Communist Manifesto Recording

Allie Jarrett reflects on Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, discussing how it addresses class struggle and oppression in society. Marx argues for a classless society where resources are distributed based on need. Allie finds a passage about factory workers being organized like soldiers interesting because it reminds her of slavery in America. Marx believed that capitalists would exploit workers for profit, similar to how wealthy white men exploited slaves. He likely would have supported abolishing slavery to end class struggle and oppression. The dehumanizing working conditions in factories described by Marx also parallel the treatment of slaves on plantations. Both prioritize profit over the well-being of the working class or slaves. Hi, my name is Allie Jarrett, and today I'm recording a short audio response reflecting on the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx in 1848. In this manifesto, Marx outlines the basic principles of communism. Marx expresses how the class struggle in society causes oppression, and how substituting communism for capitalism will help to solve these issues. Marx claims that the capitalist class, or the bourgeoisie, oppresses the working class, or in this case, the proletariat. Marx argues for a classless society in which resources are distributed only to those who need them. This document is extremely significant throughout history and still today. Throughout the sections we have read, I found this particular passage interesting. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeoisie class and of the bourgeois state, they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful, and the more embittering it is. I thought that this particular passage was interesting because it relates to slavery in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Marx believed that oppressing workers, or slaves, was for the benefit of those making profit off of this labor. He believed that capitalists would exploit their workers to earn money and oppress the lower classes. This is similar to slavery in America, as wealthy white men would exploit their slaves to benefit from the profit they would make. Marx most likely would have favored the abolition of slavery as this is a step towards ending class struggle and oppression from the higher class or capitalists. The description of the factories in this passage also reminds me of the way Equiano described the slave ships, crowded but organized. Marx is describing the working conditions within capitalist factories during this time. He describes the work in the factories as almost dehumanizing, which is similar to the way that the slaves felt on the plantations in America. Marx then criticizes the capitalists who profit off of this work and explains that this gain is their priority instead of the quality of lives of the working class. This is also similar to slavery in my opinion, as slave owners would treat their slaves horribly while only prioritizing their own profit.