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The Communist Manifesto starts off with a provocative statement describing that the history, “of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. ” (65) Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argue that the process of collective struggle originated changes in political institutions, in the society overall, and in history itself. Such struggles have occurred between the economically subordinate classes and the economically dominant classes, and therefore opened up fresh grounds for Bourgeoisie, the business class, and Proletariat, the working class.
During the establishment of such societies in the late state of history, a new struggle developed, the conflict of opposites in society. Karl Marx describes that the, “society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. ” (66) For Marx, Bourgeoisie controlled the profit that resulted in creating property and used it to enslave the proletariats. Marx’s theory of communism arose out of this belief.
He wanted to overcome the dehumanizing effect of private property that class conflict generated. Karl Marx views on communism came to a conclusion of abolishing private property. The feudal system of industry gave away to the manufacturing. Such method developed Bourgeoisie; a social group opposed to the proletariat in the class struggle. “Our epoch, the epoch of the Bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature; it has simplified the class antagonisms. (66) Marx describes the development of bourgeoisie as an economic class that “has got the upper hand, [and] has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’. ” (67) The Bourgeoisie, as Marx acknowledges, enslaved the proletariats, those who had no wealth other than their family. Marx argues that the capitalist class enjoyed all the benefits of property and didn’t strive in laboring.
On the other hand, the workers’ or the Proletariat’s labor didn’t grant them any property. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx thinks that the labor had been used to exploit the working class; therefore, he argues that private property should be abolished, stating that, “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. ” (78) Private property, for Marx, is not a natural right.