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Proletarians and Communists

What distinguishes the communists from other working class parties? Marx states that the communists do not form a separate party opposed to other proletarian parties, and that they hold up no sectarian principles of their own, but that they are differed only in the sense that they highlight the common struggle of the proletariat as a whole.

Marx: The Communists are distinguished from the other working class parties by this only: (1) In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. (2) In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole. (77)

What is the aim of the Communist Party? They exist in the hopes to overthrow the bourgeoisie in the hopes of the formation of a proletariat into a political power.

Marx: The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat (77)

What is the Communist Party's relationship to property? They do not aim to do away with the establishment of property in general, but rather the private property of the bourgeoisie. It is the property and capital of the bourgeoisie that grants them political power.

but

Marx: The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few.

Marx states that the only institution of private property that will be abolished is that of the bourgeoisie ideal. He states that the pre-existing form of property acquisition, that of petty artisan and of the small peasant (_) was abolished with the development of bourgeois industry.

He states that wage labor, that of the industrial model, produces no kind of property for the laborer, but rather a form of capital that exploits the laborer. Capital, in this sense, is not something personal that someone can own but rather a form of social power.

What is the Communist Party's relationship to labor? To the bourgeoisie, labor is only a means to increase labor. To the Communists, labor is only a means of which to facilitate the personal growth of the worker

Marx: The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely requisite in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. All that we want to do away with, is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it. In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to increase accumulated labor. In Communist society, accumulated labor is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the laborer (_)

For Marx, labor that exists only to achieve a bare minimum of subsistence is an inherently exploitative mechanism of the bourgeoisie . Labor should not exist only to increase capital, nor should it exist only in the interest of the ruling class.

What is the Communist Party's concept of freedom and individualism? For the bourgeoisie, freedom is only freedom in the sense of freedom of unrestricted commercial pursuits. For the communists this kind of freedom presents a kind of dependence of the person and individuality of capital rather than vice versa.

Marx: In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society,

the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at (_)

Marx: From the moment when labor can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolized, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say individuality vanishes (_).

He states that, to the bourgeoisie, the inability to pursue increases in capital is the end of individuality. But for communism, there is no limitation on man's ability to appropriate the products of society itself, it only limits his ability to exploit the labor of others. To the bourgeoisie, this produces laziness. For the communist, it is the bourgeoisie model of industrialism that is the height of laziness.

What is the Communist Party's relationship to the family unit? The communist party calls for the abolition of the bourgeoisie model of family and familial relationships. They believe that this model is based inherently upon capital production and private gain.

Marx: On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution. The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital (_)

What is the Communist Party's relationship to women? To the bourgeoisie, women are only useful in the sense that they reproduce, in turn producing more capital

Marx: The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common and, naturally, can come to no other

conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women (_)

The communists seek to put an end to this system of subjugation as a whole, a system Marx relates to prostitution

Marx: For the rest, it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution both public and private (_)

What is the Communist Party's relationship to nations and country? They call for an abolition of nationality and country. He states that the proletariat have no country, but that they themselves constitute a kind of nation

Marx: The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word

How have the bourgeoisie facilitate this breakdown of the nation among the proletariate?

Marx: National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the worldmarket, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto. The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. United action, of the leading civilized countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat (_).

What is the Communist Party's relationship to religion? There's a sort of ideal that, as with other modes of religion, Christianity will be done away with with the rise of the communist party. He illustrates the shift away from Christianity as a sort of natural progression of history.

Marx: When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religionswere overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge

Overall, what are the Communist Party's aims for the proletariat society? 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. 5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. 6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the Improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. 8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of

education with industrial production (_)

Discussion Questions:

Given the ten aims outlined for the Communist party, do you feel like this type of system could necessarily be considered utopian?

Do you believe that this system can be implemented in societies that have long standing histories of capitalism, even if the 'proletariat' decided to rise?

What kind of movements in our current society reflect all or parts of this ideology? Occupy movement?

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