1) What, according to Marx in The Communist Manifesto, must one understand in order to understand the course of historical development? What, in other words, is it that moves history along?
The Communist Manifesto opens to the reader by stating, “The history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles”, meaning that there is a perpetual tug-of-war struggle between class status between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Marx, 1). Marx states that the bourgeoisie are those who set up the production as “the class of modern capitalists”, whereas the proletariat is the group that works beneath the means of production from the bourgeoisie, “having no means of production of their own” (footnote, 1). The Communist Manifesto states that she struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie always results in a revolution and eventual “ruin of the contending classes” (1). Marx clearly states that the …show more content…
The new dominance of the bourgeoisie created a social class within the bourgeoisie, and thus the proletariat emerged (4-5). These “wage-laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live” (1). The creation of the proletariat was a necessary affect to bourgeoisie’s approaches of production- a superiority complex and divide for struggle naturally came about between the owners of the production and the working force (6). The bourgeois industries expanded and increased their own capital, leaving the lower class unable to compete; Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time” (6). This dissonance eventually caused corrosion within the structure of the proletariat, and this struggle created the revolutionary element which eventually destroyed the bourgeois oppressors: “What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”
The Communist Manifesto opens to the reader by stating, “The history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles”, meaning that there is a perpetual tug-of-war struggle between class status between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Marx, 1). Marx states that the bourgeoisie are those who set up the production as “the class of modern capitalists”, whereas the proletariat is the group that works beneath the means of production from the bourgeoisie, “having no means of production of their own” (footnote, 1). The Communist Manifesto states that she struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie always results in a revolution and eventual “ruin of the contending classes” (1). Marx clearly states that the …show more content…
The new dominance of the bourgeoisie created a social class within the bourgeoisie, and thus the proletariat emerged (4-5). These “wage-laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live” (1). The creation of the proletariat was a necessary affect to bourgeoisie’s approaches of production- a superiority complex and divide for struggle naturally came about between the owners of the production and the working force (6). The bourgeois industries expanded and increased their own capital, leaving the lower class unable to compete; Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time” (6). This dissonance eventually caused corrosion within the structure of the proletariat, and this struggle created the revolutionary element which eventually destroyed the bourgeois oppressors: “What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”