In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx lays out his vision of history. According to Marx, ôthe history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class strugglesö (Marx). The divisions and struggles between classes, and the fundamental inequality that underpins these divisions and struggles, are the lynchpins to MarxÆs analysis of capitalism. In MarxÆs stirring call to arms, inequality is the motherÆs milk that feeds social change, and social change occurs when the proletariat becomes aware of its power and shakes off the chains of oppression. For Marx, classes are basically defined by a series of relationships that are inherently tied to economic reality: who owns and possesses the property and the factories or means of production, and who provides their labor to actually produce the goods that are sold. Out of these divisions, or classes, arise the social relationships that define labor and the working class. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx argues that these economic divisions are starker under the capitalist system than ever before, and that it is time for the workers to unite against their oppressors. This essay will briefly analyze MarxÆs conception of social change and inequality as laid out in The Communist Manifesto, using writings by Weber and others, as well as through study of Marx himself.
The Manifesto at heart lays out MarxÆs vision of class struggle. The reader is taken on a brief tour of history as presented by Marx. This history is primarily the history of the awakening consciousness of the working class, or proletariat, and the burgeoning power of the bourgeoisie, or the property owners and capitalists. Marx begins in the age of feudalism, and argues that the feudal system was ôdestroyed by the clash between lords (landowners) and serfs or peasants who worked their estates, and also byàthe fact that medieval production of goodsàcould not satisfy æthe growing wants ofànew marketsÆö ...