Overview
1) This week Professor discussed different responses to the Industrial Revolution, global capitalism and imperialism. In addition to anti-imperial revolutions, the most important response to the rise of global capitalism was that of Marx and Engels, for which we were assigned The Communist Manifesto. Please pick apart this reading by answering the following questions:
How do Marx and Engles characterize the Bourgeoisie? What are the Bourgeoisie's main weaknesses?
How do they characterize the Proletariat? What are the Proletariat's main strengths?
- Why, according to Marx and Engels, are the two groups destined to be in conflict?
- What about The Communist Manifesto’s description of the Communists and Communist Party (in Section II. Proletarians and Communists) did you find most interesting or surprising? Why?
- Key:
- - Bourgeoisie: The owners of the "means of production" (i.e. factories, capital, and supplies). Not the same as aristocracy/nobility!
- - Proletariat: The working class - people who sell their labor for wages.
- Liberal/Bourgeois Socialism: Capitalists like Robert Owens and Charles Fourier, who own the means of production, but want to improve the conditions of their workers' lives. These are who inspired modern American Liberalism and the idea of the Welfare State. (Consider why/how Marx and Engels criticize this type of socialism).