There are two basic ideas expressed in the prefaces. The first is that
what is written in the Manifesto varies by historical period. What Marx
and Engles describe in the document is not a stead fast law or prediction.
Rather it varies by historical circumstances and the people engaged in the
struggle. The second basic idea is the economic production and the
structure of society of every historical epoch, which is based on the form
of economic production, are the foundation for the political and
intellectual history of that epoch. Furthermore history, ever since
primeval communal ownership of land, has been the history of class
struggle. What is unique about this current time period is that for the
first time the proletariat will not just emancipate itself but all of
humanity.
I. Bourgeois and Proletarians
Class relations are simpler during this period. There are the bourgeois
and the proletariat. The bourgeois started as the burghers in the earliest
towns. New markets arose and feudal production, with its guilds could no
longer contain it. Manufacturing arose. The markets demanded more and
steam and machinery revolutionized production. The bourgeoisie is the
product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the
modes of exchange and production. As this development of the bourgeoisie
came about, it corresponded with political advances of that class.
With the rise of the new mode of production and the bourgeoisie have
developed a change in social relations. The cash nexus has replaced the
feudal relations. Self interest and cash payment bind people together.
The nature of this new mode of production is that it must be continually
revolutionized. If it does not continually seek to improve its
productivity, increase profits, and lower costs, it will die. Accumulate
or die. This sends the bourgeoisie chasing profits all over the world
and
creating a world market. New wants are created. Nations are also
interdependent. Intellectual property of individual nations becomes common
property. It is harder for a narrowness of thought to exist in nations.
Corresponding with this material nature is that the whole relations of
society undergo great change. "All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with
their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions are swept
away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All
that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at
last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and
his relations with his kind." (pp. 476)
The bourgeoisie arose out of feudal society. At some point the developed
productive forces became incompatible with the feudal relations of
property. The productive forces could not be constrained and they broke
through these relations. Free competition arose and a social and political
constitution adapted to it.
A similar case is occurring. The capitalist mode of production has its own
contradiction within it. This is the contradiction of over-production.
The pressure to sell more and cut cost means that the capitalists destroy
their own market. They try to limit the wages of the people who are their
market. This contradiction is located in the fact that production is
social but appropriation is private. The social form of production cannot
be constrained by the private ownership that embraces it.
The people who bear the brunt of this contradiction are the proletariat.
Like the bourgeoisie they undergo periods of transition and are developing
political/collective clout. Such is an example of this political action
are trade unions. However, this organizing of the proletariat is a long
and complex process. There is competition between the workers that
undermines solidarity. They join with other classes to fight for certain
rights, but often they are used by the other classes to further interest
other than that of the proletariat. However there is a gradual process by
which the society becomes divided into two classes. The proletariat is the
revolutionary force that represents the majority.
II. Proletarians and Communists
The communists' desires are those of the proletariat. They try to bring
forth the interest of all proletariat across national boundaries and they
represent the interests of the movement as a whole. The interest is to
form the proletariat as a class, overthrow the bourgeoisie, and have the
proletariat take power.
The theoretical conclusions of the communists are grounded in the actual
relations springing from the class struggle. What distinguishes the
communists from other historical movements is their desire to abolish
bourgeois property. Therefor their goal is the abolition of private
property. This will result in the abolition of the domination of the many
by the few. So that every person will receive the fruits of their labor
and not someone else.
Capital, in its full social power, will become for the benefit of humanity
in communist society. It will be used to enrich the life of the laborer,
not the bourgeoisie. Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate
the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to
subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation. The free
development of each will be the condition for the free development of all.
They advocate an abolition of all social forms that spring up from the
capitalist mode of production. This includes the bourgeois form of the
family, the relations of this form of family, and the abolition of national
boundaries to name a few.
I.
People make history under circumstances not of their choosing. The
conditions are created by the generations of the past. The history of
society can never be completely escaped. Even those who are
revolutionizing the current period cannot escape the conditions that they
are creating the new society in. The use of the old forms and symbols of
society are often used to glorify the new struggles. However, they equally
conjure up the past.
However the new revolutionizing force will not draw upon the past but will
instead draw upon the future. (I think the difference is that the
dialectic will be resolved. In the former stages the synthesis contains
the old antagonism, but in the communist revolution the dialectic will be
resolved because of the particular social circumstances that are the
foundation for the new struggle. The new majority of the proletariat is
the historical body that embodies the potential for the resolution of the
history of man's alienation.)
1848 did not become the true revolution. Instead, society has to create
the revolutionary point of departure, the situation, the relationships, the
conditions under which modern revolution alone becomes serious.
Bourgeois revolution is a series of peaks and depression. The proletarian
revolution to date is a series of struggles that are often unsuccessful.
However at some point the historical circumstances will come about that
turning back will be impossible. The contradictions of the capitalist
system will have to be resolved.
There were three main periods. The February period. The period of
constituting of the republic or of the Constituent National Assembly, and
the period of the constitutional republic or of the Legislative National
Assembly.
Marx describes the first period as the prologue to the Revolution. The
reason for this was because the government created treated itself and
everything it did as provisional. Nobody and nothing ventured to lay claim
to the right of existence. The proletariat came to power, however the
material circumstances were not right for a true victory. The revolution
had a contradiction because the material at hand and the education of the
masses were not the right circumstances for a true proletarian revolution.
The old forces were mounting with the support of the petty bourgeoisie and
the peasants.
The second period was the foundation of the bourgeois republic. Marx sees
this as the next step from the bourgeois Monarchy of Louis Phillipe. The
proletarian revolted with the June insurrection, however they stood alone
as all of France rallied against them. The proletariat now passed into the
background, although they make several attempts to come forward and start
fresh. But it never really makes headway. The defeat of the June
insurgents made way for the bourgeois to build up their republic. But this
republic is actually the despotism of one class over another.
VII.
The role of this 1848 struggle was to bring the bourgeois to the broadest
form of rule. The material circumstances were not appropriate for a
proletarian revolution. Instead the proletarian revolution first had, "to
create the form in which the rule of the bourgeoisie could obtain its
broadest, most general and final expression, and therefore could also be
overthrown without being able to arise again." (pp. 604) The revolution
is in process at this point in time.
During this process the state appears to be contested ground. Under
Napoleon the bureaucracy of the state was only the means for preparing for
the class rule of the bourgeoisie. The monarchy under Louis Phillipe was
an instrument for the ruling class, but the monarchy was striving to
achieve independent rule. Under the second Bonaparte the state seems
independent, but it is actually representing the rule of the peasant class.
The peasants are the mass of the French people.
The peasantry represents a different mode of production and life style.
They live in similar conditions, however they don't interact on a regular
and frequent basis. The mode of production isolates them from each other.
There is no division of labor, no application of science, no diversity of
talents and not wealth of social relationships. They make up a sack of
potatoes, as opposed to the proletariat which is more like a bowl of mashed
potatoes (sorry my artistic license). Because of their similar life
conditions they form a class in opposition to other classes. However, this
similarity will not create an active and political unity. They cannot
enforce their class interest in their own name. So Bonaparte is their
class voice. Bonaparte represents the conservative peasant, not the
peasant who wants to alter the social conditions. They are invested in
augmenting their present holdings and preserving the old order.
The material conditions of the peasant and the state that upheld them is
now leading to their demise. There is a deterioration of agriculture and a
progressive indebtedness of the agriculturist. What led to their rule has
turned into the their demise and pauperization. This has happened because
the feudal relations have been replaced by bourgeois capital. Although the
feudal peasantry represented a thorn in the side of feudalism, the
bourgeois relations now spell the demise of the peasantry. The small
holdings of the peasant is not only the pretext that allows the capitalist
to draw profits. The interests of the peasants are in opposition to those
of the capitalist.
Bonaparte keeps the peasants in line while supporting the material
interests of the bourgeoisie. He sees himself as an opponent of the middle
classes, but by protecting their interests he increases their political
power. The strong government of Bonaparte is what the middle class need to
develop industry and trade. The interests that Bonaparte tries to manage
are contradictory. The state is not necessarily beholden to one interest,
but is a strange mixture of benefits and problems for each class. However,
the bourgeoisie form of economy, no matter how much Bonaparte hinders it,
still prospers in the long run.