmWJ in tal rt/er llJ IWUJ IHginninKon p. "'5
@ 1948 by International Publishers Co., Inc.
This printing 2007
ISBN 13 978-0.7178-024 1_8
The ManifeJto was published as the platform of the Communist league, a wotkingmen's association, firSt exclusively German, later 00 international, and, under the political conditions of the Continent before 1848, unavoidably a secret society. At a Congress of the League, held in l oncon in November 1847. Man: and Engels were commissioned to prepare for publication a complete theoretical and practical party program. Drawn up in German. in January 1848. the manuscript was sent to the printer in London a few w~ before the French revolution of February 24th.1 A French tnlIlSlation was brought OUt in Paris. shortly before the insurrection of June 1848.2 The first English translation. by Miss He1en MacfarIan e. ap~ed in George Julian Harney's Red RepubJium, LoDdon, 1850. A Danish and a Polish edition had also been published. The defeat of the Parisian insurrection of June 1848--rhe first great battle between proletariat and bourgeoisie--drove again intO the background, for a time, the social and political aspiratioll5 of the European working class. Thenceforth, the struggle for supremacy was again. as it had been before the revolution of February, soldy between different sections of the propenied class; the working class was reduced to a fight for political dhow.room, and to the position of extr~e wing of the middle-class Radicals. Wh~ever independent proletarian movemenrs continued to show signs of life, they were ruthlessly hunted down. Thw the Prussian police hunted out the Cenrral Board of the Communist League, then located in Cologne. The members were arrested, and, after eighteen months· imprisonment, they were tried in October 1852. This celebrated "Cologne Communist Trial" lasted from October 4th till November 12th; seven of the prisooen were scmcoced to tClDlS of imprisoo(l )
ment io a fonr~ varying from thr~ to six years. Immediat~ly after th~ sent~e, th~ League was formally dissolved by th~ remain· iog members. As to the Man'I_lIo, it ~ theac~forth to be doomed to oblivion. When the European working class bad tKOVered sufficient sueogth for another attack on the ruling classes, the: International Working· men's Association sprang up. But this association, formed with the express aim of welding into one body the whole militant proletariat of Europe and America, could nor: at once proclaim the principles laid down in the ManileJJo. The International was bound to have a program broad enough to be acceprable to the English uade unions, to the followers of Proudhon' in France, Bdgium, Italy, and Spain, and to the Lassalleans~ in Germany. Marx, who drew up thu ptOgram to the satisfaction of all parties, entirely truSted to the intellectual development of the wocking class, which was sure to result from combined action and mUNal discussion. The very events and vicissitudes of the struggle against capital, the defeatS even more than the victories, could not help bringing home to men's minds th~ insufficiency of their various favorite nostrums, and preparing th~ way for a more complete insight into the tru~ conditions of working
[ 121
[ III
have all preceding generations together. Subjection of nature's iMce3 to man, machinery, application of chemistry to indwtry and agriculture, steam-n2Vig2tlon, railways, electric tdegraphs., clearing of whole continents for cultivation. canalis:ation of riven, whole popul:ations conjured out of the ground-wh:at e:arlier century h:ad even :a presentiment th:at such productive forces slumbem:I in the J:ap of social l:abour? We see then that the mc:an.s of production 2nd of exch:ange, which served u the foundation for the growth of the bourgeoisie, were generated in feud:al society. At 2 ceruin stage in the development of these means of production and of exch:ange. the conditiom under which leud:al society produced :and exchanged. the feud:al org:anis:ation of :agriculture :and m:anuf:acturing industry, in a word, the feud:al rcl:ations of property became no longer compatible with the alrc:ady developed productive forcesj they became 10 many fetters. They h:ad to be bunt asunder; they were burst uunder. Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the economic and politic:al sw:ay of the bourgeois class. A simil:ar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modem bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property. a society that has conjured up such gigantic me:ans 01 production and of exchange. is like the sorcerer who is no longer 2ble to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. For nuny a dcc:ade past the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces :against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put tbe existence of the entire bourgeois &ociety on trial, each time more threateningly. In these crises a great part: not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises thue breaks out an epidemic that, in all [ 14 J
earlier epochs. would have seemed an absurdity-the epidemic of over.production. Society suddenly finds itself put back intO a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine. a universal war of devastation had cu[ 011 the supply of every means of subsistence; induStry and commerce seem to be destroyed. And why? Ikcause there is too much civilization, tOO much means of subsistence, tOO much industry, tOO much commerCe. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer (end [0 further the de· velopment of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become tOO powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered. and no sooner do they overcome these fetters than Ihey bring disorder intO [he whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are 100 narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand, by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces ; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the mo~e thoro ough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paVID~ ~e way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by dlrnlDishing the means whereby crises are prevented. The weapons with which the bourgeoisie feUed feudalism to the ground are now rurned against the bourgeoisie itself. . Bur not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bnng dearh to itself; it has also called into o;istenCe the men who are to wield those weapons-the modern working c1ass-tbe proletarians. In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working cla.u, developed---a class of laborers, who live only SO long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These Iaborers, who muSt sell themselves piecemeal. are a commodi()" like every other article of commerce, and are con· sequently exposro to all the vicissirudes of competition. to all the fluctuations of the market. Owing ID the extensive use of machinery and to division of
labor, the work of the proletarians has lost aU individual charac· ter, and, consequendy, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the ~ simpl~ most monOf:OOOUS, and most easily acquired knack, that IS requited of him. Hence, the cost of produCtion of a workman is resuiCted, almOSt entirely, to the means of subsistence that be requires for his mainreuance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labor, is equal. to itS COSt of production. In proportion, therefore, as the .repulslven.ess of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, In proportion as the use of machinery and division of labor increases, in the same proportion the burden of roil also increases, wbether by prol~ga cion 01 the working hours, by increase of the work exacted !O a given I ime, or by increased sp«d 01 the machinery, etc. Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the pauiarchal master into the great lactory of the industrial capitalist. Ma.s.ses of laOOrees, crowded inlo the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker. and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacrurer hims.elf. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more peny, tbe more hateful and the more embittering it is. The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labor, in other words, the more modern indusuy develops, the more is the labor of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinCtive social validity for ~he working class. All are instruments of labor, more or less expenSIVe ro use, according to their age and sex. No sooner has the laboret received his wages in cash, for the moment escaping exploitation by the manufacrurer, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, tbe landl clarions in order [0 make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there the comest breaks oU[ into riors. Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of theif battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is furthcre'! As the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord, so has Clerical Socialism with Feudal Socialism. Nothing is easier than ro give Christiao asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has not Christianity d(Xlaimed against private property, against marriage, against me srate? Has it nOt preached in the place of these, charity and povuty, celibacy and moni6cation of the flesh, monastic Life and Mother Church? ChriStian Socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heartbumin&, of the aristocrat. h. Pelty Bourgeou SocUdinn The feudal aristocracy was nOt the only class that was ruined b)' the bourgeoisie, not the only class whose conditions of ezistence pined and perished in the aonosphere of modern bourgeois sockt)"
[33 )
The medieval burgesses and the small ~sant proprietors were the precursors of llu~ modern bourgcoisie. In those countries which arc but little developro, industrially and commercialiy, these twO cla.sscs still vegetate side by side with the rising bourgeoisie. In Countries where modem civilization has become fully develo~ a new class of petty bourgcois has been formed, fluctuating between proletariat and bourgeoisie, and ever renewing itself as a supplementary part of bourgeois sociery. The individual members of this class, however, are being cooscandy hurled down into the p roletariat by the action of competition, and, as modern industry develops, they even see the moment approaching when they will completely disappear as an independent section of modern society, to be replaced, in manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, by overlooken, bailiffs, :lOd shopmen. In countries, like France, where the peasanrs constitute far more than half of the population, it was natural that writers who sided with the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, should use, in their Cfidcism of the bourgeois regime, the standard of the peasant and petry bourgeois, and from the scandpoint of these intermediate classes should take up the cudgels for the working; class. Thus arose petry bourgeois Socialism Sismondi24 was the head of this school, not only in France but also in England. This school of Socialism dissected with great acuten~ the contradictions in the conditions of modem production. It laid bare the hypocritical apologies of e(:onomists. It proved, incontrovertibly, me disastrous effects of machinery and division of labor; the concentration of capital and !aDd in a few hands; overproduction and crises; it pointed OUt the inevitable ruin of the perry bour· geois and peasant, the misery of the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the crying inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of exterminatioD between nations, the dissolution of old moral bonds, of the old family relations, of the old nationalities. In its positive aims. however, this form of Socialism aspires either to restoring tbe old means of produCtion and of exchange, and with them the old propeny relations, and the oLd society, or to cramping
[ 34J
the modern means of production and of exchange within the frame · work of the old propeny relations that have been, and were bound to be, explCKIed by those means. In either case, it is botb reactionary and utopian. Its last words arc: Corporate guilds for manufacture; patriarchal relations iD agrirulrure. Ultimately, when stubborn historical faCtS had dispersed all intoxicating effects of self-deception, this form of Socialism ~ed in a miserable fit of the blues. c. German
M
'7'rue" SocM#sm
The Socialist and Communist literature of France, a literuure that originated under the pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and that was the expression of the struggle against this power, was introduced into Germany at a time when the bourgeoisie, in that country, had just begun its contest with feudal absolutism. German philosophers, would-be philosophers, and men of letters eagerly seized on this literature, only forgetting that when these writings immigrated from France into Germany, French social ~ ditions had not immigrated along with them. In contaCt With German social conditions, this French literature lost ill its immaliate practical significance, and assumed a purely literary aspect. Thus, to the German philosophers of the 18th century, the demands of the first French Revolution were nothing more than the demands of "Practical Reason" in general, and the unerance of the will of the revolutionary French bourgeoisie signified in their eyes the laws ?f pure will, of will as it was bound to be, of true human Will generally. The work of the German lit8f'llIi consisted solely in bringing the new French ideas intO harmony with their ancient philosophical conscience, or rather, in annexing the French ideas without deseniDB their own philosophic point of view. This annexation rook place in the same way in which a foreign language is appropriated, namely by translation. [3jJ
1t is w~ll known how the monks wnx~ silly liv~ of Catholic saints over the manuscripts on which the classical works of ancient heathendom had been writt~n. The German literal; reversed (his process with the profane French lit~rature. They wrot~ their philosophical nonsense beneath the French original. For irutanc~, benoth th~ Fr~nch criticism of the «ooomic functions of money, they wrote "alienation of humanity," and beneath the French criticism of the bourgeois state, they wrot~, "dethrooement of th~ category of the general," and so forth. Th~ introdunion of th~ philosophical pIu~ at the back of the French historical criticisms they dubbed "Philosophy of Action," "True Socialism.," "German Sci~nc~ of Socialism," "PbiJosophica1 Foundatioa of Socialism," and 50 on. The French Socialist and Communist literature was thus cornpletdy emasculated. And. since it ceased in the hands of tbe German to express tbe struggle of one class with the O[h~r, he felt conscious of having ov~rcome "French ooe-sidedndS" and of representing, not true requirements, but the requirements of truth; not tbe imerests of the proletariat, bm the interest of human nature, of man in general, who belongs 10 no class, ha.! no reality, who exists only in the misty realm of philosophical phanrasy. This German Socialism, which took itS school-boy taSk so seriowly and solemnly, and extolled its poor stock-in-trade in such mount~ banJc: fashion, meanwhile gradually lost itS pedantic innocence. The fight of the German and ~pecially of the Prussian bourgeoisie against feudal aristocracy and absolut~ mooarchy, in other words, tbe Jiberal movement, became more earnest. By this, the long-wished-for oppocrunity was offered to ''True" Socialism of confronting the political movement with the Socialist demands, of hurling the traditional anathemas against liberalism, against representative government, against bourgeois coro~tition, bourgeois freedom of the press, bourgeois legislation. bourgeois liberty and equality, and of preaching to the masses tbat they bad nothing to gain, and everything to Jose, by tbis bourgeois movement. German Socialism forgot, in ~ nick of time, that the French
[ 36]
(CIUC1srn, whose silly echo it was, presupposed tbe existence of modern bourgeois society, with its corresponding economic conditions of existence, and the political constitution adapted thereto, rhe very things whose attainment was the object of the pending struggle in Germ3.1lY. To the absolute governments, with their foll owing of parsons, professors, country squires, and officials, it served as a welcome scarecrow against the threatening bourgeoisie. Ir was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and bullets, with which these same governments, JUSt at thnl rime, dosed the risings of the German working class. While this 'True" Social ism thus served the governments as a weaJX>D for fighting the German bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, directly represented a reaaionary interest, the interest of the German Philistines. In Germany the peny bourgeois class, a relic of the 16th century, and since then constantly cropping up again under various forms, is the re:ll social basis of the existing state of things. To preserve this class, is to preserve rhe existing state of things in Germany. !be indusuial and political supremacy of the bourgeoisie thre:ltens it with certain dcstruaion-on the one hand, from the concentration o f capital; OD the other, from (he rise of a revolutionary proletariat. ''True'' Socialism appeared to kill these twO birds with one stone. It spread like an epidemic. The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this transcendental robe in which the German Socialists wrapped tbeir sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to increase wonderfully the sale of their goods amongst such a public. And on itS put, German Socialism recognized, more and more, in own calling as the bombastic representative of the petty bourgeois Philistine. h proclaimed the German nation to be the model nation, and the German petty Philistin~ to be the rypical man. To every villainous meanness of this mood man it gave a hidden, higher, socialistic interpretation, the exaa contrary of his real character. It went to (37)
the
ertreme
length of directly opposing the "bruWly desttuetive"
tendeoq of Communism. and of proclaiming its supceme and impartial (X)DteDlpt of all class struggles. With ..ery few acepcioos, all the so-called Socialist and Communist publications that now (1847) circulate in Germany belong to the domain of this foul and eae:rvating literarure.
2.
CoNsmLVATIVB OR BoUllGOOlS SocLu.tsM
A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social griev-
ances. in order to secure the continued e:ristence of bourgeois society. To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organizers of charity, members of societic:5 for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and