Class Struggle, Then and Now

Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto tells a brief world history in class warfare. From Roman patricians and plebeians, to the (then) modern Bourgeoisie, Marx tells us of a cycle of exploitation of the lower classes by the higher ones. The difference, according to Marx, between previous class struggles and 19th century Capitalism is that the middle classes have vanished, there is only the capitalists and the proletariat. With the noble aristocracy no longer prevalent the state has become a servant of the bourgeoisie. Enabled by machines, everyone who is not part of the bourgeoisie is a poor wage earner.

" It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science,
into its paid wage labourers."

Marx tells us of the commoditization of humans, who can survive only as long as their labor increases capital for the upper class. Having been separated from the fruits of their labor, people are subject to the same laws of supply and demand previously reserved for material goods.

Communism is an ideology that ignores individuals and national boundaries, to promote the general well-being of all workers. It condemns property owners as profiting off the labor of others, and laments laborers lack of property. Marx and Engels lay out ten points "generally applicable" in most countries, the gist of which are state control over infrastructure, heavy taxation, abolition of property, and an even distribution of population to lessen the distinction between agriculture and industry.

While most people have abandoned the ideas of a total communist utopia as outlined by Marx and Engels the ideas of socialism and a state more active on the behalf of the people are still a part of political agendas and indeed practiced to varying degrees by modern nations. Likewise the notion of 'class warfare' is still a theme in literature and politics.

Marx's writings were certainly shaped by the times he lived in, but are some of his ideas still applicable today? Our modern economy looks drastically different from 19th century industrial Germany but what, if any, similarities are there? Is rhetoric like 'the one percent' akin to bourgeoisie? Are the social policies practiced in many European countries and to a lesser extent in America attributable to Marx and Communism or something different entirely? And finally how does Marx and Communism fit into the story of Capitalism?