Manifesto of the Communist Party - a mediation between man and nature

Extraits de la fiche de lecture

[...] Last but not least, the authors have used utopian socialism and communism, being very influenced by French socialists as Saint Simon, Proudhon, or Blanqui. However, theses authors have been considered as too idealistic, and not reformist enough (as can be seen in the third part of the Manifesto about ?Socialist and Communist Literature?). In the subpart about ?Critical- Utopian Socialism and Communism?, Marx and Engels mention Owen, Fourier and Cabet but reject their theories, because they believe that when the class struggle will take shape these utopian projects would have no more reason to exist. [...]

[...] In 1848, in a world which had to face deep crises, numerous men always being increasingly exploited, were waiting for a message. The Manifesto was considered as an answer, a guideline they should try to put into practice. [...]

[...] This period was also characterized by a constant upheaval in the instruments of production and in social relations, which was significantly different from the previous periods characterized by stability. Parallel to the development of the bourgeoisie the number of proletarians who exclusively drew their subsistence from the sale of their labour and not from the interest of an unspecified capital increased. Their conditions of existence and thus their existences itself were in jeopardy. Labour was soon considered as nothing but a good of fixed price like other goods. Only profit is important. The price of labour is thus equal to the cost of production of labour. [...]

[...] Being without any property, the proletariat has nothing to save. previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority? (p.482). As the ultimate goal is the abolition of the bourgeois private property this revolution will not only be one new stage of history, it will totally renew it. The Communists want to carry out the fight so that the labourers no longer live to only increase the capital of others. [...]