Manifesto of the Communist Party

Manifesto of the Communist Party presents Karl Marx and Frederick Engels's compressed account of class conflict and revolutionary politics. Its preamble argues that communism has already become a recognized force in Europe and should state its aims openly. Four sections then move from historical analysis to political program, competing socialist traditions, and alliances in contemporary struggles.

Bourgeois and Proletarians describes social history through opposing classes and treats capitalism as both transformative and unstable. The bourgeoisie overturns feudal relations and continually changes production, yet its dependence on wage labor creates the proletariat capable of challenging it. Proletarians and Communists defines the party's relation to the wider working class, answers objections, and lists transitional measures involving property, inheritance, taxation, education, credit, and communications.

The third section distinguishes communist strategy from reactionary, conservative, and utopian forms of socialism. The conclusion turns to political conditions in France, Switzerland, Poland, and Germany before calling for international working-class action. Readers studying Marxism, political economy, and nineteenth-century revolutionary movements can use the manifesto as both argument and intervention: it explains a theory of historical change and tries to organize the collective subject expected to carry that change forward.