Communist Manifesto Analysis

In The Communist Manifesto, the concept of class division is central to Karl Marx’s analysis of social stratifications in a capitalist society. Marx argues that the ideology of the ruling class works to selectively determine the driving social, economic, cultural, and political doctrines of a society in order to position different bodies in ways that cater to dominant ideological interests. Although it seems that Marx’s broader criticism is primarily concerned with hierarchical divisions on the level of economic class, perhaps it is valuable to explore how the analytic tools provided by Marx enable us to pose more profound questions about gender relations and the position of women in a capitalist society. Throughout Marx’s analysis, the evidence …show more content…
For Marx, the present conception of family is built “...on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie” (100). The value of family in a capitalist society is largely grounded in its ability as a social construct to produce children as profitable objects in which to invest. As articulated by Marx, “...the family and education...become all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor” (104). In other words, children are socialized into becoming productive agents of the market through bourgeoisie controlled institutions such as schools. Marx accuses the bourgeoisie, “And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social conditions under which you educate” (103). This phenomenon seems to be central to the framing of women solely as instruments of production; because the figure of the child is representative of a future of labor and property for capitalist society, a woman’s reproductive capacity makes her utility in a capitalist world defined exclusively in terms of her ability to produce a child. Any affective or interpersonal ties within families are ultimately fractured in favor of positioning …show more content…
Considering the structural phenomena unpacked by Marx, one might understand forms of violence against women as the product of a broader unethical system that interprets bodies in terms of profitability and exchange value. Despite Marx’s compelling arguments about the broader functionings of capitalist society, the lack of empirical evidence and contextual analysis leads me to remain skeptical of communism’s value as a methodology for the liberation of