Karl Marx & Communism

Front 1

How does the class struggle in the epoch of the bourgeoisie differ from the class struggle of the previous epochs?

Back 1

In the epoch of the bourgeoisie the class antagonisms are simplified into the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Whereas in the previous epochs, there was a complicated manifold gradation of social ranks.

Front 2

In bourgeois society, what is the nexus that connects human beings with one another? What is fundamental freedom?

Back 2

Naked self-interest and/or callous "cash payment" are the remaining nexus between man and man. Free Trade is fundamental freedom.

Front 3

Why does the rise of the bourgeois society lead to the destruction of national industries?

Back 3

As the bourgeoisie come into power they promote new industry. National industries are replaced by new industry with better communication, technology, and supply.

Front 4

What is the "epidemic" that periodically threatens the existence of bourgeois society? How does the bourgeoisie overcome these crises?

Back 4

Over-production is the epidemic that threatens the bourgeoisie. It is overcome by facilitating more extensive and destructive crises, and by hindering their prevention.

Front 5

How are proletarians like soldiers? Like slaves?

Back 5

Labourers are crowded into factories and organised like soldiers, placed under the command of a hierarchy of officers and sergeants. They are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himse

Front 6

Why do members of the lower middle class end up in the proletarian class

Back 6

As their minimal capital is not enough to partake in modern industry and new methods of production have rendered their specialized trades obsolete,the lower middle classes sink gradually into the proletariat.

Front 7

What circumstances lead proletarians to form trade unions?

Back 7

Machinery destroying all distinctions of labour, and wages uniformly falling or fluctuating due to commercial crises makes the livelihood of the proletariat precarious. The workers formed permanent associations to maintain the level of their wages.

Front 8

What causes the bourgeoisie to supply the proletariat with political and general education?

Back 8

As the bourgeoisie battles its inherent antagonizers it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. So they furnish the proletariat with the "weapons" to fight against them.

Front 9

What kind of action by the proletariat will lay the foundation for its taking over the productive forces of society?

Back 9

Only by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation, can the proletarians become masters of the productive forces of society.

Front 10

Why does the bourgeoisie ultimately become unfit to be the ruling class?

Back 10

Bourgeoisie existence is no longer compatible with society. They would prefer to keep a person a slave because they would not allow a slave to sink into such a state, that it has to feed them, instead of being fed by them.

Front 11

How does the bourgeoisie produce it's own gravediggers?

Back 11

The bourgeoisie promotes the advance of industry, which replaces the isolation of the workers. Without competition between laborers there is no wage-labor to exploit for capital. Without capital, the bourgeois class cannot exist.

Front 12

In what two ways do the Communists differ from the members of other working class parties?

Back 12

1. In the national struggles of the alien proletarians, they represent the common interests of the entire proletariat, independent of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development they always represent the interests of the working-class movement as a whole.

Front 13

What is the immediate aim of the Communists?

Back 13

The formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, and conquest of political power by the proletariat is the immediate aim of the Communists.

Front 14

What phrase sums up the theory of the Communists?

Back 14

"Abolition of private property..." is the phrase that sums up the theory of the Communists.

Front 15

What is the first step in the revolution by the working class?

Back 15

To raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy is the first step in the working-class revolution.

Front 16

Why will the victory of the proletariat lead to the abolition of its own supremacy as a class?

Back 16

If the proletariat is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organise itself as a class, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, eliminates the existence of class antagonisms, thereby abolishing its own supremacy.

Front 17

What is the leading issue that the Communists bring to every revolutionary movement they support?

Back 17

No matter what its degree of development at the time, the leading issue the Communists bring to every movement they support is the "property question".

Front 18

What is the final appeal the "Manifesto" makes?

Back 18

"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"