A summary of Karl Marx's Communist ManifestoKarl Marx was an idealist. He observed the cruelties and injustices suffered by the poor working class during the period of the industrial revolution and was inspired to write about a society in which no oppression existed for any class of people. Marx believed in a revolution that would end socialism and capitalism and focus on communist principles. The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and edited by Frederick Engels, describes the goals of the communist party to end the exploitation of the working class and create a society in which there is equality in society without social classes.1 The first part of the Manifesto is entitled The bourgeois and the proletarians. Marx begins by explaining that the history of man and society is the history of class struggles. Modern bourgeois society developed from feudal society, but in a simpler form: two opposing classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. With the discovery of America and the expansion of markets around the world, the feudal industrial system no longer met the growing needs of those markets. Soon its place was taken by manufacturing and modern industry. This is how, according to Marx, the bourgeoisie increased its capital, increased its political influence and distinguished itself from the working class. Marx accuses the bourgeoisie of transforming respected professionals into wage workers. By creating large cities, they centralized the population and the means of production. This property is therefore owned by a few and thus creates political power. Once independent cities and provinces are now united under a single government with a single set of laws. Despite the power he has... middle of paper......fight between exploiters and exploited. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx concludes that a revolution of the working class would overthrow the bourgeois one and that a classless society would exist.11 ------- ------- ------------------------------------------- ----1. Karl Marx, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, 1888, (March 5, 2002).2. Marx3. Marx4. William Leon McBride, The Philosophy of Marx, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977).5. Marx6. Marx7. Michael Lowry, “Globalization and Internationalism: How Up-to-Date is the Communist Manifesto?” Monthly Review, November 1998, 16-27.8. Marx9. Marx10. HB Acton, What Marx Really Said. (London: Macdonald & Co. Ltd., 1967).11. “Attack on Capitalism,” Canada & World Backgrounder, October 1999, 19-22.