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labour; in other words; the more modern industry becomes

developed;

the more is the labour of men superseded by that of women。

Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social

validity for the working class。  All are instruments of labour;

more or less expensive to use; according to their age and sex。



No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the

manufacturer;

so far; at an end; that he receives his wages in cash; than he is

set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie; the landlord;

the shopkeeper; the pawnbroker; etc。



The lower strata of the middle class  the small tradespeople;

shopkeepers; retired tradesmen generally; the handicraftsmen and

peasants  all these sink gradually into the proletariat; partly

because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale

on which Modern Industry is carried on; and is swamped in the

competition with the large capitalists; partly because their

specialized skill is rendered worthless by the new methods of

production。  Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes

of the population。



The proletariat goes through various stages of development。

With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie。  At

first the contest is carried on by individual labourers; then by

the workpeople of a factory; then by the operatives of one trade;

in one locality; against the individual bourgeois who directly

exploits them。  They direct their attacks not against the

bourgeois conditions of production; but against the instruments

of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that

compete with their labour; they smash to pieces machinery; they

set factories ablaze; they seek to restore by force the vanished

status of the workman of the Middle Ages。



At this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass

scattered over the whole country; and broken up by their mutual

competition。  If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies;

this is not yet the consequence of their own active union; but of

the union of the bourgeoisie; which class; in order to attain its

own political ends; is compelled to set the whole proletariat in

motion; and is moreover yet; for a time; able to do so。  At this

stage; therefore; the proletarians do not fight their enemies;

but the enemies of their enemies; the remnants of absolute

monarchy; the landowners; the non…industrial bourgeois; the petty

bourgeoisie。  Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated

in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a

victory for the bourgeoisie。



But with the development of industry the proletariat not only

increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses;

its strength grows; and it feels that strength more。  The various

interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the

proletariat are more and more equalised; in proportion as

machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour; and nearly

everywhere reduces wages to the same low level。  The growing

competition among the bourgeois; and the resulting commercial

crises; make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating。  The

unceasing improvement of machinery; ever more rapidly developing;

makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions

between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and

more the character of collisions between two classes。  Thereupon

the workers begin to form combinations (Trades Unions) against

the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of

wages; they found permanent associations in order to make

provision beforehand for these occasional revolts。  Here and

there the contest breaks out into riots。



Now and then the workers are victorious; but only for a time。

The real fruit of their battles lies; not in the immediate

result; but in the ever…expanding union of the workers。  This

union is helped on by the improved means of communication that

are created by modern industry and that place the workers of

different localities in contact with one another。  It was just

this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local

struggles; all of the same character; into one national struggle

between classes。  But every class struggle is a political

struggle。  And that union; to attain which the burghers of the

Middle Ages; with their miserable highways; required centuries;

the modern proletarians; thanks to railways; achieve in a few

years。



This organisation of the proletarians into a class; and

consequently into a political party; is continually being upset

again by the competition between the workers themselves。  But it

ever rises up again; stronger; firmer; mightier。  It compels

legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers;

by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie

itself。  Thus the ten…hours' bill in England was carried。



Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society

further; in many ways; the course of development of the

proletariat。

The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle。

At first with the aristocracy; later on; with those portions

of the bourgeoisie itself; whose interests have become

antagonistic

to the progress of industry; at all times; with the bourgeoisie

of foreign countries。  In all these battles it sees itself

compelled

to appeal to the proletariat; to ask for its help; and thus; to

drag

it into the political arena。  The bourgeoisie itself; therefore;

supplies the proletariat with its own instruments of political

and general education; in other words; it furnishes the

proletariat

with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie。



Further; as we have already seen; entire sections of the ruling

classes are; by the advance of industry; precipitated into the

proletariat; or are at least threatened in their conditions of

existence。  These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements

of enlightenment and progress。



Finally; in times when the class struggle nears the decisive

hour; the process of dissolution going on within the ruling

class; in fact within the whole range of society; assumes such a

violent; glaring character; that a small section of the ruling

class cuts itself adrift; and joins the revolutionary class; the

class that holds the future in its hands。  Just as; therefore; at

an earlier period; a section of the nobility went over to the

bourgeoisie; so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the

proletariat; and in particular; a portion of the bourgeois

ideologists; who have raised themselves to the level of

comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole。



Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie

today; the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class。

The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of

Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential

product。  The lower middle class; the small manufacturer; the

shopkeeper; the artisan; the peasant; all these fight against the

bourgeoisie; to save from extinction their existence as fractions

of the middle class。  They are therefore not revolutionary; but

conservative。  Nay more; they are reactionary; for they try to

roll back the wheel of history。  If by chance they are

revolutionary; they are so only in view of their impending

transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their

present; but their future interests; they desert their own

standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat。



The 〃dangerous class;〃 the social scum; that passively rotting

mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society; may; here

and there; be swept into the movement by a proletarian

revolution; its conditions of life; however; prepare it far more

for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue。



In the conditions of the proletariat; those of old society at

large are already virtually swamped。  The proletarian is without

property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer

anything in common with the bourgeois family…relations; modern

industrial labour; modern subjection to capital; the same in

England as in France; in America as in Germany; has stripped him

of every trace of national character。  Law; morality; religion;

are to him so many bourgeois prejudices; behind which lurk in

ambush just as many bourgeois interests。



All the preceding classes that got the upper hand; sought to

fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at

large to their conditions of appropriation。  The proletarians

cannot become masters of the productive forces of society; except

by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation; and

thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation。  They

have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission

is to destroy all previous securities for; and insurances of;

individual property。



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