l<arl Marx selected writings Edi ted by David Mclellan OXFORD UN I VERSITY PRESS 18 The Communist Manifesto The Communist League, li nk ing t he ma in centres of communist activities in Paris, London, Brusse ls, and Cologne, was form ed out of the League of the Just in June 1847, largely at the instigation of Marx and Engel s. At a Congress in London in November 1847, the need was expressed for a clear formulation of the League's principles, and Marx and Engels were asked to draw up a statement. Engels had al ready co mposed a draft after the June Congress, and Marx incorporated some of this material when he wrote the Manifesto in Brussels in December and January. By t he t ime it was published in February 1848, the series of revolut ions that mar ked t hat year had al ready broken out. The Communist Manifesto has four sections. The first gives a history of society as class society since t he Middle Ages and ends with a prophecy of t he victory of the proletariat over the present ru li ng class, the bourgeoisie. The second section descri bes the position of com- munists within the proletar ian class, rejects bourgeois objections to communism, and then characterizes t he communist revolution, t he measures to be taken by the victorious prole- tariat, and ~he nature of the fu ture communist society. The thi rd section contains an extended cri t icism of other types of socialism-react ionary, bourgeois, and utopian. The fi nal section provides a short description of commun ist tactics towards other opposition parties and fi nishes with an appeal for proletarian unity. None of the ideas in the· Communist Manifesto were new, and its ideas on revolution and history were obviously influenced by French social ists such as Babeuf, Sa int-Simon, and Considerant; and the concept of class, with which t he Manifesto begins, was first used by French bourgeois historians. What is new is t he force of expression and the powerfu l syn- thesis afforded by the materialist concept ion of history. For many parts of the Manifesto are simply brill iant summari es of views put forward in The German Ideology. Marx and Engels cont inued to recognize this pamphlet as a classic expression of the ir views, though they wou ld subsequently have wished to mod if y some of its ideas- particu lar ly (in the light of the Paris Commune l those relati ng to the pro letariat's appropriation of the state apparatus and the rat her simp li stic statements on immiserization and class polarization. A spectre is haunting Europe-the sp ectre of Comm unism. All the Powers of o ld Euro p e have entered into a ho ly a lli a nce to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsa r, Metternich a nd Guizot, Frenc h Radicals a nd German police-spies. W here is the p a rty in opposit io n that has not been decried as Communistic by its op po nents in power ? W he re the Oppositio n that has no t hurled back the 246 I KA RL MARX: ...

1. l<arl Marx
selected writings
Edi ted by
David Mclellan
OXFORD
UN I VERSITY PRESS
18
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist League, li nk ing t he ma in centres of
communist activities in Paris, London,
Brusse ls, and Cologne, was form ed out of the League of the
Just in June 1847, largely at the
instigation of Marx and Engel s. At a Congress in London in
November 1847, the need was
expressed for a clear formulation of the League's principles, and
Marx and Engels were
asked to draw up a statement. Engels had al ready co mposed a
draft after the June Congress,
and Marx incorporated some of this material when he wrote the

2. Manifesto in Brussels
in December and January. By t he t ime it was published in
February 1848, the series of
revolut ions that mar ked t hat year had al ready broken out.
The Communist Manifesto has four sections. The first gives a
history of society as class
society since t he Middle Ages and ends with a prophecy of t he
victory of the proletariat over
the present ru li ng class, the bourgeoisie. The second section
descri bes the position of com-
munists within the proletar ian class, rejects bourgeois
objections to communism, and then
characterizes t he communist revolution, t he measures to be
taken by the victorious prole-
tariat, and ~he nature of the fu ture communist society. The thi
rd section contains an
extended cri t icism of other types of socialism-react ionary,
bourgeois, and utopian. The
fi nal section provides a short description of commun ist tactics
towards other opposition
parties and fi nishes with an appeal for proletarian unity.
None of the ideas in the· Communist Manifesto were new, and
its ideas on revolution and

3. history were obviously influenced by French social ists such as
Babeuf, Sa int-Simon, and
Considerant; and the concept of class, with which t he
Manifesto begins, was first used by
French bourgeois historians. What is new is t he force of
expression and the powerfu l syn-
thesis afforded by the materialist concept ion of history. For
many parts of the Manifesto are
simply brill iant summari es of views put forward in The
German Ideology. Marx and Engels
cont inued to recognize this pamphlet as a classic expression of
the ir views, though they
wou ld subsequently have wished to mod if y some of its ideas-
particu lar ly (in the light of the
Paris Commune l those relati ng to the pro letariat's
appropriation of the state apparatus and
the rat her simp li stic statements on immiserization and class
polarization.
A spectre is haunting Europe-the sp ectre of Comm unism. All
the Powers of
o ld Euro p e have entered into a ho ly a lli a nce to exorcise
this spectre: Pope and
Tsa r, Metternich a nd Guizot, Frenc h Radicals a nd German
police-spies.
W here is the p a rty in opposit io n that has not been decried as

4. Communistic
by its op po nents in power ? W he re the Oppositio n that has
no t hurled back the
246 I KA RL MARX: SELECTED WRITINGS
brand ing rep roach of Com munism, aga in st the more a
dvanced op position
parties, as we ll as aga in st its reactionary adversaries?
Two things res ult fro m this fact.
I. Communism is a lready acknowledged by a ll Europea n Powe
rs to be itse lf
a Power.
II. It is high time th a t Communists should o p enl y, in the face
of the whole
world, publish their views, their a ims, their tendenc ies, a nd
meet t his nu rsery
ta le of the Spectre of Communism with a Manifesto of the party
itself.
To this e nd, Communi sts of vari ou s natio na lities have
assembled in London
' and sk etched the fo llowi ng Manifesto, to be publishe d in the
English, French,
Germ an , Italian , Fle mish , and Danish la nguages .
I
Bourgeois and Proletarians

5. Th e history of a ll hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.
Freema n and slave, patric ian and p lebeian , lord and serf,
guild -master and
jo urneyma n-in a word , o ppressor a nd oppressed, stood in
constant oppos-
itio n to o ne another, carried on a n uninterrupted, now hidden,
now ope n fight,
a fi ght that each time en ded either in a revo lut ionary re-
constituti o n of socie ty
at large o r in the common ruin of the contending classes.
In the ea rlier epochs o f history, we find a lmost everywhere a
complicated
a rrangem ent of socie ty into various orders, a ma nifold g ra
dation of social
ra nk. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians,
slaves; in the
Middle Ages, feudal lo rd s, vassals, g uild-masters, jou
rneymen, app rentices,
serfs; in a lmost a ll o f these classes, again, subordinate grad
ations .
T he modern bourgeois society tha t h as sprouted from the
ruins of fe udal
soc iety has not d o ne away with class antagonisms. It has but
established new
cl asses, new conditio n s of o ppression , new fo rms of
struggle in place of the old
ones.
O ur epoch, the epoc h o f t he bourgeoisie, possesses, however,

6. this disti nctive
feature: it has simplified the class a ntago ni sm s. Society as a
who le is more and
more splitting up into two great hosti le camps, into two great
classes direc tly
facing each other: Bourgeoisie a nd Pro le taria t.
From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers
of t he
ea rliest t owns. From these burgesses the first elements of the
bourgeoisie were
deve loped.
T he d iscovery of America, the ro unding of t he Cape, o pe ned
up fresh
ground fo r the rising bo urgeo isie. T he East Indian a nd C
hinese ma rkets the
' co lonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase
in the means of
excha nge a nd in commod ities genera ll y, gave to commerce,
to naviga tion, to
industry, an impulse never before know n, a nd thereby, to the
revolutionary
element in the totte ring feuda l societ y, a rap id' development.
T he fe uda l system of industry, under which industrial
production was mon-
o polized by closed g uilds, now no lo nger sufficed for t he
growing wan ts of the
new markets. T he manufacturing system took its place. The

7. guild-masters were
pushed on one side by the ma nufacturing middle class; division
of labour
between the different corporate gu ilds va nished in the face of
d ivision of labour
in each single workshop.
Mea nti me the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever
rising. Even
man u fact ure no lo nger suffi ced . Thereupon, steam and
machinery revolution-
ized ind ustrial production. The p lace of manufacture was taken
by t he
g iant, Modern Industry, the place of the industri al middle
class, by industrial
milliona ires, the leaders of whole industria l a rm ies, the
modern bourgeois.
Modern industry has established t he world-market, for which
the discovery
of America p aved the way. T his market ha s given an immense
development to
commerce, to navigation, to com mu nication by land. T his
development has, in
its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion
as in dustry,
commerce, navigation, ra ilways extended, in the same
proportion the bour-
geoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the
background every

8. class hande d d own from the Midd le Ages.
We see, therefore, how t he modern bourgeoisie is itself the
product of a long
course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes
of production
and of exchange.
Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was
accompanied b y a cor-
respo nding politica l advance of that class . An oppressed class
under t he sway
of t he fe uda l nobility, a n armed a nd self-governing
association in the medieval
com mune; he re independent urban republic (as in Italy and
Germany), t here
taxable ' third estate' of the monarchy (as in France ),
afterwards, in the period
of manufacture proper, ser ving e ither the semi-feudal or the
absolute mona rchy
as a counter poise against the nobili ty, and, in fact, corner-
stone of the great
monarch ies in genera l, t he bourgeoisie has at last, since the
establish ment of
Modern Industry and of the wo rld-market, conquered for itself,
in the modern
re presentative State, excl us ive p olitica l sway. The executive
of the modern
Sta te is but a comm ittee fo r managing t he common affairs of
the whole
bourgeoisie.

9. The bourgeoisie, historica lly, has p layed a most revol utionary
part.
The bourgeoisie, w herever it has got the upper hand, has put an
end to all
fe udal, patri a rcha l, idyllic relations. It has pit ilessly torn
asunder the motley
feudal ties that bound man to his 'natura l superiors', and has
left remaining no
o ther nexus be tween ma n and man tha n naked self-interest,
than callous 'cash
payment' . It has drowned t he most heaven ly ecstasies of re
ligious fervour,
of chiva lrous e nth usiasm, o f ph ilistine sentimentalism, in the
icy water of
KARL MA R X : SELECTED WR I T I NGS
egoti stica l ca lcula tio n. It has resolved p ersona l worth into
exch a nge va lue , a nd
in pl ace o f the numbe rless indefeasible cha rtered fre edoms,
ha s set up tha t
single, uncon sciona ble freedo m- Free Tra de. In o n e word ,
fo r explo ita ti o n,
veiled by religio us a nd po litical illusio n s, it has s ubs tituted
na ked, s hameless,
direct, brutal expl o itati o n .
Th e bo urgeoisie h as stripped o f its ha lo every o ccupa tion

10. hitherto ho no ured
a nd loo ked up t o w ith reverent a we . It has con verted the
physic ia n, the lawyer,
the pr iest, the poet , the m a n o f sc ie nce into its p a id wage-
la bo urers.
The b o urgeoisie has to rn away from the family its sentim enta
l veil, a nd has
reduced the fa mily rela tio n to a me re money relatio n.
The bourgeoisie h as di sclosed h ow it ca me to pass t ha t the
bruta l d is play o f
vigour in the Middle Ages, w hich R eactio nis ts so much a d m
ire, found its fittin g
complement in the most slothful indolence. It h as been the firs
t to show w ha t
m a n 's ac tivity can br ing a bout. It has accompli sh ed wonde
rs fa r s urpassing
Egyptia n pyr a mids, Roma n a queduc ts, a nd Gothic
cathedrals; it h as conducted
expeditions tha t put in the sh a de a ll form er Exoduses o f na
tio ns a nd crusa des .
The bo urgeoisie ca nnot exist w itho ut con sta ntly revolutio
nizing the instru-
me nts of productio n, a nd there by the re la ti o ns o f produ
ction , a nd w ith them
the w ho le rela tio ns of societ y. Con serva tio n of the o ld m

11. o des o f p roductio n in
una ltered fo rm, was , o n the contra r y, the first conditi o n of
existen ce for a ll
ea rlier indus tr ia l classes . Constant r evolutio niz ing of
production, uninter-
rupted dis tur ba n ce o f a ll socia l conditions, e verlasting
uncer ta inty a nd agita -
tio n disting ui sh t he bourgeois e poch fr o m a ll ea rlier ones.
All fi xed, fas t -frozen
r elations, w ith their train of a ncient a nd venerable pre judices
a nd opinio ns, a re
s wept a way, a ll new-for med o nes becom e a ntiqu a ted
before they ca n ossify , All
t ha t is solid melts into a ir, a ll tha t is holy is profaned , and
m a n is a t last
compe lled to face w ith sober sen ses, his real conditio ns of li
fe , and his rela tions
w ith his kind.
T he need of a con sta ntly expanding m a rket fo r its produc ts
chases the bour-
geoisie over the w h ole surface of the g lo be. It m u st nestle
everywhere, settle
ever ywhere, esta blish connectio ns everywhe re.
The bourgeoisie has th ro ug h its exploitatio n of the world-m a

12. rket given a
cosm o polita n c ha racter t o produc tio n and con s umption in
every count r y. To
the grea t chagrin o f Reactionist s, it has drawn from under the
fee t of industry
the na tio na l gro und o n w hich it stood . All old -esta blished
na ti o na l indus tries
ha ve b een d estroyed o r are d a ily b eing dest royed . T hey a
re dislod ged by new
indu stries, w hose introduc tio n becomes a li fe-a nd-d eath
ques tio n fo r a ll civil-
ized na tio ns, by indus tries tha t no lo nge r work up in digeno
us raw m a t eria l, but
raw materia l d rawn from the remotest zones; ind us tries w
hose product s a re
con s umed, no t o nly a t h o me , but in ever y qua rter of t he
g lo be. In place o f the
o ld w a nts, satisfied by the productio ns of the country, we
find new wants,
requiring for thei r satisfaction the produ ct s of distant land s a
nd climes. In place
1 848AN D A FT ER I 24 9
of the old local a nd na tiona l seclusio n a nd self-s ufficiency,
we have intercourse

13. in every direc tio n , universa l interdependence o f natio ns.
And as in m ateri a l, so
a lso in intellectua l produc tion. The intellectu a l creati o ns of
individu a l nations
becom e commo n p ro pe rty. Na tio nal one-sidedness a nd na
rrow-mindedness
become more a nd m o re imposs ible, a nd fr om the numerous
n atio na l a nd loca l
literatures, the re a rises a w orld lite rat ure.
The bourgeo isie, by the rapid improvement o f a ll instruments
o f productio n ,
by the immensely fac ilita ted m ean s o f co mmu nicati o n,
draws a ll, even the most
ba rbaria n, na tions into civilizatio n. The chea p prices of its
comm odities a re the
heavy a rtillery w ith w hich it ba tter s d own a ll C hinese w a
lls, w ith w hich it
fo rces the barbaria n s' in tensely obstina te hatred o f fore igne
rs to ca pitula t e. It
co mpels a ll n a tio n s, o n pa in o f extincti o n, to a dopt t he
bo urgeo is m o de o f
producti o n; it compe ls them t o introduce w h a t it ca lls
civiliza tio n into the ir
mids t, i. e ., to becom e bourgeois them selves. In o ne wo rd ,
it creates a world

14. a fte r its own image .
T he bourgeoisie has s ubj ected the country t o the rule of the
town s. It has
creat ed en ormo u s c ities, ha s grea tly increased the urba n p
o pula tio n as com -
pa red w ith the rura l, a nd has thus rescued a considerable pa
rt o f the p o pula tio n
fr o m the idiocy o f rura l life. Just as it ha s m a de the co
untry dependent on the
towns so it has made b a rba rian a nd semi-ba rba ri a n co untr
ies dependent on ,
the c ivilized o nes, na ti o ns of peasants o n natio ns of bo
urgeois, the East o n the
West .
The bo urgeoisie keeps more and m o re d oing away w ith the
scattered st a te
of the popula tio n, o f the mea ns of produc tion , a nd of
property. It has
agglomera ted p o pula tion, ce ntralized mean s of p roduc tio n
, a nd has co ncen-
trat ed p roperty in a few ha nds. The necessa ry con sequen ce
o f th is was politica l
centra lizatio n . Indepe ndent o r but loosely co nnected
provinces, w ith separate
interests, laws, governmen ts, a nd system s o f taxati o n,

15. becam e lumped together
into one n ation, w ith one government, o n e cod e of laws, o n
e na tiona l
class-in te rest , one fr o ntier, a nd o ne c ustoms-tariff.
The bo urgeoisie , during its rule of sca rcely one hundred yea
rs, h as crea ted
m o re m assive a nd mo re c o lossal produc tive fo rces tha n
have a ll p receding
genera tions t ogether. Subjection o f Nature's forces to m a n ,
m achinery, a pplica-
tio n of ch emistry to indu stry a nd agriculture, steam -na
vigation, railways, elec-
t ric telegraphs, clearing of who le contine nts for cultiva tio n,
can a liza tio n o f
rivers, w ho le popula ti ons conjured o ut o f the ground-wha t
ea rlier century
ha d even a presentime nt tha t such p roduc tive for ces
slumbered in the la p o f
socia l la bour ?
We see the n tha t the mea ns of production a nd o f exch a nge ,
on whose fo un-
d atio n the bo urgeo isie built itself up , were generate d in
feud a l society. At a
certa in st age in the d evelo pment o f these m ea n s o f p
roductio n a nd of exchange,

16. the conditions und er w hich fe uda l socie ty p roduced a nd
excha nged , the fe ud a l
250 I KAR L MARX: SELECTED WR ITI NGS
organi zatio n of agriculture a nd manufacturing industry, in one
word, the feu-
dal relations of property become no longer compatible w ith the
already
developed productive forces; they become so many fetters. They
had to be burst
asunder; they wei:e burst asunder.
Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a
socia l a nd polit-
ica l constitution adapted to it, and by the econo mical and
political sway of the
bourgeo is class.
A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern
bourgeois
society w it h its relations of production, of excha nge a nd of
property, a society
tha t has conjured up such giga ntic means of production and of
exchange, is li ke
the sorce rer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the
net her w o rld
which he h as ca lled up by his spells. The history of industry

17. and commerce for
many a d ecade past is but the history of the revolt of modern
productive forces
against modern conditions of production, aga inst the property
relations that
are the conditions for the ex istence of the bourgeoi sie a n d of
its rule. It is
enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical
return put on
trial, eac h time more threa tening ly, the existe nce of the
entire bourgeois soci-
ety. In these c rises a great part not o nly of the existing
products, but a lso of the
p reviou sly created productive forces, are periodically
destroyed. In these c rises
there breaks out an epidemic that, in all ea rlier epochs, wou ld
have seemed an
absurdity-the epidemic of over-prod uction. Society suddenly
finds itself put
back into a stat e of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a
famine, a universal
war of devastation, has cut off the supply of ever y means of
subsistence; indus-
try and commerce seem to be destroyed; a nd w hy? Beca use
there is too much
civilization, too muc h means of subsistence, too much industr
y, too much
commerce. T he productive forces a t th e disp osa l of soc iety
no longer tend to
further t he develo pment of the co nd itions o f bourgeois

18. property; on the con-
trary, they h ave become too powerful for t hese condit ions, by
which they are
fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring
disorder into
the w h o le of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of
bourgeo is property.
The conditions of bo urgeois society a re too narrow to
comprise the wealth
created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these
crises? O n
the one ha nd by e nforced d estruc tion of a mass of productive
forces; o n the
other, by the conquest of new markets, a nd by the more
thorough exp loit-
ation of the o ld o nes . That is to say, by paving t he way for
more extensive
and more destructive crises, and by diminish ing the mea ns
whereby crises are
prevented.
The weapons w ith w hic h the bourgeo isie fe lled feud a lism t
o the gro und a re
now t urned agai nst the bourgeo isie itself.
But not o nl y has t he bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bri
ng death to
itself; it h as a lso ca lled into existence the me n w ho are to w
ield t hose
weapons-the modern work ing class-the proletarians.
In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in

19. the same pro-
portion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed-
a class of
laboure rs, w ho live only so long as they find work, and w ho
find work o n ly so
long as their labour increases capita l. These labourers, who
must sell them -
selves p iecemea l, are a commod ity, like every other article of
commerce, and
a re conseq ue ntl y exposed to a ll the vicissitudes of
competition, to all the
fl uctuations of the ma rket.
Owing to the extensive use of machi nery and to division of
labour, the work
of t he proletarians has lost all individual character, and,
consequently, all
charm for the workma n. He becomes an appendage of the
machine, and it is
only t he most simple, most monoton ous, and most easily acqu
ired knack, t hat
is req uired of h im . H ence, the cost of production of a
workman is rest ricted ,
a lmost e ntirely, to the means of subsistence t hat he requires
for his mainten-
a nce, a nd for the propagation of his race. But the price of a
commodity, and
t herefore also of labo ur, is equal to its cost of production. In
proportion, there-

20. fore, as t he repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage
decreases. Nay more,
in proport ion as the use of machinery and division of labour
increases, in the
sa me p ropo rtion the burden of to il also inc reases, w hether
by prolongation of
the working ho urs, by increase of the work exacted in a given
time or by
increased speed of the mach ine ry, etc.
Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patria
rchal master
into the g reat factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses o f
labourers, crowded
into the factory, are organ ized li ke so ldiers. As pr ivates of
the industrial army
they are p laced under the comma nd of a perfect hiera rchy of
officers and ser-
geants. Not o nly are they slaves of the bourgeois cl ass , and of
the bourgeois
State; they are dai ly and hourly enslaved by t he machine, by
the overl ooker,
and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer
himself. The more
openly this despotism procla ims gai n to be its end a nd aim,
the more petty, the
more hateful, a nd the more embittering it is.
The less the skill and exertion of strength impl ied in manual
labo ur, in other

21. words, the mo re modern industry becomes developed , the more
is t he la bour of
me n superseded by t hat of w o men. Differences of age and sex
have no longer
any distinctive social validity for the working cl ass. All are
instruments of
labour, more o r less expensive to use, accordi ng to their age
and sex.
No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the
manufacturer, so far, a t
an end, a nd he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon
by the o ther
portions of t he bourgeoisie, the landlord, t he shopkeeper, the
pawnbroker, etc.
The lower strata of the middl e class-the small tradespeople,
shopkee pers,
and retired tradesme n generally, t he ha ndicraftsmen a nd
peasants-all these
si nk grad ually into t he proleta riat, partly because their
diminutive capital does
not suffice for the sca le o n which Modern Industry is carried
on, a nd is
swamped in the competition w ith the large capitalists, partly
because their
25 2 I KARL MARX: SELECTED WR ITI NGS
specia lized skill is rendered worth less by new methods of

22. production. Thus the
prol eta riat is recru ited from all classes of the po pulation.
The proleta riat goes through various stages of d evelopment.
With its birth
beg ins its struggle wi th t he bourgeoisie. At first the contest is
carried on by
individual la bourers, the n by the workpeople of a factory, then
by the opera-
tives of one trade, in on e loca lity, aga inst the individual
bourgeois who directly
exploi ts the m . They direct their attacks not against the
bourgeois cond itions of
production, but agai nst the instruments of production
themselves; they destroy
imported wares that compete with their labour, t hey smash to p
ieces
machi nery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by
force the va nished
status of the workman of the Midd le Ages .
At this stage the la bo u rers still form an incoh ere nt mass
scatte red over the
whole country, and broken up by their mutua l competition. If
anywhere they
unite to form mo re compact bod ies, this is not yet the conseq
uence o f t heir
own active u nion , but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which
class, in order to
atta in its own po litical ends, is compelled to set t he w hole

23. proleta riat in
motion, a nd is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this
stage, therefore,
the proletarians d o not fight their enemies, but the enemies of
their enemies,
the rem nants of absolute monarchy, the la ndowners, the non-
industrial bour-
geois, the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historica l
movement is concen-
tra ted in the ha nd s of the bo urgeoisie; every vic tory so obta
ined is a vic tory for
the bo urgeoisie.
But w ith the development of industry the proletariat not o nly
increases in
n umber; it becomes concentrated in greater masses , its
strength grows, and it
feels that stre ngth more. The va ri o us interests a nd conditions
of life within the
ranks of t he pro letariat a re more and more equali zed, in
propo rtion as
machinery obliterates a ll distinctio ns of labour, and nearly
everywhere reduces
wages to the same low level. T he growing competit io n a mong
the bourgeoi s,
and the resulting commercia l c rises, m ake the wages of the
workers ever more
fluc tuating. The unceasi ng imp rovem ent of machine ry, ever
mo re rapidly
developing, makes t heir livelihood more and more precarious;
the collisions

24. between individ ual wor k men and individua l bourgeois take
more a nd more the
ch aracter of collisions between two classes. Thereupon the
workers begin to
form combina tio ns {Trades' Unio ns) aga inst the bo urgeois;
they cl u b together
in order to keep u p the rate o f wages; they fo und permanent
associa tions in
order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts
. Here and
there the contest brea ks out into riots.
Now and t hen the workers are victorio us, but on ly for a time.
The rea l fruit
o f their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever-
expa nding union
of the workers. This union is helped o n by the improved means
of com mun ica-
tion that are created by modern industry a nd tha t place the
workers of d ifferent
loca lities in contact with one another. It was just this contact
that was needed
to centralize the numerous local struggles, a ll of the same
character, into one
national struggle between classes. But every class struggle is a
politica l struggle .
And that union, t o attain w hic h t he burghers of the Middle
Ages, with their
miserable highways, required centuries, the modern

25. proletarians, t ha nks to
railways, achieve in a few years.
This organ ization of the pro letar ia ns into a class, a nd
consequently in to a
political party, is co nti nually being u pset again by the
competition between the
workers themselves. But it ever r ises up agai n, stronger,
firmer, mightier. It
compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the
workers, by taking
advantage of the divisions among t he bourgeoisie itself. Thus
the ten-hours' bill
in England was ca rried.
Altogethe r, co ll isions between the classes of the old society
further in many
ways the course of development of the p ro letariat. T he bou
rgeoisie finds itself
involved in a constant battle. At fir st w ith the aristocracy;
later on, with those
portions of the bourgeoisie itself whose interests have become
antagon istic to
the prog ress of industry; at a ll times, with the bourgeoisie of
foreign countries.
In all t hese battles it sees itself compelled to appeal to the
proletariat, to ask for
its help, a nd thus to drag it into the politica l arena. Th e bou
rgeoisie itself,

26. t he refore, supplies t he proletariat with its own elements of
political and general
education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with
weapons for fighting
the bourgeoisie.
Further, as we have a lready see n, entire sections of the rul ing
classes are, by
the advance of industry, prec ipitated into the proletariat, or are
at least threat-
ened in t heir co nditio ns o f ex istence . These also su pply the
proletariat with
fresh elements of enlightenment and progress.
Fina lly, in ti mes w hen t he class struggle nears the decisive
hour, the process
of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within t
he whole range of
o ld soc iety, assu mes such a viole nt, glaring character, that a
small section of the
ruling class c uts itself adrift, and joi ns the revo lutionary
class, the class that
holds the fut ure in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier
period, a section of
the nobility w ent over to t he bourgeo isie, so now a portion of
the bourgeoisie
goes over to t he proletariat, and in particu lar, a portion of the
bourgeois ideol-
ogists, who have ra ised themselves to the level of

27. comprehending theoretically
t he historica l movement as a whole.
Of all the classes tha t sta nd face to face with the bourgeoisie
toda y, the
proletariat alone is a really revo lutionary class. T he other
classes decay and
fi nally disappear in the face o f Modern Industry; the
proletariat is its special
and essential produc t.
The lower midd le class, the small manufacturer, the
shopkeeper, the artisan,
t he peasant, a ll these fight aga inst the bourgeoisie, to save
from extinction their
existence as fractions of the m iddle class. They are therefore
not revolutionary,
but conservative. N ay mo re, t hey a re reactionary, for they t
ry to roll back the
254 I KARL MARX: SELECTED WR ITI NGS
wheel of history. If by chance t hey a re revolu tionary, they are
so o nl y in view of
t heir im pending transfer in to the p roletariat; they thus defend
no t thei r present,
but t heir future interests, they desert their own standpo int to
place themselves
at t hat of the pro letariat.
The 'da ngerous class', the socia l scum, that passively rotting
mass thrown off

28. by the lowest layers of old society, may, here a nd t he re, be
swept into t he
movement by a proletar ia n revolution; its cond itio ns of li fe,
however, prepare it
far more for the pa rt of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.
In the conditions of the prole taria t, t h ose of o ld society a t
large a re already
virtually ~amped. The proletarian is w itho ut property; his rela
tio n to his w ife
and children ha s no longer a n ything in common with the b
ourgeois family
relations; mode rn industrial la bour, modern sub jection to ca
pita l, the same in
Eng land as in Fra nce, in America as in German y, has stripped
him of every
trace of national character. Law, morality, re ligion are to him
so many bo ur-
geois prejudices, behind w hich lurk in ambush just as ma ny bo
urgeo is
in terests.
All t he preceding classes that got the upper hand, soug ht to
fortify their
already acqui red status by subjecting society at large to their
cond itions of
appropria tio n. The prole ta ri a ns cannot become ma sters of
the productive
forces of society, except by abolish ing their own previous
mode of appropri-
a tion, a nd thereby a lso every o ther prev ious mode of

29. appropriatio n. T hey have
nothi ng of their own to sec ure and to fort ify; their mission is
to destroy a ll
previo us securities for, and insurances of, individual property. ,
All previo us hi storical m ovements were movements of
minorities, or in the
interests of minorities. T he pro leta ria n m ovement is the self-
consc ious,
independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests
of the
immense ma jority. T he proleta ria t, the lowest stratum of o ur
present society,
cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the w ho le
superincumbent strata of
officia l societ y being spru ng into the ai r.
Thoug h not in su bsta nce, yet in form, the struggle of the
proletariat w ith t he
bourgeoisie is a t first a n a tio n al struggle. The proleta riat of
each cou ntry must,
of course, fi rst of a ll settle ma tters w ith its own bourgeoisie.
In depicting t he m ost genera l phases of t he development of
the prolet ariat,
we traced the more or less veiled civi l war, raging w ithin
existi ng soc iety, up to
t he point where tha t war breaks ou t into open revolution, and
w he re the vio-
lent overth row of the bo urgeoisie lays the fo undatio n for the
sway of the

30. proletariat .
Hithe rto, every fo rm of societ y has been based, as we have
already seen, o n
the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in o rd
er to oppress a
class, certain cond itions must be assured to it under which it
can at least , ,
continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period o f
serfdom, raised h imself
to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois,
under the yoke of
I
fe udal absolut ism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. T he
modern labourer,
on the contrary, instead of rising w ith the progress of industry,
sinks deeper
and d eeper below the cond iti ons of existence of his own class.
H e becomes a
pauper, a nd pauperism develops more rapidly than population a
nd wealth.
And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit a ny
longer to be the
ru ling class in soc iety, and to impose its conditions of
existence upon society as
a n overr iding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent
to assure a n
ex iste nce to its slave within his slavery, because it ca nnot
help letting him sink

31. into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by
him. Society can
no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its exist
ence is no lo nger
co mpa tible with society.
The essential condit ion for the existence, and for the sway of t
he bourgeois
class, is the for mation a nd a ugmentatio n of capital; the
condition for capital is
wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition
between the
labourers. The advance of industry, w h ose involuntary
promoter is t he bou r-
geoisie, replaces t he isolatio n of t he la bourers, due to
competit ion, by their
revo lut io nary combination, due to association. The d
evelopment of Modern
Industry, therefore, c uts from unde r its feet the very
foundation o n w hic h the
bourgeoisie produces a nd appropriates product s. W ha t t he
bourgeoisie, there-
fore, produces, above all , is its own grave-diggers. Its fa ll and
the victory of t he
proletariat are eq ua lly inev itable.
II
Proletarians and Communists
In w hat relatio n do the Commu nists stand to the proletaria ns
as a whole?

32. The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other
working-
class parties.
T hey have no interests sepa ra te a nd apart fro m those of the
proletariat as a
w ho le.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of thei r ow n, by w
hich to sha pe
and mould the proletarian move ment.
T he Communists are distinguished from the other working-
class pa rties by
this only: r. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the
different coun-
tries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests
of the entire
proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the va rious
stages of devel-
opment w hic h the struggle of the working class aga inst the
bourgeoisie has
to pass th rough, they a lways a nd everywhe re represent the
interests of the
movement as a w hole.
The Com mu nists, therefore, are o n the o ne hand, prac tica
lly, the most
25 6 I KA RL M ARX: SE L EC T ED WR I T I NGS

33. a d vanced a nd resolute sectio n o f the working-cl ass parties
of every country,
tha t sectio n w hic h pushes forwa r d a ll others; o n the other
ha nd, theo retically,
they have over the great m ass of the prole taria t the a d va
ntage of clearly under-
s tanding the line of march, the co nditio n s, and th e ultima te
general results o f
the p ro leta ria n moveme nt.
The immedia te a im of the Communist s is the same as tha t o f
all the othe r
prolet aria n p arties: form a tio n o f the p rolet a ria t into a
class, o verthrow of the
bo u rgeois su premacy, conq uest of po lit ica l p ower by the
proleta ria t.
The theore tical conclusions of the Communists a re in no w a y
based o n ideas
or princ iples tha t h ave been invente d, or discovered , by this
o r tha t would-b e
unive rsal reforme r.
They merely express, in gen era l te rms, actua l rela tio ns
springing fro m an
ex isting class struggle, from a his to rica l movem ent going o
n under o ur very

34. eyes. The a bo lition of existing p ro perty rela tions is n ot a t
all a distinctive
fea ture of Communism.
All prope rty rela tio ns in the past ha ve continua ll y been
subject to h istorical
change con sequent upon the cha nge in historica l conditio ns.
The Frenc h R evolutio n , for exa mple, a bolished feuda l
property in favou r of
bourgeois property.
The dis ting uis hing fe ature of Communis m is not the a bo
lition o f p roperty
generally, but the a bolition o f bo urgeois p ro p erty. But
modern bourgeois
priva te property is the fina l a nd m ost com p lete express ion
o f t he system of
produc ing a nd a ppropria ting product s, tha t is based o n
class a ntagonis ms, o n
the explo ita ti o n of many by t he few.
In thi s sense, the theory of the C ommunists ma y be s ummed
up in the single
sente nce: A bo lit io n of priva te pro per ty.
We Communis ts have been reproached w ith the d esire o f a bo

35. lish ing the r ig ht
o f persona lly acquiring p roperty as the frui t o f a ma n 's own
labour, wh ich
p ro p erty is a lleged to be the gro undwork of a ll persona l
freedo m, activity, and
in depe nden ce .
H a rd-w o n, self-acquired , self-ea rned property! D o you
mean t he p roperty
of the petty a rtisan a nd of the sm a ll p easant, a for m o f prop
erty that pre-
ced ed the bourgeo is form ? There is no need to a bo lish tha t ;
the d evelopm ent
o f indu st ry has to a g reat extent a lread y dest royed it, a nd
is still destroying
it daily.
O r do you mean m o dern bourgeo is p r ivate p roperty?
But d oes wage-la bo ur crea te a ny p ro perty fo r the labourer
? No t a bit. It
crea tes capita l, i. e ., t ha t kind of property which expl oits
wage-la b o ur, a nd
w hich ca nn o t inc rea se except upon conditio n o f begetting
a n ew supply of
wage-la bo ur for ffF s h exploita tio n . Property, in its p resent

36. form, is based o n
the a ntagonis m of capita l a nd wage-la bour. Let u s exa mine
bo th sides of this
a ntagonism.
To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a
social, status in
production . Capita l is a collective prod uct, and only by the
united action of
m a ny m embe rs, nay, in the last resort, o nly by t he u n ited
action of a ll members
of so c iety, ca n it be set in mo tion .
Ca pita l is, therefore , not a perso nal, it is a social power.
W hen, the refore, capital is conve rted into common property,
into the prop-
erty of a ll membe rs of society, pe rsona l property is not
thereby transformed
into social property. It is on ly the social character of the
property that is
c ha nged . It loses its class-ch aracter.
Let us n ow ta ke wage-labour.
T he a verage price o f w age-la bou r is t he minimum wage,
i.e., t hat q uantum of
the means o f s ubsis te nce which is a bso lutely requisite to
keep the labourer in
ba re existence as a labourer. W hat, therefore, the wage-la

37. bourer appropriates
by mea ns o f his labour mere ly su ffices to pro long and
reproduce a bare exist-
ence . We by no mea ns intend to abo lish th is personal
appropriation of the
products of labour, a n a ppropriation tha t is made for the
maintenance and
re produc tion of huma n li fe, a nd tha t leaves no s u rplus w
herewit h to command
t he la bour o f othe rs. All t hat w e want to do away with is t
he miserable char-
acter of this appropri at ion , under wh ic h the labourer lives
merely to increase
ca pi tal, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of
the ruling cla ss
req uires it.
In bou rgeois soc iety, liv ing labo ur is b ut a means to
increa·se accumulated
la bour. In Communist society, accu mu lated labou r is but a
means to widen, to
enrich, to p ro m ote the ex is te nce of the la b ourer.
In b o urgeo is socie ty, therefore, t he past dominates t he
present; in Com mu n-
is t society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society
capital is

38. independe nt and has individua lity, while the living perso n is
dependent and has
no individ ua lity.
And the abol ition of this state of things is called by the
bourgeois abolition o f
individua li ty a nd free do m! And r ig htly so. The a bolition
of bourgeois indi-
viduality, bou rgeois indep endence, an d b o urgeois freedom is
un doubtedly
a ime d a t.
By freedom is meant , un der t he present bourgeois condit ions
of production,
free t rad e, free sell ing and b uying.
But if selling and buyi ng disappears, free selling and buying
disappears also .
T his ta lk about free sell ing and b uying, a nd all the other
'brave words' of our
bo urgeoisie about freed o m in gene ra l, have a mean ing, if
any, only in contrast
with rest r icted selling a nd buying, w it h the fettered traders
of t he Middle Ages,
bu t have no mea ning when o pposed to the Communistic a
bolition of buying
a nd selli ng, of the bourgeois cond itio ns o f production, and
of t he bourgeoisie

39. itself.
You a re horri fi ed at o ur intending to do away with private
proper ty. But in
258 I KA RL MARX: SE L EC TED W RITIN GS
yo ur existing societ y, priva te property is a lrea dy done away
with for nine-
tenths o f the popu la tion; its existence for the few is solely due
to its n o n-
exis te nce in the ha n ds of those nine-te nths. Yo u reproach
us, therefore, with
intending to do away w ith a form o f property, the n ecessar y
cond itio n for
w hose existence is the non-exis tence of any property for the
immense ma jority
of societ y.
In o ne word, you rep roach us with intending to do away with
your property.
Precisely so ; that is just what we intend .
From the mome nt wh en la bour can n o longer be conve rte d
into ca pital ,
money, or re nt, into a so cia l power capable of be ing mo n
opolized , i.e., from
the moment when individua l property ca n no lo nger be tra
nsfor med into bo ur-

40. geois property, in to capital, fro m tha t m o m ent, you say, indi
vidua lity vanishes.
You must, t herefore, co nfess that by 'individual ' you mean no
other person
t han the bourgeois, tha n the middle-class owner of property. T
his person must,
indeed, be swept o ut of the way, a nd ma de imp oss ible .
Communism d eprives no man of the p ower to appropriate the p
rod ucts of
socie ty; a ll that it does is to d eprive him of the powe r to
subjugat e the labour of
others by mea ns of s uch appropriation.
It ha s been o bj ected tha t upo n the abo lition of private
property a ll work w ill
cease, and universa l la ziness w ill overtake us.
According to this, bourgeois soc iet y ought long ago to have
gone t o the dogs
through s heer idleness; for those of its m embers who work
acqu ire no thing,
a nd those who acquire a nything do not work. The who le of
this objection is but
a n other expressio n of the tautology: tha t there c an no longer
be a ny wage-
la bou r when there is no lo nger any capita l.
All o bj ectio ns urged again st the Com m unis tic mode of p
roducing and

41. a ppropria ting m ateria l products have, in the same way, been
urged aga ins t the
Communistic modes of produc ing a nd appropria ting intellectu
al products. Jus t
as, to t he bo urgeo is, the disappea ra nce of class property is
the d isapp eara nce of
prod uctio n itself, so the disappearance of class c ulture is to
him identica l with
the disappeara nce of a ll c ultu re.
T ha t culture, the loss of w hich he laments, is, fo r the enor m
o us ma jority, a
m ere training to act as a machine.
But d o n 't wrangle w ith us so long as yo u apply, to o
u;'intended a bo litio n of
bourgeois property, the s ta nda ra of your bo urgeoi s notio ns
o f freedo m, c ul-
ture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but the o utgrowth o f the
conditi o ns o f yo ur
bo urgeois productio n a nd bourgeois property, just as your
jurisprudence is but
the will of your class m ad e into a law for a ll , a will w hose
essentia l c haracter
a nd directio n a re d etermine d by the economica l conditions
of existence of your
class.

42. The selfish m isconception tha t induces you to transform into
eterna l laws of
na ture a nd of reason the socia l form s springing from yo ur
present mod e of
production a nd form of property-h istorica l re lations t hat r
ise and disappea r
in t he progress o f production- this misconception you sh a re w
ith ever y ru ling
cl ass tha t has preceded you . Wha t yo u see clea rly in the
case of ancient prop-
erty, w ha t you admit in the case o f feuda l property, you a re
of co urse forbidde n
to a dmit in the case of your own bourgeois for m o f property .
Aboli tion of the fam il y! Even the m ost radical fl are up at th
is in fa m o us
p ro posa l of t he C ommunists.
O n w hat foundation is the present family, the bourgeois
family, based? O n
capita l, o n p riva te ga in . In its co mplete ly develo ped for m
this fami ly exists o nly
among the bourgeoi sie. But this state of things find s its
complement in the
practica l absence of the fam il y a m ong th e proletaria n s,

43. and in public
prostitution.
T he bo urgeois fam ily w ill va nis h as a m a tter of course w
hen its com p lem ent
vanishes, a nd both w ill va nis h w ith the van ishing of capita
l.
Do yo u ch a rge us with wanting to s top the expl o ita tio n o f
children by the ir
parents? To this crime we plead gui lty.
But, you will say, we destroy the most ha llowed o f relatio ns,
w hen we
rep lace home education by soc ial.
And your ed ucation! Is n o t that a lso socia l, and dete rmined
by the socia l
conditi o ns under wh ic h you educate, by the inter vention,
direc t or indirect, of
society, by m ea ns o f sch ools, etc.? The Com muni sts have
not in vented
the inte rvention o f societ y in educa tio n; they do but seek to
a lter the character
of that intervention, a nd to rescue ed uca tion from the
influence of t he ruling
class.

44. The bourgeois clap-trap a bout the fa mily and educatio n, a bo
ut th e h a llowed
co-relation o f parent a nd c hild, becomes a ll the m ore d isgus
ting, the more, by
the actio n of Mode rn Ind ustry, a ll fam ily t ies a mong t he
proleta ria ns a re to rn
asunde r, and their chi ldre n tran sformed into simple articles
of commerce and
instruments of la bo ur.
But you C ommunis ts wou ld introduce community of women,
screa m s t he
w ho le bourgeois ie in ch o ru s.
The bourgeo is sees in his w ife a m ere ins trument o f
productio n. H e hears
tha t the instruments of prod ucti o n a re to be explo ited in
commo n , a nd , natu r-
a lly, can come to n o other conclusion tha n that the lo t of
being commo n to a ll
w ill li kewise fa ll to the wom en.
H e has no t even a suspicion tha t the real p oi nt a imed at is to
do away w ith
the st atus of women as mere instrume nts o fprodu ction .
For t he rest, noth ing is more ridicu lo us t ha n t he virtuous

45. indig natio n of o ur
bourgeo is a t the community o f women w hich, they pretend, is
to be open ly and
o ffic ia lly esta blished by the Commun ists. T he Com munists
h ave no need to
introduce community of wom en; it ha s exis te d a lmost from
time immemoria l.
O ur bourgeo is, not content with having the w ives and d a
ughte rs o f the ir
260 I KARL M A R X : SELECTED W RITIN GS
proleta ria ns at th eir disposal, n ot to speak of common
prostitutes, take the
greatest pl easure in seducing each other's wives.
Bourgeois marriage is in rea lity a syste m of w ives in common
and thus, a t the
most, w h at the Com munists m ight possibl y be reproached w
it h, is tha t they
desire to introduce, in substitutio n for a hyp ocrit ically concea
led, a n openl y
lega lized, community of women . Fo r the rest, it is self-
evident that the a bolition
o f the present system of prod uc tion mu st bring wi th it the
abolitio n of the
community o f women springing from t hat system, i.e., of
prostitution both

46. public and priva te .
The Communi st s are furthe r reproac hed w ith desiring to
abolish co untries
a nd natio na lity.
T he work ing m en have no cou ntry. We ca nno t take from
them w hat they
have not got. Since the proletaria t must first of a ll acquire
political s uprem acy,
must rise t o be the leadi ng class o f the n a ti on , must
constitute itself the na tion ,
it is, so far, itself natio nal, thoug h not in the bourgeois sense
of the word .
Nationa l differences a nd a ntagonisms between p eoples a re d
a ily m ore a nd
more va nishing, o w ing to the deve lopm ent of the
bourgeoisie, to freedom of
commerce, to the world -market, to uni fo rmity in the mo d e o
f production a nd
in the cond itio ns of life corresponding the reto.
The supremacy of the prole ta riat w ill ca use them to va nish
still fas ter. United
actio n , of the leading c ivilized cou ntries a t least, is one of
the first cond iti ons for
the emanc ipation of the proletariat.
In proportion as the exploita tion of o ne individua l by a nother
is put an e nd
to, the exploita tion of o ne n a tion by anothe r w ill a lso be
put an end t o . In

47. proportion as the antagonism between classes within the na ti on
vanishes the , .
hostili ty o f one na tio n to a nother w ill come to a n end .
T he c harges aga inst Com mu nism m ade from a re ligious, a
philoso p h ica l,
a nd, gen era lly, from an ideo logica l standpoi nt a re not
deserving of seriou s
examinatio n .
Does it require deep intuition to com prehe nd that man's ideas,
views, a nd
conceptions, in o ne word, m a n 's con sciou sness, cha nges w
it h ever y c ha nge in
the conditions of his materia l existence, in his socia l re la tion,
and in his socia l
li fe?
W hat else does the h istory of ideas prove, tha n that
intellectual production
c ha nges its cha racter in proportion as material prod uctio n is
changed? T he
ruling ideas of each age h ave ever been the ideas o f its ruling
class.
W hen people spea k of ideas that r evolut io nize soc iety, they
do but express
the fact, tha t w ithin the o ld societ y, the ele ments of a new
one have bee n
created, a nd that the disso lution o f the o ld ideas keeps even
pace w ith the
dissolution o f the old condition s of existence.

48. When the a ncient world was in its last th roes, the a ncient
religions were
overcom e by Christianity. W he n C h ristia n ideas succumbed
in the e ig hteenth
century to ratio na list ideas, feud a l socie ty fought its death
ba ttle with the the n
revolutionary bo urgeo isie. The ideas of religious li berty a nd
freedom of con-
science mere ly gave expressio n to the sway of free
competition within the
domain of knowled ge .
'Undoubted ly,' it w ill be sa id , ' relig ious, moral ,
philosophical, a nd juridica l
ideas h ave been mod ified in the course o f historica l
development. But religio n,
morality, phil osophy, p o litical scie nce, and law consta ntl y
survived this change.'
'The re a re, besides, eterna l truths, s uc h as Freedom, Justice,
etc. , tha t are
common to a ll st a tes of socie ty. But Commu nism abolis hes
et erna l truths, it
a boli shes a ll religion a nd a ll m orality, instead of con
stituting them on a new
basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to a ll past historica l ex
perience.'
Wha t does this accusation reduce itself t o? The history o f a ll
past society has

49. consisted in the developm ent of class a ntagon isms, ant
agonism s th at assumed
different for ms at different epochs.
But w hatever for m they may h ave taken, on e fact is comm on
to a ll past ages,
viz., the explo ita tio n o f o ne part o f society by the other. No
wonder, then, that
the social consciousness of past ages, d espite a ll the
multiplicity and variety it
displa ys, moves w ithin certa in commo n forms, o r genera l
ideas, w hich canno t
com p letely va nis h except w ith the to tal disappearance of
class a ntagonisms.
The Commun ist revoluti o n is the most rad ica l rupture wi th
traditional
prope rty rela tio n s; no wonder that its deve lopment involves
the most rad ical
rupture w ith traditiona l ideas .
But let u s have d one w ith the bourgeois ob jections to Co
mmunism.
We have seen a bove, that the first st ep in the revo lution by
the work ing class
is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling cl ass, to w in
the ba ttle o f
de mocracy.
The proleta riat w ill use its po litical s upre macy to wrest, by d

50. egrees, a ll ca p-
ital from the b ourgeo isie, to centra lize a ll instruments o f p
roduction in the
ha nds of the St ate, i.e., of t he proleta riat orga nized as t he
ruling cl ass; and to
increase the tota l o f productive forces as rap idly as possib le.
Of cou rse, in the beginn ing this ca nnot be effected except by
means o f des-
potic inroad s on the rights of proper ty, a nd on the condi tions
of b ourgeo is
produc tion ; by mea ns of measures, t he refore, w hich appea r
economica lly
ins uffic ie nt a nd unte nable, but w hich, in the course of the
movement, ou tstrip
t hemselves, necessita te fu rt he r inroa d s upon the o ld socia l
order, a nd are
un avo idable as a means o f e ntirely revolutioniz ing the mode
of prod uction .
These measures w ill o f course be different in differe nt
countries.
Neverthe less, in the m ost a dvanced cou ntries, the fo llowing
w ill be pretty
ge nera lly a pplica ble.
I.
Aboliti o n o f property in la nd a nd applicatio n o f a ll rents
of la nd to public

51. purposes.
262 I KARL MARX: SELECTE D W RITIN GS
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3 . Abo lit ion of a ll rig ht of inherita nce.
4. Confisca tion of the property of a ll emigrants a nd re bels.
5. Centralizatio n of credit in the ha nd s of the State, by means
of a na tio na l
ba nk w ith State capita l a nd an excl usive monopo ly.
6. Centra lization o f the means of communication a nd
transport in the ha n ds
of the State .
7. Extensio n of factories and instruments o f prod uc tion
owned by the State;
the bringing into cultiva tio n o f waste la nd s, and t he
improvem ent o f the
soil genera lly in accordance with a co mmo n p la n.
8 . Eq ua l lia bility o f a ll to la b o ur. Estab lish ment of
industria l a rmies,
esp ecia ll y for agriculture.
9. Combina tion of agric ulture w ith manu factu ring industries;
gradu a l
abolition of the distinction bet ween tow n and country, by a
more equable
distribution o f the popul ation over the country.

52. ro. Free ed ucation for a ll children in public sch ools. Abol itio
n o f chil dren 's
factory labour in its present fo rm. Com bination of educa tion
w ith
industria l productio n, e tc., etc.
When, in the course of d evelopment, class distincti ons have
disappeared, a nd
a ll production has been concentrated in t he ha nds o f
associated indi vidua ls, the
public p ower w ill lose its po litica l c haracter. Po litica l
power, properly so ca lle d,
is merely the organized power of one class fo r oppress ing
another. If th e p ro le-
taria t during its contest with the bourgeo isie is compelled , by
the force of
c irc umsta n ces, to orga nize itself as a cl ass , if, by mea ns of
a revo lution, it m a kes
itse lf the ruli ng class, and, as such , sweeps away by force the
o ld conditio ns of
produc tio n , then it w ill , a long w ith these cond itions, have
swept away t he
conditions fo r the existence of class antagonisms a nd of
classes genera lly, a nd
w ill thereby h ave abolished its own supremacy as a class.
In p lace of the o ld bourgeois society, w ith its classes an d
class a ntagon isms,
we sha ll ha ve a n associa ti on, in w hich the free development
of each is the
condition fo r the free d evelopment of a ll.

53. III
Socialist and Communist Literature
r. Reactionary Socialism
(a) Feudal Socia lism. O w ing to their historica l positio n, it
became the voca -
tion of the a ristocracies o f France and Eng la nd to write
pamphlets aga inst
modern bo urgeois society. In the French revolu tion of J uly
1830, and in the
English reform agitatio n , these a rist ocracies aga in
succumbed to the ha tefu l
upstart. Thencefo rth , a serio us po litical contest was a
ltogether o ut o f the
q uestion. A li tera ry battle a lo ne remained poss ible. But
even in the doma in of
literature the o ld cries o f the restoration period ha d beco me
imposs ible.
In o rder to a ro use sy mpa thy, the aristocracy were obliged to
lose sight,
a pparently, o f their ow n interests, and to formu la te their
indic tment agai nst the
bourgeoisie in the interest o f the exploited w orking class a lo
ne. T hus the
aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their n
ew master, a nd
w hispering in his ears sinister prophecies of coming

54. catastrophe.
In thi s way arose Feud a l Soc ia lism: ha lf lamenta tion, hal f
lampoon; ha lf ech o
of the past, ha lf menace of t he futur e; at times, by its bitter, w
itty, a nd incisive
criticism, striking the bo urgeo isie to the very heart's core; but
a lways ludicrous
in its effect, t h rough tota l incapacity t o comprehend the
march of modern
history.
The a rist ocracy, in o rder to rally t he peo ple to them, waved
the proleta rian
a lms-bag in front for a banner. But the people, so often as it jo
ined them, saw
o n the ir hindqua rters the o ld fe uda l coats of arms, and d
eserted with loud a nd
irreverent la ughte r.
One section of the French Legitimists and 'Young Eng la nd'
exhibited this
sp ectacle.
In pointing o ut t h at their mode of exploitation was diffe rent
to that of the
bourgeoisie, t he fe uda lists forget tha t they exploited unde r c
irc umsta nces a nd
c onditions tha t were q uite different, and tha t are now a ntiqu
ated. In show ing
that, under their rule, the modern proleta riat never existed, t
hey forget that

55. the modern bourgeoisie is the n ecessary offspring o f their own
fo rm of
soc iety.
For the rest, so little do they concea l the reacti onar y c
haracter o f their criti-
c ism tha t t heir chief accusation aga inst the bourgeoisie a mo
unts to this, that
under the bourgeois regime a class is being developed, whic h is
d estined to c ut
up root a nd branch t he o ld o rder o f society.
What they upbraid the bourgeoisie w ith is not so m uc h th at it
crea tes a
proleta riat, as that it c rea tes a revolutiona ry prolet ar ia t.
In p o litica l practice, therefore, they join in a ll coercive
measures aga inst the
work ing class; a nd in ordina ry life, despite their h ig hfa lutin
phrases, they stoop
t o pick up the golden apples dropped from the tree of industry,
a nd to b a rter
truth, love, a nd h o nou r for traffic in wool, suga r-beet, a nd
potato spirits.
As the parson ha s ever go ne h a nd in hand with t he la nd lord
, so has C le rical
Socia lism w ith Feud a l Socialism.
Nothing is easier than to give C hristian ascetic ism a Socia list
tinge. H as not

56. C h ristia nity declaimed aga inst private property, aga inst
marriage, against
the State? Has it not preached in the p lace of these ch a rity a
nd poverty,
ce libacy a nd mortifica tio n of t he flesh, mo n astic li fe a nd
Mother C hurch?
2 6 4 I KAR L M ARX: SE L E C T ED WR I T I NGS
C hristia n Socia lism is but the holy wa ter w ith w hic h the
priest consecrates t he
hea r t- bu rn ings of the a ristocrat.
(b) Petty- Bo urgeo is S ocialism. The feudal aristoc racy was
not the o nly class
tha t was ruine d by the bo urgeoisie, n ot the o nl y class w h
ose condit io ns o f
existence pined a nd p erishe d in the a tmosphere o f modern
bourgeois society.
The medieva l burgesses a nd the sma ll peasant p ro prieto rs
were the p recursors
o f the m o dern bo urgeoisie. In those countries whic h a re but
little deve loped,
industria ll y a nd commercia lly, these two classes still
vegetate side by side with
the rising bo urgeo isie.
In co unt ri es w here modern civiliza tion has become full y d
eveloped , a new
class o f p etty bo urgeois has been fo rmed, fluc tua ting

57. between prole taria t a nd
b o urgeo isie a nd ever re newing itself as a s upplem enta r y p
a rt of bourgeois soci-
ety. The individua l members o f this class, however, are being
constantly hurled
down into the proletaria t by t he actio n o f competition , a nd,
as m odern industry
develops, they even see the m om ent a pproac hing w hen they
w ill com p lete ly
disa ppear as a n independent sectio n of m odern soc ie ty, to
be replaced, in manu -
fa ctures, agriculture, :md comme rce, by ove rloo kers, bailiffs,
a nd sh o pmen.
In countri es like France, w here the peasants constitute fa r m o
re than ha lf of
the popula ti on, it was na tural tha t w riters w ho sided w it h
the pro letariat
against the bo urgeoisie sh o uld use, in their critic ism of the
bourgeois regime,
the sta ndard of t he pea sa nt a nd petty bo urgeois, a nd fro m
the sta ndpoint of
these intermedi a te classes sho uld ta ke u p the cudge ls fo r
the w orking class.
Thus arose petty-bourgeoi s So cia li sm. Sismondi w as the
head of this school',
no t o nly in France but a lso in Engla nd.
This sch ool o f Socia lism dissected w ith grea t acuteness t he
contrad ic tions in

58. the condit io ns of modern p roduc tio n. It laid ba re the
hypocritical apologies o f
econom ists. It p roved , incont rovertibly, th e d isa st rous
effects of machi nery and
divisio n o f la bo ur; the co ncentrati o n o f capita l and la n d
in a few ha nds; over-
productio n a nd crises; it po inted o ut the inevita ble ruin of t
he petty bo urgeo is
and peasant, the misery of the pro leta riat, the ana rc hy in p
roduction, t he c rying
ine qua lities in the di stribution o f wealth , the industria l w a
r o f extermin a tio n
between nations, the dissolut ion o f o ld mora l bonds, o f the o
ld fami ly
rela tio ns, of the old na ti ona lities .
In its positive a ims, however, t his form of Socia lism aspires
either to restori ng
the o ld m ea ns of prod uction and of exchange, and with the m
t he old property
relation s, a nd th e o ld societ y, o r to cra mping the m ode rn
m eans o f producti o n
and o f excha nge, within the fra mework o f the old prope rty re
la tio ns tha t have
been, a nd we re bo und to be, explo ded by those mean s. In
either case, it is both
reactio n ary a nd Utopia n .
Its last word s a re: corporate guilds fo r manufacture, patri a
rcha l rela tio ns in
agricultu re . ·
Ult imate ly, w hen stu bborn historica l facts had dispersed all

59. intoxicating
effects of se lf-decep tio n, th is for m of Social ism ended in a
miserable fit of the
blues .
(c) German, or 'T me', Socialism. T he Socialist and Communist
literatu re of
Fra nce, a li te rat ure that originated under the pressure of a
bourgeoisie in
power, a nd t hat was the express ion o f the struggle against
this power, was
int roduced into Ge rma ny at a time when the bourgeoisie, in
that country, had
just begun its contest w it h feuda l abso lut ism .
German p hilosophers, would -be philosophers, and beaux
esprits, eagerly
seized on this lite rature, on ly forge tt ing t hat when t hese
writings immigrated
fr om France into Ge r ma ny, Frenc h social con ditions h ad
not immigrated along
w ith them . In contact w ith German social conditions, this
French literature lost
all its immediate practical signi fi cance, and assumed a purely
literary aspect.
T h us, to t he German philosophers of t he eighteenth century,
the demands of
the first Frenc h Revolut io n were noth ing m ore than the

60. demands of 'Practica l
Reason ' in genera l, a nd the uttera nce of the will of the revolu
tionary French
bou rgeoisie signified in their eyes the laws of p u re Will, o f
Will as it was bound
to be, of true hu man Will genera lly .
T he wor k of the Ge rm a n literati consisted solely in bringing
the new French
ideas into harmony with their ancient ph ilosophical conscience,
or rather, in
a nnexi ng the French ideas w ithout d eserting their own
philosophic point of
view.
This a n nexa tion took pl ace in the sa me way in wh ich a fo
reign language is
a ppropri ated , namely, by trans lation.
It is we ll k nown how the mon ks wrote silly lives of Cath olic
Saints over the
manuscripts o n whic h the classica l works of ancient heathen
dom had been
w rit ten. T he German literati reversed t his process with the
profane French
literature. They wrote their p hilosoph ica l nonsense beneath t
he French ori-
gina l. For insta nce, beneath t he French cr iticism of t he
econom ic functions
of mo ney, t hey w rote 'A liena tio n of Hum anit y', and
beneath t he French criti-

61. c ism o f the bourgeois St a te they wrote ' D ethronement of the
Category of the
General', a nd so fo rth.
The introd uctio n of these phi losophica l phrases at the back of
the French
historical critic isms they d ubbed 'Ph ilosophy of Actions',
'True Socialism',
'German Science of Socialism', ' Ph ilosophical Foundation of
Socialism', and
so o n.
T he French Socialist and Communist literature was th us com
pletely emascu-
la ted. And , since it ceased in the ha nds of t he German to
express the struggle of
one class w it h t he other, he fe lt conscio us of having
overcome 'French one-
sidedness' and of rep resenti ng, not t rue requirements, but the
requirements of
Truth; not the interest s of the proletariat, but the interests of
Human Nature, of
-
266 I KARL MARX: SELECTED WR I T I NGS
Man in genera l, w ho belongs to no class, has no rea lity, who
ex ist s o nl y in the
misty realm of philosophical fantasy.

62. This Ger man Socialism, w hic h took its sch oo lboy task so
serio usly and sol-
emnly, a nd exto lled its poor stock-in-trade in such mountebank
fas hion,
meanwhile gradually lost its pedantic innocence.
The fight of the Germ a n , a nd , especially, o f the Prussian
bourgeoisie, against
feuda l aristocracy and abso lute monarchy, in other words, the
liberal
movement, became more earnest.
By this, the long wished-for opportunity was offered to 'True'
Socialism of
confronting the political movement with the Socialist demands,
of hurling the
traditional anathemas aga inst libera lis m, aga inst rep resenta
tive government,
aga inst bourgeois competition, bourgeois freedom of the press,
bourgeois legis-
latio n, bourgeois liberty a nd equa lity, and of preaching to the
masses th at they
had nothing t o gain, a nd everything to lose, by this bourgeois
movement.
Germ an Soc ialism forgot , in the nick of time, that the French
criticism, w hose
si lly echo it was, presupposed the existence of modern

63. bourgeois soc iety, with
its corresponding economic cond itio n s of existence , and the
political constitu-
t ion adapted thereto, the very things whose atta inment was the
o bject of the
pending struggle in Germany.
To the absolute governments, with their following of parsons,
professors,
country squires, and o fficia ls, it served as a welcome
scarecrow aga ins t the
threatening bourgeoisie.
It was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and
bullets with w hic h
these same govern ments, just at that time, dosed the German
working-class
r isings.
Whi le this 'True' Socialism thus served the governments as a
weapon for
fighting the Germ a n bourgeoisie, it at the same time, directly
represented a
reactionary interest, the interest of the Germa n Philistines. In
Germany the
petty-bourgeois class, a relic of the sixteenth century, and since
then constantly
cropping up agai n under various for m s, is the real socia l

64. basis of the existing
state o f things.
To preserve this class is to preserve the existing state of things
in Germa ny.
The industria l a nd politica l s uprem acy of the bourgeoisie
threa tens it w ith
certa in destruction; o n the one h and, from the concentration
of capital; on the
other, from the rise of a revolutionary proletariat. 'True'
Socialism appeared t o
kill these two birds with o ne stone. It spread like a n epidemic .
The robe of speculative cobwebs , embroidered with fl owers of
rhetor ic ,
steeped in the dew of sick ly sentiment, this transcendental robe
in w hic h the
Germ an Socia lists wrapped their sorry 'eternal tru ths', a ll
skin and bone,
served wonderfu lly to increase the sale of their goods a mong s
uch a public.
And o n its part, German Socialism rec more a nd more, its own
ca lii.ng as the bombastic representative of the petty-bourgeois
Philistine.
,,_ ----
It proclaimed the Germa n nation to be the mode l na ti on, a nd

65. the Germa n
petty Philistine to be the typica l man. To every villainous mea
nness of this
model man it gave a hidden, hig her, Socia listi c interpretation,
the exact con-
trary of its rea l character. It went to the extre me length of
directly oppos ing the
' bruta ll y destructive' tendency of Communis m, a nd of procla
iming its supreme
and impartial contempt of a ll class struggles. W ith very few
exceptio ns, a ll the
so-called Socia list a nd Communist publications that now
(1847) circulate in
Germany belong to the doma in of this foul and enervating
literatu re.
2. Conservative, or Bourgeois, Socialism
A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of red ressing socia l
grieva nces, in order to
secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.
To this section belo ng economists, p hil anth ropists, h
umanitaria ns,
improvers of the condition of the worki ng class, organizers of
charity, members

66. of societies for the prevention of cruelty to a nimals,
temperance fanatics, ho le-
and-corner reformers of ever y imaginable kind. This form of
Socia lism has,
moreover, been worked o ut into comp lete systems .
We may cite Proudhon's Philosophie de la misere as an example
of this form .
The Socialistic bourgeo is want a ll the adva ntages of modern
socia l condi-
tions w itho ut the struggles a nd dangers necessa rily res ul ting
from them . They
desire t he existing state of society minus its revolutionary a nd
disintegrating
e lements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat.
The bourgeoisie
natura ll y conceives the world in which it is s upreme to be the
best; and bour-
geois Socia lism develops this co mforta ble conceptio n into
vario us more or less
complete systems. In requiring the pro letariat to carry out such
a system, and
t hereby to m arch straightaway into the socia l New Jerusalem,
it but requires in
rea lity that the proletariat s ho uld remain within the bounds of
existing society,

67. but shou ld cast away a ll its hatefu l ideas concerning the
bourgeoisie.
A second and more practica l, but less systematic, form of this
Socia lism
sought to d epreciate every revolutionary movement in the eyes
o f the working
class, by s howing tha t no mere politica l reform, but only a
change in the
m aterial conditions of existence, in economica l relations,
could be of any
advantage to them. By changes in the material conditions of
existence,
this fo rm of Socia lism, h owever, by no means understands
abolition of the
bourgeois relations of production, a n a bo lition that can be
effected only by a
revolution, but ad ministrative reforms, based on the continued
existence of
these relations; reforms, therefore, tha t in no respect affect the
relations
be tween capital a nd labour, but, at the best, lessen the cost,
and simplify the
a dminis t rative work, of bourgeois governm ent.

68. Bourgeois Socia lism attains adequ ate expression w hen, a nd
on ly w hen, it
becomes a mere figure of speech.
Free trade: for the benefit of the working class. Protective
duties: for the
268 I KARL MARX : SELEC T ED WR ITI NGS
benefit o f the work ing class . Pr ison Reform: for t he benefit
o f the work ing
class . This is the last word a nd the o nl y seriously meant wo
rd of bourgeois
Socialism.
It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois-for
the benefi t of
the working class .
3. Critical-Utopian So cialism and Communism
We do not here refer to that literature which, in every g reat
modern revolution,
has always given voice to the demands of the proleta riat, suc h
as the writings of
Babeuf and others .
The first direc t attempts of the prol etariat to atta in its own
ends, mad e in
times of uni versa l excitement, w h en fe udal soc iety w as

69. being overthrown, t hese
attempts necessarily failed, owing to the the n undevelo ped
state of the prole-
tariat as well as to the absence of t he economic condit io ns for
its e mancipa tion, ,
conditions that had yet to be produced , and cou ld be produced
by the im pend-
ing bourgeo is epoch alone. The revo lutio nary literature th a t
accompanied these
first movements of the prole tari a t had necessaril y a
reactionary character. It
inculcated unive rsa l ascetism and socia l levelling in its c
rudest form.
The Socia list a nd Communist systems properl y so called ,
those of Sa int-
Si mo n, Fo urie r, Owen, a nd othe rs, spring into existe nce in
the ea rly
un developed period, d escribed above, o f the struggle between
proletariat a nd
bourgeoisie (see Section I. Bourgeoisie and Proleta riat).
The founde rs of these syst ems see, indeed, the class a ntago
nisms , as well as
the action of the decomposing elements, in the preva iling form
of societ y. But
the proleta riat, as yet in its infancy, offers to the m t he
spectacle of a class
without any histo rica l initia tive or a ny independent p o litical
movement.
Since the development of class antagonism keeps even pace

70. with the devel-
opment o f industry, the economic situatio n, as they find it,
does n ot as yet offer
to them the m a teri al condi tio ns for the emancipation of the
proletariat. They
the refore sea rch after a new soc ia l science, after new socia l
laws, that a re to
c reate these conditions.
Historica l actio n is to yield to their persona l inve ntive actio
n, historica lly
created conditions of emancipation to fa ntastic o nes, a nd the g
radua l, spon -
ta neous class-orga nizatio n of the pro letariat to a n o rga
nization of society
specially contrived by these inventors. Future history resolves
itself, in t heir
eyes, into the propaganda and the practica l carryi ng out o f
thei r socia l p la ns.
In the for ma tion of the ir plans they are conscious of caring c
hie fl y fo r the
inter est s of the work ing class, as being the most suffering
class . Only fro m the
point of view o f being the most suffering class does the p ro
letariat exist fo r
them.
The undeveloped state of th e class struggle, as well as their ow
n surround-

71. ings, ca uses Socialists of this kind t o consider themselves fa r
superior to a ll
class antagonisms . They want to improve the condition of every
member of
society, even that of the m ost favoured. H ence, t hey ha
bitually appeal to soci-
ety at la rge, witho ut distinctio n of class; nay, by preference,
to t he ruling class.
For how can people, whe n o nce they understand thei r system ,
fai l to see in it
the best possible plan of the best possible state of society?
Hence, they reject a ll politica l, and especially all revolut
ionary, action; they
w ish to atta in their ends by peaceful means, and endeavour, by
small experi-
ments, necessarily doomed to failure, and by the force of
example, to pave the
way for the new socia l Gospel.
Suc h fa ntastic pictures of futur e societ y, pain ted at a time
when the prole-
tariat is sti ll in a ver y undeveloped state a nd has but a fantast
ic conception o f its
own pos ition, correspond w ith the fi rst instinctive yearnings
of that class for a
general reconstruc tion of soc iety.
But t hese Socia list and Commun ist publications contain also a
critical elem-

72. e nt. They a ttack every principle of existing society. Hence
they are full of the
most valuable materials fo r the enlighte nment of the working
class. The prac-
tical measures proposed in them-such as the abolition of the d
istinction
between tow n a nd country, of the fa mily, of the carrying on of
industries for
the account o f private individua ls, a nd of the wage system ,
the proclamation of
socia l ha rmony, the conversion o f the functions of the State
into a mere super-
inte ndence of prod uction, all these proposals point solely to
the disappearance
of class antagon isms which were, at that time, only just
cropping up, and
which in these publications, a re recognized in thei r ea rliest,
indistinct, and
undefined forms only. T hese proposa ls, therefore, are o f a
purely Utopia n
character.
The sig ni ficance of C ritica l-Utopian Socialism and
Communism bears an
inverse relation to historical development. In proportion as the
modern cl ass
struggle develops and takes defi nite shape, this fantast ic
standing apart from
the contest, these fantas tic attacks on it , lose all practical va
lue and all theor-
etica l justificatio n. Therefore, a lt ho ugh the o riginators of

73. these systems were, in
ma ny respects, revo lutiona ry, their discip les have, in every
case, formed mere
reactionary sects . T hey hold fas t by the original views of their
masters, in
opposition to the p rog ressive historica l development of the
proletariat. They,
t herefore, endeavour, and that consistently, t o deaden the class
struggle and to
reconc ile the class antagon isms. They still dream of
experimental realization of
thei r socia l Utopias, of fo undi ng isolated 'phalansteres', of
establishing 'Home
Colonies', of setting up a 'Little Ica ri a'- duodecimo ed itions of
the New
Jerusa lem-a nd to rea lize a ll these castles in the air they are
compelled t o
appea l to t he fee lings ·a nd purses of t he bourgeois. By
degrees they sink into the
category of t he reactionary conservative Socialists depicted
above, differ-
ing from t hese only by more systematic pedantry, and by their
fanatical a nd
superstitious belief in the miraculous effects of their social
science.
2 70 I KARL M ARX: SELECT ED WR I TI NGS
Th ey, therefore, v io lently oppose a ll po litica l action on the
part o f the work-

74. ing class; such action, according to them, can on ly resu lt from
blind un bel ief in
the new Gospel.
The Owenites in Engla nd a nd the Fouri erists in France,
respective ly, o ppose
the C hartists a nd t he R eformistes.
IV
Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing
Opposition Parties
Sectio n II h as made clear t he rela tions of the Communists to
the ex isting
working-class parties, such as the C ha rtists in Eng la nd a nd
the Agrarian
Reformers in America.
The Communists fi ght for the a tta inment of the immedia te
aims fo r t he
enforcement of t he momentary interests of the working class;
but in the move-
ment o f the present, they a lso represent a nd take care of the fu
t ure of that
move ment. In France the Communists a lly the mselves wit h
the Socia l-
Democrats, aga inst the con se rvative and radical bourgeoisie,
reserv ing, how -
ever, the right to take u p a c ritical p ositio n in regard to
phrases and illusions
traditionally handed d own from the g reat Revo lution.
In Switzerla nd they support the Ra dica ls, w itho ut losing

75. sight o f the fac t that
this party consists of a ntagonistic e le ments, partly of
Democratic Sociali sts, in
t he French sense, partly of ra dica l bo urgeois.
In Poland they suppo rt the party tha t insists on an agrarian
revolu tion as the
p rime conditio n for n a tiona l emancipatio n, t ha t pa rty w
hich fo mented the
insurrecti on o f C racow in 184 6.
In Germa ny they fi ght with t he bourgeoisie w he never it act s
in a revolution -
ary way, aga inst the a bsolute mona rchy, the feudal squirea rc
hy, a nd the petty
bo urgeoisie.
But they never cease, for a single instant, to instil into the work
ing class the
clearest possible recognition o f the hostile antagonism b
etween bourgeoi sie
and proletariat, in order tha t the Ge rma n workers may stra igh
taway use, as so
many weapons aga inst the bo urgeo isie, t he socia l a nd
politica l condit ions t hat
the bo urgeo isie must necessarily introduce a lo ng with its
supremacy, a nd in
order that, a fter the fa ll of the reactionary classes in Germany,
the fig ht aga inst
the bourgeoisie itself may im med iately begin.
The Communists turn their attention chiefl y to Germa ny, beca

76. use t hat coun-
try is o n the eve of a bourgeois revo lu tion t ha t is bound to
be carried o ut under
more advanced conditions of European c ivilization , a nd w ith
a m uc h mo re
developed prole tariat, than t hat of England was in the
seventeenth, and of
Fra nce in the eighteenth century, and because t he bourgeois
revolu tion in
Germa ny wi ll be b ut the prelude to an immediately following
proletarian
revolutio n.
In short, the Com m unists eve rywhe re support every
revolutionary move-
men t aga inst the existing social a nd po lit ica l o rder of t
hings.
In a ll these movements they bring to the front, as the leading
question in
each, the property question, no matter w hat its degree of
developmen t at the
time.
Fina lly, they labour everywhe re fo r the union a nd agreement
of the
de mocratic p arties of a ll countries.
The Communists disdain to concea l their views and aims. They
openly
decla re tha t their ends can be atta ined only by the forcible

77. overthrow of all
existi ng socia l conditions. Let the ruling classes tremb le at a
Communistic
revo lu tion . The proleta ria ns have nothing to lose but their
chains. They ha ve a
world to win .
WORK IN G MEN O F ALL COUNTRI ES , UNITE!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ORIGINAL
MEW, Vol. 4, pp. 461 ff.
PRESENT TRANSLATION
MESW, Vol. 1, pp. 461 ff. Reproduced by kind permission of
Lawrence & Wishart Ltd.
OTHER TRANSLATIONS
The first translation was by Helen Macfarlane, published in
1850 in Harney's Red
Republican. The well -known translation, t hat by Samuel
Moore reprn duced here, dates
from 1888. There is a further translation by Eden and Cedar
Paul published in 1930 .
Also, K. Marx, The 1848 Revolutions, New Yor k, 1973 . K.
Marx, Later Political Writings,
ed. T. Carver, Cambridge, 1996 .

78. COMMENTARIES
F. Benker, ed., The Communist Manifesto, New York, 1988.
M . Cowling, ed., The Communist Manifesto: New
Interpretations, Edinburgh, 1998.
H. Draper, The Adventures of the Communist Manifesto,
Berkeley, Calif., 1994.
D. Fernbach, Introduction to K. Marx, The 1848 Revolutions,
New York and London, 1973.
J . Foster, 'The Communist Manifesto and t he Environment',
Socialist Register, 1998.
-
272 I KARL MARX : SELECTED WRIT I NGS
E. Hobsbawm, Introduction to The Communist Manifesto,
London, 1998.
R. Hunt, The Political Ideas of Marx and Engels, Pittsbu rgh
and London, 1975, Vo l. 1, pp.
176 ff.
H. Laski, Introduct ion to The Communist Manifesto, Socialist
Landmark, London, 1948.
D. Ryazanov, The Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels,
New York and London, 1930.

79. D. Strui k, The Birth of the Communist Manifesto, New York,
1971.
Studies in Marxism, Special Issue devoted to The Communist
Manifesto, Vol. 4, 1 997.
A. J .P. Taylor, Introduction to The Communist Manifesto,
Harmondsworth, 1 967.
Y. Wagner and M. Strauss, 'The Programme of the Communist
Manifesto and its Theoretica l
I mp lications', Political Studies, Dec. 1969.