The Communist Manifesto - Reviewed and Summarised by Horace J. Montague

Now largely discredited after it inspired - or some saycommunism by spreading a wave of malicious falsities.
was manipulated by - the murderous, brutal regimeThe book contains a highly moralistic message of
of Leninist/Stalinist Soviet Russia, The Communistdespair at the exploitation of the many by the few;
Manifesto contains great insight into the limitationsthe large disproportionate between the value of an
and superficiality of a Capitalist society; both theindividuals work, and the amount of wage they
instability of the economic structure, and the shallowreceive for it. Marx witnessed in his day the
philosophical implications of consumerism inherent in aconsequences of the Industrial Revolution: the
capitalist system. It predicts the overthrow of thesqualor, the poverty and the unrest, and felt
elites in society by the workers, known as theindignation at such blatant exploitation.
bourgeois and the proletariat respectively, and the"Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist
eventual abolition of all social, economic classes.revolution"
Marx saw a consistent pattern in history; that thereWhat shrouds this work in infamy is the application of
has always been one minority ruling class exploitingit's principles and repute in subsequent years. Lenin,
the larger, workers class; his view of history isand then Stalin, ran an increasingly violent and cruel
summarized in his assertion that 'All history of allstate under the guise of communist principles.
hitherto existing society is the history of classCollectivization was utilized, as well as centralizing the
struggles. He implored all the various communistmeans of production, yet Stalin embarked on
groups scattered around Europe to incite revolution,genocidal campaigns, and brutally neglected a criminal
in order to overthrow the self-interested, apatheticamount of Russian people. It is not right to associate
ruling classes and establish a society where class didStalinist Russia with The Communist Manifesto. The
not exist: where material would be evenly distributedmanifesto challenges both previous and current
to prevent inequality.economic, and the consequent social, systems; and it
"A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre offurther encourages us to review and reconsider our
Communism"conceptions about the world. It is by no means the
Published in 1848, The Communist Manifesto wasmanual to violent dictatorships that it is often
penned mostly by Marx at the request of variousmisconceived as, and even if you strongly believe in
communist groups in Europe. The stated aim of thiscapitalism, it remains an interesting discourse on
enterprise was to create a document that clarifiedeconomics and human nature.
and illuminated the beliefs and doctrines of"The proletarians have nothing to lose but their
communism in the face of a concerted campaignchains. They have a world to win. Workers of the
from opposing political parties who were sabotagingworld, unite!