Essay Introduction

In this selection from the Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Frederick Engels lay out the specific measures necessary to achieve a communist revolution. Contrary to the popular belief that communism solely implies violent upheaval, this blueprint includes steps like a heavy progressive income tax, the centralization of credit, and free public education—measures that were intended to wrest capital from the bourgeoisie "by degrees." This historical document serves as a checklist for understanding the gradual implementation of socialist principles in modern governance.

The Communist Idea

Part I

We were warned of the general procedure and the specific measures for a successful communist or socialist revolution by Karl Marx, the "father" of communism, in 1848:

"We have seen . . . that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class; to win the battle of democracy. The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie; to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State. . . .

These measures will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless in the most advanced countries the following will be pretty generally applicable:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries: gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc."

About the Authors

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were the authors of The Communist Manifesto. "The Communist Idea (Part I)" is extracted from pages 32-34 of the New York Labor News Company's 1948 edition of that book.

Attribution

Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. "The Communist Idea, Part I." In Essays on Liberty, Vol. 1, 96-97. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1952.