B O U R G E O I S AN D P R O L E T A R I A N S
i. B ou rg eois a n d P ro le ta ria n s*
T h e history o f all hitherto existing society! ^ the history o f class
struggles.18
Freem an and slave, patrician an d plebeian, lord and serf,
guild-m asterj and jou rn eym an , in a w ord, oppressor and
oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried
on an uninterrupted, n ow hidden, now open fight, a fight that
each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution o f
society at large, or in the com m on ruin o f the contending classes.
In the earlier epochs o f history, w e find alm ost everywhere
a com plicated arrangem ent o f society into various orders, a
m anifold gradation o f social rank. In ancient R om e w e have
patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the M iddle Ages, feudal
lords, vassals, guild-masters, jou rn eym en , apprentices, serfs; in
almost all o f these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
* By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of
social production and employers o f wage labour. By proletariat, the class of modern
wage-labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to
selling their labour power in order to live. [Note by Engels to the EngUsh edition o f 1888.]
■f That is, all written history. In 1847, the pre-history of society, the social organization
existing previous to recorded history, was all but unknown. Since then, Haxthausen
discovered common ownership of land in Russia, Maurer proved it to be the social
foundation from which all Teutonic races started in history, and by and by village
communities were found to be, or to have been the primitive form of society
everywhere from India to Ireland. The inner organization of this primitive Commu­
nistic society was laid bare, in its typical form, by M organ’s crowning discovery of
the true nature o f the gens and its relation to the tribe. With the dissolution of these
primeval communities society begins to be differentiated into separate and finally
antagonistic classes. I have attempted to retrace this process of dissolution in: D er
Ursprung der Familie, des Priva teigenthums und des Staats (The Origin o f the Family, Private
Property and the State), 2nd edition, Stuttgart 1886. [Note by Engels to the English edition o f
1888.]
J Guild-master, that is, a full member of a guild, a master within, not a head of a
guild. [Note by Engels to the English edition o f1888.]
219
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
T h e m odern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the
ruins o f feudal society has not done aw ay with class antagonisms.
It has but established new classes, new conditions o f oppression,
new form s o f struggle in place o f the old ones.
O u r epoch, the ep o ch o f the bourgeoisie, possesses, how ever,
this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms.
Society as a w hole is m ore and m ore splitting up into two great
hostile cam ps, into two great classes directly facing each other:
Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.19
From the serfs o f the M iddle Ages sprang the chartered
burghers o f the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first
elements o f the bourgeoisie w ere developed.
T h e discovery o f A m erica, the rounding o f the C ape, opened
up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. T h e East-Indian
and Chinese markets, the colonization o f A m erica, trade with
the colonies, the increase in the m eans o f exchange and in
com m odities generally, gave to com m erce, to n avigation , to
industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the
revolutionary elem ent in the tottering feudal society, a rapid
developm ent.
T h e feudal system o f industry, under w hich industrial p ro ­
duction was m onopolized b y closed guilds, now no longer
sufficed for the grow ing wants o f the new markets. T h e m anufac­
turing system took its place. T h e guild-masters were pushed on
one side b y the m anufacturing m iddle class-20 division o f labour
betw een the different corporate guilds vanished in the face o f
division o f labour in each single workshop.
M eantim e the m arkets kept ever grow ing, the dem and ever
rising. Even m anufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam
and m achin ery revolutionized industrial production. T h e place
o f m anufacture was taken b y the giant, M od ern Industry, the
place o f the industrial m iddle class, b y industrial m illionaires,
the leaders o f w hole industrial armies, the m odern bourgeois.
220
B O U R G E O IS AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
M odern industry has established the w orld m arket, for w hich
the discovery o f A m erica paved the way. T h is m arket has
given an immense developm ent to com m erce, to navigation, to
com m unication b y land. T h is developm ent has, in its turn,
reacted on the extension o f industry; and in proportion as
industry, com m erce, navigation, railways extended, in the same
proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and
pushed into the background every class h and ed dow n from the
M id d le Ages.
W e see, therefore, how the m odern bourgeoisie is itself the
product o f a long course o f developm ent, o f a series o f revol­
utions in the m odes o f production and o f exchange.
E ach step in the developm ent o f the bourgeoisie was accom ­
panied b y a corresponding political advance o f that class. A n
oppressed class under the sway o f the feudal nobility, an arm ed
and self-governing association in the m edieval com m une;* here
independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germ any), there
taxable 'third estate5o f the m on arch y (as in France), afterwards,
in the period o f m anufacture proper, serving either the semifeudal or the absolute m on arch y as a counterpoise against the
nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone o f the great m onarchies in
general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment o f
M odern Industry and o f the w orld m arket, conquered for itself,
in the m odern representative State, exclusive political sway. T h e
executive o f the m odern State is but a com m ittee for m anaging
the com m on affairs o f the w hole bourgeoisie.21
* 'Commune3was the name taken, in France, by the nascent towns even before they
had conquered from their feudal lords and masters local self-government and political
rights as the 'Third Estate5. Generally speaking, for the economical development o f the
bourgeoisie, England is here taken as the typical country; for its political development,
France. [Note by Engels to the English edition o f 1888.]
This was the name given their urban communities by the townsmen of Italy and
France, after they had purchased or wrested their initial rights of self-government
from their feudal lords. [Note by Engels to the German edition o f i8 g o .]
221
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
T h e bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary
part.
T h e bourgeoisie, w herever it has got the upper hand, has put
an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly
to m asunder the m otley feudal ties th at bou n d m an to his
cnatural superiors5, and has left rem aining no other nexus
betw een m an and m an than naked self-interest, than callous
‘cash p aym en t5.22 It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies o f
religious fervour, o f chivalrous enthusiasm, o f philistine senti­
m entalism, in the icy w ater o f egotistical calculation. It has
resolved personal w orth into exchange value, and in place o f
the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that
single, unconscionable freedom - Free T rad e. In one w ord, for
exploitation, veiled b y religious and political illusions, it has
substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
T h e bourgeoisie has stripped o f its halo every occupation
hitherto honoured and looked up to w ith reverent awe. It has
converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the
m an o f science, into its p a id w age-labourers.23
T h e bourgeoisie has torn aw ay from the fam ily its sentimental
veil, and has reduced the fam ily relation to a m ere m oney
relation.
T h e bourgeoisie has disclosed how it cam e to pass that the
brutal display o f vigour in the M iddle Ages, w h ich Reactionists
so m uch adm ire, found its fitting com plem ent in the most
slothful indolence. It has been the first to show w hat m an ’s
activity can bring about. It has accom plished wonders far sur­
passing Egyptian pyram ids, R o m an aqueducts, an d G othic
cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade
all form er Exoduses o f nations and crusades.
T h e bourgeoisie cannot exist w ithout constantly revolutioniz­
ing the instruments o f production, and thereby the relations
o f production, and w ith them the w hole relations o f society.
222
B O U R G E O I S AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
C onservation o f the old modes o f production in unaltered form ,
was, on the contrary, the first condition o f existence for all
earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing o f pro­
duction, uninterrupted disturbance o f all social conditions, ever­
lasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois
epoch from all earlier ones. A ll fixed, fast-frozen relations, w ith
their train o f ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions are
swept away, all new -form ed ones becom e antiquated before
they can ossify. A ll that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is
profaned, and m an is at last com pelled to face w ith sober senses,
his real conditions o f life, and his relations w ith his kind.
T h e need o f a constantly expanding m arket for its products
chases the bourgeoisie over the w hole surface o f the globe. It
must nestle everyw here, settle everywhere, establish connexions
everywhere.
T h e bourgeoisie has through its exploitation o f the w orld
m arket given a cosm opolitan ch aracter to production and con­
sum ption in every country. T o the great ch agrin o f R eaction ­
ists, it has draw n from under the feet o f industry the national
ground on w h ich it stood. A ll old-established national industries
have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. T h e y are
dislodged b y new industries, whose introduction becom es a life
and death question for all civilized nations, b y industries that
no longer w ork up indigenous raw m aterial, but raw m aterial
draw n from the rem otest zones; industries whose products are
consum ed, not on ly at hom e, but in every quarter o f the globe.
In place o f the old wants, satisfied by the productions o f the
country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the
products o f distant lands and climes. In place o f the old local
and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, w e have intercourse
in every direction, universal inter-dependence o f nations. A n d
as in m aterial, so also in intellectual production. T h e intellectual
creations o f individual nations becom e com m on property.
223
THE COMMUNIST M AN IF E ST O
N ational one-sidedness and narrow-m indedness becom e m ore
and m ore impossible, and from the num erous national and local
literatures, there arises a w orld literature.24
T h e bourgeoisie, by the rapid im provem ent o f all instruments
o f production, b y the im m ensely facilitated m eans o f com m uni­
cation, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civiliz­
ation. T h e cheap prices o f its com m odities are the h eavy artillery
w ith w hich it batters dow n all Chinese walls, w ith w hich it
forces ‘the barbarians5 intensely obstinate hatred o f foreigners
to capitulate. It com pels all nations, on pain o f extinction, to
adopt the bourgeois m ode o f production; it com pels them
to introduce w hat it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to
becom e bourgeois themselves. In one w ord , it creates a w orld
after its ow n im age.
T h e bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule o f the
towns. It has created enorm ous cities, has greatly increased the
urban population as com pared w ith the rural, and has thus
rescued a considerable p art o f the population from the idiocy
o f rural life.23Just as it has m ade the country dependent on the
towns, so it has m ade barbarian and sem i-barbarian countries
dependent on the civilized ones, nations o f peasants on nations
o f bourgeois, the East on the W est.
T h e bourgeoisie keeps m ore and m ore doing aw ay w ith the
scattered state o f the population, o f the m eans o f production,
and o f property. It has agglom erated population, centralized
means o f production, and has concentrated property in a few
hands. T h e necessary consequence o f this was political centraliz­
ation. Independent, or but loosely connected, provinces w ith
separate interests, laws, governments and systems o f taxation,
becam e lum ped together into one nation, w ith one governm ent,
one code o f laws, one national class-interest, one frontier and
one customs-tariff.
T h e bourgeoisie, during its rule o f scarce one hundred years,
B O U RG E O IS AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
has created m ore massive and m ore colossal productive forces
than have all preceding generations together. Subjection o f
N atu re’s forces to m an, m achinery, application o f chem istry to
industry and agriculture, steam -navigation, railw ays, electric
telegraphs, clearing o f w hole continents for cultivation, canaliz­
ation o f rivers, w hole populations conjured out o f the ground —
w hat earlier century had even a presentim ent that such p ro ­
ductive forces slum bered in the lap o f social labour?
W e see then: the means o f production and o f exchange, on
whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, w ere generated
in feudal society. A t a certain stage in the developm ent o f these
means o f production and o f exchange, the conditions under
w hich feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organization o f agriculture and m anufacturing industry, in one word,
the feudal relations o f property becam e no longer com patible
w ith the already developed productive forces; they becam e so
m an y fetters. T h e y had to be burst asunder; they w ere burst
asunder.26
Into their place stepped free com petition, accom panied by
a social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the
econom ical and political sway o f the bourgeois class.
A similar m ovem ent is going on before our own eyes. M odern
bourgeois society with its relations o f production, o f exchange
and o f property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic
means o f production and o f exchange, is like the sorcerer, who
is no longer able to control the pow ers o f the nether w orld
w hom he has called up by his spells. For m any a decade past
the history o f industry and com m erce is but the history o f the
revolt o f m odern productive forces against m odern conditions
o f production, against the property relations that are the con ­
ditions for the existence o f the bourgeoisie and o f its rule. It
is enough to mention the com m ercial crises that by their p eriod ­
ical return put on its trial, each time m ore threateningly, the
225
T HE C O M M U N I S T M A N I F E S T O
existence o f the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great
part not only o f the existing products, but also o f the previously
created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these
crises there breaks out an epidem ic that, in all earlier epochs,
w ould have seemed an absurdity — the epidem ic o f overproduc­
tion.27 Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state o f
m om entary barbarism ; it appears as i f a fam ine, a universal
w ar o f devastation had cut o ff the supply o f every m eans o f
subsistence; industry and com m erce seem to be destroyed; and
why? Because there is too m uch civilization, too m uch m eans
o f subsistence, too m uch industry, too m uch com m erce. T h e
productive forces at the disposal o f society no longer tend to
further the developm ent o f the conditions o f bourgeois property;
on the contrary, they have becom e too pow erful for these
conditions, b y w h ich th ey are fettered, and so soon as they
overcom e these fetters, they b rin g disorder into the whole o f
bourgeois society, endanger the existence o f bourgeois property.
T h e conditions o f bourgeois society are too narrow to com prise
the w ealth created b y them. A n d how does the bourgeoisie get
over these crises? O n the one hand b y enforced destruction o f
a mass o f productive forces; on the other, b y the conquest o f
new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation o f the old
ones. T h a t is to say, b y paving the w ay for m ore extensive and
more destructive crises, and by dim inishing the m eans w hereby
crises are prevented.
T h e w eapons with w h ich the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to
the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself.
But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that
bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the m en
w h o are to w ield those w eapons — the m odern w orkin g class the proletarians.
In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed,
in the same proportion is the proletariat, the m odern w orking
B O U R G E O I S AN D P R O L E T A R I A N S
class, developed - a class o f labourers, w ho live only so long as
they jfind work, and w ho find w ork only so long as their labour
increases capital. These labourers, w ho must sell themselves
piecem eal, are a com modity, like every other article o f com ­
m erce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes o f
com petition, to all the fluctuations o f the m arket.28
O w in g to the extensive use o f m achinery and to division
o f labour, the w ork o f the proletarians has lost all individual
character, and, consequently, all charm for the workm an. H e
becom es an appendage o f the m achine, and it is only the most
simple, most m onotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that
is required o f him. H ence, the cost o f production o f a w orkm an
is restricted, alm ost entirely, to the means o f subsistence that he
requires for his m aintenance, and for the propagation o f his
race. But the price o f a com modity, and therefore also o f labour,
is equal to its cost o f production.29 In proportion, therefore, as
the repulsiveness o f the w ork increases, the w age decreases. N a y
m ore, in proportion as the use o f m ach in ery and division o f
labour increases, in the same proportion the burden o f toil also
increases, w hether b y prolongation o f the w orking hours, by
increase o f the w ork exacted in a given time or by increased
speed o f the m achinery, etc.
M odern industry has converted the little workshop o f the
patriarchal m aster into the great factory o f the industrial capital­
ist. Masses o f labourers, crow ded into the factory, are organized
like soldiers. As privates o f the industrial arm y they are placed
under the com m and o f a perfect hierarchy o f officers and
sergeants. N ot only are they slaves o f the bourgeois class, and
o f the bourgeois State; they are daily an d hourly enslaved by
the m achine, b y the overlooker, and, above all, b y the individual
bourgeois m anufacturer himself. T h e m ore openly this despot­
ism proclaim s gain to be its end and aim, the m ore petty, the
m ore hateful and the m ore em bittering it is.
227
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
T h e less the skill and exertion o f strength im plied in m anual
labour, in other words, the m ore m odern industry becom es
developed, the m ore is the labour o f m en superseded by that o f
w om en. Differences o f age and sex have no longer any distinc­
tive social validity for the w orking class. A ll are instruments o f
labour, m ore or less expensive to use, according to their age
and sex.
N o sooner is the exploitation o f the labourer by the m anufac­
turer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than
he is set upon b y the other portions o f the bourgeoisie, the
landlord, the shopkeeper, the paw nbroker, etc.
T h e low er strata o f the m iddle class - the small tradespeople,
shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicrafts­
m en and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat,
partly because their dim inutive capital does not suffice for the
scale on w hich M od ern Industry is carried on, and is sw am ped
in the com petition with the large capitalists, partly because
their specialized skill is rendered worthless by new m ethods o f
production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes o f
the population.
T h e proletariat goes through various stages o f developm ent.30
W ith its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. A t first
the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then b y the
work-people o f a factory, then by the operatives o f one trade, in
one locality, against the individual bourgeois w ho directly
exploits them. T h ey direct their attacks not against the bourgeois
conditions o f production, but against the instruments o f p ro ­
duction themselves; they destroy im ported wares that com pete
with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they set
factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status
o f the workm an o f the M iddle Ages.
A t this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass
scattered over the w hole country, and broken up by their m utual
B O U R G E O I S AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
com petition. I f anyw here they unite to form m ore com pact
bodies, this is not yet the consequence o f their own active union,
but o f the union o f the bourgeoisie, w hich class, in order to
attain its own political ends, is com pelled to set the w hole
proletariat in m otion, and is m oreover yet, for a tim e, able to
do so. A t this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their
enem ies, but the enem ies o f their enem ies, the rem nants o f
absolute m onarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial b o u r­
geois, the petty bourgeoisie. T h u s the w hole historical m o ve­
m ent is concentrated in the hands o f the bourgeoisie; every
victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie.
B ut with the developm ent o f industry the proletariat not only
increases in number; it becom es concentrated in greater masses,
its strength grows, and it feels that strength m ore. T h e various
interests and conditions o f life within the ranks o f the proletariat
are m ore and m ore equalized, in proportion as m achinery
obliterates all distinctions o f labour, and nearly everywhere
reduces wages to the same low level. T h e grow ing com petition
am ong the bourgeois, and the resulting com m ercial crises, m ake
the wages o f the workers ever m ore fluctuating. T h e unceasing
im provem ent o f machinery, ever m ore rapidly developing,
makes their livelihood m ore and m ore precarious; the collisions
between individual w orkm en and individual bourgeois take
m ore and m ore the character o f collisions between two classes.
T h ereu p on the workers begin to form com binations (Trades
Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to
keep up the rate o f wages; they found perm anent associations
in order to m ake provision beforehand for these occasional
revolts. H ere and there the contest breaks out into riots.
N ow and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time.
T h e real fruit o f their battles lies, not in the im m ediate result,
but in the ever-expanding union o f the workers.31 T h is union is
helped on b y the im proved means o f com m unication that are
229
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
created b y m odern industry and that place the workers o f
different localities in contact with one another. It w as just
this contact that w as needed to centralize the num erous local
struggles, all o f the same character, into one national struggle
betw een classes. But every class struggle is a political struggle.
A n d that union, to attain w hich the burghers o f the M iddle
Ages, w ith their m iserable highways, required centuries, the
m odern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years.
T h is organization o f the proletarians into a class, and conse­
quently into a political party, is continually being upset again
by the com petition betw een the workers themselves. But it ever
rises up again, stronger, firmer, m ightier. It com pels legislative
recognition o f particular interests o f the workers, by taking
advantage o f the divisions am ong the bourgeoisie itself. T h us
the T e n H ours bill in E ngland was carried.32
Altogether collisions betw een the classes o f the old society
further, in m any ways, the course o f developm ent o f the prolet­
ariat. T h e bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle.
A t first w ith the aristocracy; later on, w ith those portions o f the
bourgeoisie itself', whose interests have becom e antagonistic to
the progress o f industry; at all times, w ith the bourgeoisie o f
foreign countries. In all these battles it sees itself com pelled to
ap p eal to the proletariat, to ask for its help, and thus, to drag it
into the political arena. T h e bourgeoisie itself, therefore, sup­
plies the proletariat w ith its own elements o f political and general
education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with
w eapons for fighting the bourgeoisie.
Further, as we have already seen, entire sections o f the ruling
classes are, b y the advance o f industry, precipitated into the
proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions o f
existence. These also supply the proletariat w ith fresh elements
o f enlightenm ent and progress.
Finally, in times w hen the class struggle nears the decisive
B O U R G E O IS AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
hour, the process o f dissolution going on within the ruling class,
in fact w ithin the w hole range o f old society, assumes such a
violent, glaring character, that a small section o f the ruling class
cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that
holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier
period, a section o f the nobility w ent over to the bourgeoisie, so
now a portion o f the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,
an d in particular, a portion o f the bourgeois ideologists, w ho
have raised themselves to the level o f com prehending theoretic­
ally the historical m ovem ent as a whole.
O f all the classes that stand face to face w ith the bourgeoisie
today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. T h e
other classes decay and finally disappear in the face o f m odern
industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.
T h e low er m iddle class, the small m anufacturer, the shop­
keeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the b o u r­
geoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions o f
the m iddle class. T h e y are therefore not revolutionary, but
conservative. N a y m ore, they are reactionary, for th ey try to roll
back the w h eel o f history. I f b y chance th ey are revolutionary,
th ey are so only in view o f their im pending transfer into the
proletariat, they thus defend not their present, but their future
interests, they desert their ow n standpoint to place themselves
at that o f the proletariat.
T h e 'dangerous class5, the social scum, that passively rotting
mass throw n o ff b y the lowest layers o f old society, may, here
and there, be swept into the m ovem ent b y a proletarian revol­
ution; its conditions o f life, how ever, prepare it far m ore for the
part o f a bribed tool o f reactionary intrigue.
In the conditions o f the proletariat, those o f old society at
large are already virtually swamped. T h e proletarian is without
property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer
anything in com m on with the bourgeois fam ily relations;
THE COMMUNIST MANI FESTO
m odern industrial labour, m o d em subjection to capital, the
same in E ngland as in France, in A m erica as in G erm any, has
stripped him o f every trace o f national character. L aw , m orality,
religion, are to him so m an y bourgeois prejudices, behind w h ich
lurk in am bush ju st as m an y bourgeois interests.
A ll the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to
fortify their already acquired status b y subjecting society at large
to their conditions o f appropriation. T h e proletarians cannot
becom e masters o f the productive forces o f society, except b y
abolishing their own previous m ode o f appropriation, and
thereby also every other previous m ode o f appropriation. T h e y
have nothing o f their own to secure and to fortify; their mission
is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, indi­
vidual property.
A ll previous historical m ovem ents w ere m ovem ents o f m in­
orities, or in the interest o f minorities. T h e proletarian m ove­
m ent is the self-conscious, independent m ovem ent o f the
im mense majority, in the interest o f the immense majority. T h e
proletariat, the lowest stratum o f our present society, cannot
stir, cannot raise itself up, w ithout the w hole superincum bent
strata o f official society being sprung into the air.
T h o u gh not in substance, yet in form , the struggle o f the
proletariat w ith the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle.
T h e proletariat o f each country must, o f course, first o f all settle
matters w ith its own bourgeoisie.
In depicting the most general phases o f the developm ent o f
the proletariat, w e traced the m ore or less veiled civil war, raging
within existing society, up to the point w here that w ar breaks
out into open revolution, and w here the violent overthrow
o f the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway o f the
proletariat.
H itherto, every form o f society has been based, as w e have
already seen, on the antagonism o f oppressing and oppressed
BO U R G E O IS AND P R O L E T A R I A N S
classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must
be assured to it under w hich it can, at least, continue its slavish
existence. T h e serf, in the period o f serfdom , raised him self to
m em bership in the com m une, ju st as the petty bourgeois, under
the yoke o f feudal absolutism, m anaged to develop into a bour­
geois. T h e m odern labourer, on the contrary, instead o f rising
w ith the progress o f industry, sinks deeper and deeper below
the conditions o f existence o f his own class. H e becom es a
pauper, and pauperism develops m ore rapidly than population
and wealth. A n d here it becom es evident, that the bourgeoisie
is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose
its conditions o f existence upon society as an overriding law. It
is unfit to rule because it is incom petent to assure an existence
to its slave w ithin his slavery, because it cannot help letting
him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead o f
bein g fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bour­
geoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer com patible
w ith society.33
T h e essential condition for the existence, and for the sway o f
the bourgeois class, is the form ation an d augm entation o f capi­
tal; the condition for capital is w age labour. W age labour rests
exclusively on com petition between the labourers. T h e advance
o f industry, whose involuntary prom oter is the bourgeoisie,
replaces the isolation o f the labourers, due to com petition,
b y their revolutionary com bination, due to association. T h e
developm ent o f M od ern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its
feet the very foundation on w h ich the bourgeoisie produces
and appropriates products. W h at the bourgeoisie, therefore,
produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the
victory o f the proletariat are equally inevitable.34