The demise of capitalism and the proletarian revolution

Overview

Crises of overproduction and the sorcerer who can no longer control what he has summoned, the growth and organisation of the proletariat, the claim that the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers, and the revolution and the ten measures that follow.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why do Marx and Engels think the fall of the bourgeoisie is inevitable?

   Model answer

   Marx and Engels argue that the bourgeoisie produces above all its own grave-diggers, and that its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. The class that capitalism creates in order to function is the class that will end it.

2. 2

   How does capitalism create the conditions of its own overthrow?

   Model answer

   Capitalism concentrates workers in factories and cities, drives down their conditions, ruins the small producers who might have divided them, and links them through communication and transport. Each of those developments makes the proletariat larger, more uniform and better organised.

3. 3

   Why do the authors argue the bourgeoisie is unfit to remain the ruling class?

   Model answer

   Marx and Engels argue that a ruling class must be able to assure its subordinate class at least a bare existence, and that the bourgeoisie cannot. Where a ruling class must feed its slave instead of being fed by him, its rule is incompatible with society.

4. 4

   State the first step of the revolution as the Manifesto describes it.

   Model answer

   Marx and Engels state that the first step is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, which they describe as winning the battle of democracy. Political power is taken before economic transformation begins.

5. 5

   What does the proletariat do with political power once it holds it?

   Model answer

   Marx and Engels state that the proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie by degrees, to centralise the instruments of production in the hands of the state and to increase total productive forces as rapidly as possible. The change is deliberately described as gradual once power has been won.

6. 6

   Why do the authors say the revolution must be forcible?

   Model answer

   Marx and Engels argue that a ruling class will not surrender ownership voluntarily and that the state exists to defend it. The authors state openly that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.