study guide

online resources for marx and marxism

introductory notes and guide for reading the communist manifesto

Part One: A reading overview with some cautions and suggestions
Part Two: Passages for close reading and analysis

A reading overview with some cautions and suggestions
Among the challenges of reading the Manifesto are not only its philosophical and economic complexity, but perhaps for the contemporary audience, the difficulty is of reading the Manifesto on its own terms and not through the lens of extensive preconceptions. For example, it will not be helpful to read Marx as coextensive with Soviet political policy. The latter is a political system, the former a German Jewish economic philosopher. This challenge is complicated for readers who are the heirs to American cold war policy and propaganda. We have many stereotypes about "communism" but virtually no relationship to Marx's writings. One strategy for careful intellectual engagement with the material will be once again to focus on structure and close textual analysis.

One of the insights of Materialism (as Marxist-Socialist Philosophy is sometimes called) is that social relationships and ideas about ourselves (our "consciousness") reflect and justify the social arrangements and institutions that exist, and especially the power relations within them. In other words, ideologies (and images) tend to support the power of the powerful. In light of your reading of the Manifesto, think about the ways in which this could be a helpful insight for analysis of your culture, and for analysis of film.

Marx was highly conscious of the specificity of his analysis. That is, his work was grounded in the conditions of industrialized labor in the factories of England at a given time period. He did not imagine that his writings could simply be transferred to other places, circumstances and times, without further analysis. Given that we are already so distant from the industrial revolution in Europe, how can the Manifesto provide thoughtful discussion? In the terminology of scholars, given that we are at a time in history referred to as Advanced Late Capital, not early industrial labor, what are the key issues and themes than can prompt our further reflection? Here are some questions to get you started:

To what extent is economics a key determinant of your life and the life of your community? Was Marx correct in focusing on economics as a central philosophical issue? Is is true that controlling "the means of production" is a route to political and social control?

In our time, what are "the means of production?" Can idea and image production fall into this category? To what extent does our society prove true the equation Money = Power?

How does the class-based analysis of Marx help us question the class system in 21st century U.S. and world cultures? In the "global economy," could Marx's analysis be rethought not in terms of Bourgeoisie and Proletariat but of First World - Third World?

How are Marx's insights useful in thinking though the contradictions of a democracy built on slave labor? In what ways does Marx radically anticipate the global economy in his distinction between national identity and economic/class identity?

What food for thought can we find in the notion that Capital and resources are not only physical (land, etc.) but also intellectual (information property)? Could we conduct a Marxist analysis of the Information Society based on the distinction between the haves and have-nots of Information Capital?

To what extent were Marx's concerns about the Consumer Society (things=status=happiness) accurate? How can we rethink the Consumption Imperative using Marx's terms?

You may also want to explore some contemporary thinkers who have expanded and revised the Marxist model of philosophy. For example, check out Noam Chomsky or bell hooks.

Part Two: Passages for close reading and analysis

The Manifesto consists of Four Parts. We will focus on Parts 1 and II only in class. This will help us really focus in on textual detail rather than covering too much ground in a sketchy way. Parts III and IV are also the more historically specific. Parts I and II focus on the thematic issues at stake, and thus seem more helpful to our discussions on community, democracy, justice, and philosophical questioning.

Key passages from Part I: reread, analyze, examine, explain, and rethink

• "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
• Modern society has "not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of old ones."
• "[The bourgeoisie]...has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms has set up that single unconscionable freedom--Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation."
• Develop working definitions of bourgeoisie and proletariat.
• "All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority."

  Key passages from Part II: reread, analyze, examine, explain, and rethink

• "The immediate aim of the communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat." Define each of these three goals and consider why they appear in this order. Why would each step be a necessary phase of the Manifesto?
• "The distinguishing feature of the Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property." Unpack this distinction.
• "Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power." What is Marx suggesting? How does this help explain the abolition of private property?
• Marx anticipates the objections to the abolition of private property. How does he anticipate and answer these objections?
• In the discussion of property, Marx suggests that capitalism has misdefined Freedom and Individuality. How are these terms understood in market terms? How is he calling them into question?
• "The Communists are further reproached with abolishing countries and nationality." Explain why this would be necessary to the argument for Communism and consider the positive and negative possibilities for such a redefinition of community.
• "The ruling ideas of each age have been the ideas of its ruling class."
• Much has been made of the Marxist critique of religion. Why specifically does Marx address religion in the Manifesto? In what exact way does "religion" serve as an opiate of the people" in this text? Be careful, many stereotypes of this argument have been used for political purposes (propaganda against so-called "godless communists.") Consider instead the economic and class-based reasons for the Marxist rejection of religious institutions. How might the Church has been complicit with class oppression? (Also be cautious, as the "Church" has been a 20th-century leader in arguments for economic justice and "liberation.")

Ann Hetzel Gunkel (C) 2000