Marx & Engels Critique On Capitalism

 Written in 2017. 

In 1847, Marx and Engels joined the League of the Communists and offered to publish a Manifesto as its policy document. Marx and Engels document, the Communist Manifesto,” has been issued in several hundred editions in nearly thirty languages” (7). The Communist Manifesto is regarded as one of the greatest political documents in human history. The document demonstrates the historical development of societies; specifically, the Bourgeois society and communism. The Communist Manifesto’s analysis on Capitalism provides insight on the implications and consequences of a capitalist society. Marx and Engels argue that the mode of production of capitalism, is a temporary phase of human history and the method of capitalism therefore cannot be permanent. Marx and Engels argue the long-term historical development of capitalism will lead us to communism.

Engels and Marx argue the two major components of capitalism are capital and the wage labour. Marx defines a capitalist as a form of social status in production and essentially is a form of capital. “Capital is the collective product… and can only by the united action of all members of society be set in motion” (53). Capital is a form of common property and is a social power. The more capital an individual attains or can produce, the more value the individual has in the Bourgeois society. The wage labour is the minimum wage, in which a labour can attain capital. By means of labor, the wage labour works to “prolong and reproduce a bare existence of themselves” (53). In relation to capital, the wage labour “lives to merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it” (53). The development of the Bourgeois is a long process, the development involves the political advancement and oppression of classes. This process creates the division of labor (the Bourgeois and the Proletariat). Marx and Engels distinguish the capitalist, the ruling class, as the Bourgeoisie and the wage labour as the Proletariat in the capitalist society. Although the Bourgeoisie have complete control of the Proletariat, the nature of capitalism, the development of machinery, the free market, and the exploitation of the proletariat, will destroy the system of capitalism and overthrow the Bourgeois society.

 

The revolution component of destroying the essence of capitalism are the proletarians. “The proletariat is a really revolutionary class… The proletariat is its special and essential product… A class of laborers who live only so long as they find work.  (47; 42). Marx and Engels distinguish the proletarian as a laborer who “must sell themselves” and are “exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition” (43). The essence and existence of the proletarian is based on the commodity and production the Proletarian can perform for the Bourgeois.

  The Bourgeois, who control the proletariat, “Have put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations… It has resolved personal worth into exchange value… It has substituted brutal exploitation” (37). The development of the Bourgeois property is why capitalism is unsustainable. The conditions and private property of the Bourgeois are forms and methods of exploitation through the means of production. The existence of the Bourgeois is reliant by the modes of production; which are the proletarians. The Bourgeois is the creator of the wage labour. “It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, into its paid wage labourers” (38). The Bourgeois control all modes of production. Therefore, they exploit the proletarian for their own self-interests of attaining capital.

The nature of capitalism exploits the proletariat because the Bourgeois solely seeks the cheapest method of production from the proletariat. The Bourgeois constantly seeks capital for social power. The Bourgeois motivation is to exploit the Proletariat toward their industrial system. The Bourgeois seek global industrialization to create “a world after its own image” (40). The Bourgeois society and the nature of capitalism have two values: reproducing capital through the proletariat and to create private property. Both these values exploit the Proletariat because their production of capital is controlled by the Bourgeois. The proletarians can create capital, but not private property. The Bourgeois can create private property for the Bourgeois society; but the inability for the proletariat to attain private property is a form of exploitation. 

The development of industry and machinery is another form of exploitation against the proletariat. “Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist” (43). The industry is the property of the Bourgeois; their industry is the property and area where they control the proletarians. “Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants” (43). The conditions of the factories are intoxicating for the proletarians. They are treated as slaves under the Bourgeois and are identified as forms of property and production; rather than a human being. “Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine… and by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself” (45). The purpose of development of machinery and industrialization is to increase modes of production and improve the conditions of the Bourgeois and their livelihood. 

Although the development of industry strengthens the proletariat class, the development of machinery diminishes the existence of the Proletarian. The development of machines will convert machines to becoming the modes of production; rather than the proletariat. Machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor, and exterminates the existence of the wage labour towards a lower level wage. Therefore, the proletariat offer and gain less capital when the factories increase the development of machinery. Machinery is always in the process of development; this process further exploits the proletariat. The proletariats wage will become so low they will eventually lose their own existence. “The unceasing improvement of machinery, makes their livelihood more and more precarious…” (45). The conditions will become so miserable for the Proletariat, they will have nothing to lose but their chains. Machinery exploits the existence of the proletariat class. “He becomes a appendage of the machine” (43).  Machinery is one of the main revolutionary components of annihilating the existence of the proletariat and destroying the system of Capitalism. 

Free trade is a major component of exploitation against the Proletariat. The Bourgeois has set up free trade “for exploitation, veiled by political illusions, and it has substituted brutal exploitation against the Proletariat” (38). Free trade allows the Bourgeois to exploit the world market and change the production and consumption in Nations around the world. Free trade exploits citizens in other countries because the citizens must adapt toward the Bourgeois society. “It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production” (40). The system of Capitalism directly effects nations around the world. The Bourgeois overpowers the production of third world nations, and therefore, compels nations toward extinction. In response to the invasion of the Bourgeois, citizens try to innovate in becoming a Bourgeois themselves. Otherwise they will become a Proletarian and be exploited by the Bourgeois. Free Trade allows the Bourgeois to continue its purpose. The purpose of free trade is to allow the Bourgeois to conquest new markets and enforce more division of labor across societies. Free trade increases production, machinery, and exploitation of the Proletariat. Free trade transitions the Bourgeois towards seeking a proletarian’s labour power as a commodity. Citizens become a product of labor and their individuality is overtaken by the Bourgeois. 

Capitalism is a form of exploitation against the majority of society, but many argue Capitalism creates economic freedom and growth. They argue that Capitalism is innovating, it forces us into competition against one another and motivates us towards achieving the collective product of capital. Capitalism is a global market. For instance, Capitalism changed the modes of production of Indonesia. Indonesia’s main distribution product was rice. Nike (The Bourgeois) offered the citizens of Indonesia an opportunity to become their modes of production (Proletarians). Although people would argue that Nike offers a better “life” for these citizens, the citizens existence is merely for production and the development of machinery will remove their very existence. Nike, and other billion-dollar corporations, have compelled citizens around the world toward the system of Capitalism. Citizens in Indonesia and Vietnam are paid well below a livable wage. The Bourgeois reap the benefits of attaining billions of dollars from their methods of exploitation.

 

Although capitalism promotes production, commerce, and industry, the conditions of the Bourgeois society creates an unsustainable distribution of inequality in wealth between the Proletariat and the Bourgeois. In response to inequality, the Bourgeois avoid the crisis of exploitation by creating “mass productive forces, the conquest of new markets, (globalization), and diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented” (42). The conditions and existence of the Proletarians are in complete control of the Bourgeois. Meanwhile, the Bourgeois reap the benefits from their production system. The Bourgeois “compels all nations to adopt the Bourgeois mode of production” (40) to avoid a revolution from the Proletariat. Nike is the Bourgeois that is exploiting Indonesia towards becoming a Bourgeois society. Capitalism relies on the global market to avoid crises among their concentrated industry and society. The Bourgeois constantly seeks to expand itself because it enforces destruction on massive amounts of Proletarians. 

Capitalism rapidly develops, but once the system is developed it exploits the wage labour. The Bourgeois society always directs a society toward unsustainability. It is a society “that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange” (39) that it no longer can control the society it has created. When the proletarians existence is overtaken by machinery, chaos and violence will overthrow the Bourgeois, and the Proletariat will unite and end the Bourgeois society. “What the Bourgeoisie, therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (50). Marx and Engles analysis on the development and downfall of capitalism is an iconic representation of how capitalism is a classic form of exploitation against the working-class. Capitalism will crumble in ashes, and a new form of government, a government that has never come into existence, will rise from the ashes and create a world of enlightenment; rather than a world of production.

Works Cited

Hobsbawm, Eric. The Communist Manifesto a Modern Edition. Verso, 1998.