Communist Manifesto Discussion

[Mr. J.]

Chapter 1

1. Describe how the history of society can be related to the history
of class struggles and class antagonisms. Do you agree or disagree
with this notion?
2. Describe in detail the various stages of development the
proletariat goes through.

Chapter 2

1. In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a
whole?
2. What does it mean to create capital or be a capitalist? Do you
agree or disagree with the various descriptions?

[Kim Sass]

Chapter 1

 

1. The history of society can be related to the history of class struggles because society is what drives the struggles. Revolutions and wars occur because the people of the same economic status are not satisfied with their lives, and they want change. Change occurs when the people are not content, and usually it is the working class that is not content. Because the higher levels of society need a working force in order to be rich, there has always been a great divide between poor people and rich people. This divide causes the poor people to make their own revolutions in government. This has been proven true all over the world: The French Revolution, The American Revolution, The Russian movement to communism. All these events have been triggered by unhappy poor people. I agree that society can be related to history, because it has be proven time and time again throughout history.

2. The proletariat at first was simple, he was a serf. You were either a serf or a lord, but as time progressed society became more complex and the addiction of vassals, and then merchants came into play making the proletariat lower and lower in society. As technology grows, the proletariat becomes lower and lower in society. Technology offers new jobs and new opportunities, such as a merchant when trade routes are established. Merchants who were mere serfs at first now have progressed to become more like the bourgeoisie. As civilizations progress, societies become more and more complex while low classes become more and more poor.

 

Chapter 2

 

1. Communists believe that the working class should be united, not just separate based on different working class parties. Communists help have a voice for the whole working class so that they won't be oppressed any longer by the bourgeoisie.  Communism is just a group of ideas, not a specific base that you should use to make the proletarian movement.

2. Captial is property that isn't personal and controlled by the bourgeoisie. In order to be a capitalist you exploit the workers and control wages not based on the time spent on the product, but how many products can be produced at one time. Rather, the capitalist employers are of no use to society and need to become workers instead of bourgeoisie. I agree, we would only get what we need not what we want. This would probably make society appreciate the things they have more while abolishing the needs for various classes. It seems that Russia wasn't truly communist at all, because a lot of the ideas that I read so far don't seem to match up with what I have heard about communist Russia.

[pizz...@aol.com]

Ch.1

1. The definition of society according to Princeton’s online dictionary is “an extended social group having distinctive cultural and economic organization”. Society is made up of the classes including bourgeois, serfs, tradesmen, shopkeepers, and proletariats. That means that the struggle of any of those classes is the struggle of the society. And a class’s antagonism is the society’s antagonism. I agree with this notion as much as I believe that the square is related to the rectangle, because a class is a category of society.
2. The proletariat was the working class. More specifically the factory workers. They were lower class, but over the years other classes joined them. The serf gained status to join, and the merchant and tradesmen lost status. This made the proletariat a much bigger group, which also increased the gap between upper and lower class. Furthering the backwardness of Russia. For a long time the proletariats worked separatly or in small groups fighting the specific bourgeois that governed them. They would do this by burning buildings, or smashing bits of the machinery. The Bourgeoisie took advantage of how unorganized the nation was. They were able to create and keep the large proletariat in control. In fact the bourgeois didn’t view the proletariats as competition, and they viewed the proletariats enemies as their enemies. This allowed the bourgeois to stay in control. The proletariats start to rebel as unions rather than the old one on one. The working class began to win a couple fights here and there, and eventually they were able to bring about the fall of the bourgeois. They were able to do this because the bourgeois were dependent on the proletariats competition and individual isolation. As the groups that the bourgeois brought into existence started forming, the proletariats isolation and competitions came to an end.

Ch.2

1. The communists stand for the beliefs of all the working class. Not just a specific proletariat. Communism represents the working class as a whole. Also most groups have some type of cultural identity, but communism represents no particular nation. Communism uses the common wants, needs, and beliefs of all the working class. As the communist manifesto says, “(communists are) the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country”. So, communists believe that their relation to proletariats as a whole is that they stand for proletariats as a whole.
2. Capitalists are people who believe in private ownership, investments, and sales. A capitalist is the opposite of a communist. In the previous chapter there is mention of how the bourgeois was capitalistic. This was ultimately there down fall because they were too reliant on the working class. Even so, I believe that capitolism is a good system. It is the system America uses, and I happen to be a fan of free trade. Also I don’t really like any alternative forms of economy.

Megan Doherty

[Erik Hotaling]

Ch. 1
1. The history of society is related to the history of class struggles
and class antagonisms because the direction that society takes is
determined by the outcome of the class struggles and the result of the
class antagonisms. Society transitioned from feudalism towards modern
society because of the conflict between the serfs, or proletariat, and
the lord. This conflict developed the middle class of business owners.
Later, in the French revolution, the transition from a monarchy was
brought about because the bourgeois were unhappy with the lack of
representation they had in government. I agree with this notion.

2. The proletariat starts off, in the Middle Ages, as the serfs. They
had no power and very little money. They worked the land and gave all
they had to the lords. As time progressed and society became more
developed with technologies the proletariat regressed. The proletariat
has only been able to survive it’s oppression by joining together in
unions like the current labor unions in the U.S. however the lower
proletariat is comparatively lower than the proletariat was when they
were serfs.

Ch. 2
1. The Communists are in favor of the proletariats. The Communists
would take away the Bourgeois, which the Communists view as the
oppressors of the proletariats. However Communism is only a set of
ideas, and should not be the base of the proletariat movement.

2. Capital is “that kind of property which exploits wage-labor”. It is
property owned by the Bourgeois which does not go to the benefit of
the proletariat and it gained by the manipulation and exploitation of
the proletariat. To be capitalist you must exploit and manipulate your
workers so that you are making as much off of them as possible while
sustaining your business by giving to your workers only a subsistence
level of income. I disagree with this I think that this is the worst
kind of capitalist I believe that capitalism provides more of an
opportunity to the proletariat than is said in this reading. This kind
of Capitalist is also not applicable to the United States because
there are such strong labor unions here which give the proletariat
much more power than they deserve.

[abol...@yahoo.com]

CH. 1

1. The history of society can be related to the history of class
struggles and class antagonisms because the difficulties are caused by
the way the classes interacted in history. Back in the feudal days
there were the working class, the serfs, and there was the class of
nobles who controlled the serfs. This domination over the serfs tended
to cause dissatisfaction amongst them, which resulted in many revolts
of the serfs. Marx is evaluating how throughout history there has
always been antagonism, and even rivalry, between two main opposing
classes. In the first chapter he relates how through the feudal times
and history this class struggle develops into the Bourgeoisie and the
proletariat. He discusses that the opposing views of the two classes
resulted in these struggles, which eventually caused the lower working
class to slowly rise above the ruling nobility and form a new upper
class. This lower working class would eventually be the merge between
the smaller and less significant classes, and eventually they would
all be even, which would be communism. I agree with his view that the
history relates to the class struggles because there seems to be a
pattern throughout history of the dominant and oppressed classes. The
revolts and revolutions are also evidence of this occurrence.

2. The proletariat was originally a member of the working class. This
working class of proletariats continued to grow as the work with
machinery becomes easier, more people are able to do it and become
part of the proletariat. Also, the small business and other sects of
the lower middle-class lost their business value and became part of
the proletariat. The proletariat went trough many stages, beginning
with the struggle with the Bourgeois, then individual labor, and then
factory work. This factory work caused the wages to go down and the
proletariats to become more angry with the Bourgeois. This new
technology in the machinery takes away all value of the work that the
proletariats are doing, and the wages decrease. The lower middle
class, including shopkeepers, artisans and small manufacturers have to
cling to their position in the middle class. A major sway for the
proletariat was when the bourgeoisie was overthrown in the civil war.

CH. 2

1. The main goal of the Communists is to overthrow the bourgeois by
the proletariat taking power. As Marx states, "Communists may be
summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." The
communist goal is the same as that of other proletariat groups: to
overthrow the bourgeois which can be done by forming a class out of
the proletariat. To form this solid class the communists want all the
seperate parts to become one, and for no sub-classes to exist.

2. To be a capitalist is defined by marx as, "to have not only a
purely personal, but a social a status in production." Capital is not
personal, but social, and is a collective product, and only can work
out if all the members of society are involved. It isnt seen as giving
up one's own personal property, but rather the property is the only
thing that has become shared. The communist view is that there is an
appropriate amount of capital for each person to live off of, and that
the laborers are not working for the capital so that others or
themselves can have a surplus. I disagree with these descriptions of a
capitalist because these descriptions better describe communism than
capitalism. I believe that if it was describing being capitalist, then
it would be more trade oriented and would involve more of a profit.

On Feb 17, 8:27 am, "Mr. J." <glen.jaskelew...@rtsd.org> wrote: