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9: Marx felt that the revolutions of 1848 marked a major turning point, as isnow undisputed. He sets out to trace the patterns which have run through all ofpreceding history. Unsurprisingly, he considers exclusively European societies,beginning with the classical world. What does he say is the main source ofconflict throughout history? How does he say the bourgeoisie has differed inthe way it has affected this pattern of conflict? He explains how thebourgeoisie (literally dwellers in towns) originated out of the old medievalpeasant class, in opposition to the medieval titled aristocracy (kings, dukes,knights, etc.).
10: These people derived their wealth from trade rather than agriculture. Whywas the age of exploration and colonization important to them? What caused theold guild system to collapse? What have the major effects of the ensuing industrial revolution been? What are the major achievements caused by theextension (expansion) of industry? As the bourgeoisie grew in power, whathappened to the other old feudal classes like the aristocracy and the peasants? Did the bourgeoisie create capitalism or did capitalism create the bourgeoisie,according to Marx?
11: What does this famous phrase mean: \"The executive of the modern stateis but a committee for managing the common affairs of the wholebourgeoisie?\" Do you agree? Why? Note that he praises the bourgeoisiefor having abolished the feudal system and prepared the way for socialism; buthe does so ironically. What does he imply have been the main harmful effects ofdestroying feudalism? How has capitalism\'s emergence changed \" humannature?\" \"Exchange value\" is a typical Marxist term which doesnot exactly mean \"price,\" but in this context that is close enough. What does he say is the limit of bourgeois freedom? Do you think he is right insaying that occupations are only resp ected according to how much they are paid? Can you think of examples to illustrate his point about the reduction of\"the family relation to a mere money relation\" from Germinal.? Keep in mind that he is speaking here mainly of the effects ofcapitalism on workers, not on the bourgeoisie. He uses the term\"reactionaries\" from time to time. What does it mean? (Look it up ina dictionary.) It is commonly misused to mean merely \"those who react tosomething.\"
12: To what cause does he attribute the bourgeoisie\'s energy in creatingrailways, factories, etc.? Why do owners need constantly to create new ways ofmanufacturing and processing goods? How does competition drive this process? Can you think of modern examples, or counter-examples? How does the very essence of bourgeois production (capitalism, used interchangeably with\"bourgeois society\" below) make it by definition a revolutionaryforce? Why does capitalism have to spread worldwide? What tendenciesundermine the independence of nation-states? Can you think of examples todayof this sort of international economic interdependence? What forces generateexpanded markets for capitalism? Can you think of examples of \"new wants?being created?
13: What effects does he say international trade has on \"intellectualproduction\" such as literature, philosophy, music, etc.? Is literaturemore or less international now than in the Middle Ages? Has nationalism beenweakened as a force in the last hundred years, as Marx expected? Why or whynot? He argues that all societies tend to become civilized (drawn into thesocial patterns of European civilization). To what extent is this true? Whatis the process by which he says the bourgeois society creates a world after itsown image? How has capitalism altered the relationship between cities and thecountryside? Has that process continued since Marx\'s time? What does he meanby the \"idiocy of rural life?\" Farmers a hundred years ago wereconsidered much less sophisticated than city dwellers. Is that still true? What analogy is he drawing between the city/country relationship and the\"civilized\"/\"barbarian\" relationship? According to Marx,how evenly is wealth distributed under capitalism? How has capitalism tended tocreate large countries with uniform laws?
14: What have been the main creations of capitalism during the preceding 100years? Having described how the emergence of capitalism from mercantilismdestroyed the old feudal system, Marx proclaims that a similar transformation isnow taking place. How has capitalism created forces which work against itscontinued existence? A \"commercial crisis\" would more likely becalled a depression or recession today. What pattern does he feel there is inthese crises?
15: Why does capitalism tend to over-produce goods, unlike any previous form ofeconomy? How does an over-abundance of goods produce an apparent\"famine\" (depression)? Is it possible to produce too much? How doeconomists today relate manufacturers\' inventories to the health of the economy? How could such over-production be prevented? Marx shows hisEnlightenment heritage by objecting to such a result as absurd, irrational. What are some of the irrational contradictions that he sees in capitalism? What three methods does the bourgeoisie use to solve such a crisis? Why dothese methods not really solve the ultimate problem? How have the bourgeoisiecreated the force which will destroy them? Why are laborers forced to selltheir services for the lowest possible wages? What \" law\" did westudy in Germinal which states this proposition? In fact, in thecentury after the writing of the Manifesto the wages of workerstended generally to rise (though with many fluctuations and crises), until mostworkers under capitalism were much too prosperous to be enemies of the systemwhich produced their wages. What forces do you think caused this result, contradicting Marx\'s expectation?
16: Besides low wages, what other evils does Marx trace to modern industrialism? How could these evils be avoided? What is the relationship between the\"repulsiveness\" of labor and pay? To what extent is hard work notrewarded with more wealth? How is work made harder? Why has industrialismresulted in the entry into the workplace of more and more women and children? What effects does Marx thinks this has had on society? Can you illustrate thispoint from Germinal?
17: What happens to the \"lower strata of the middle class\" (what Marxelsewhere calls the \"petit\" [small] or \"petty\" bourgeoisie)? Can you think of an example from Germinal? What are the majorstages in the class struggle as the proletariat develops? Can you illustratethese stages from Germinal? [Those who advocate destroyingmachinery to end its oppressive effects are called \"Luddites\" after agroup of weavers who destroyed power looms in England inspired by a mythicalfigure named Ned Ludd in 1811-1816. ] How does Germinal illustrate the process by which workers begin to organize their opposition tothe owners? As the conflict develops, most of its victims are not the largecapitalists, but their small competitors (like Deneulin); thus Marx says \"every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie.\" The struggleis becoming sharpened. What forces continually strengthen the proletariat?
18: What unstable forces inherent in capitalism cause the workers to seekorganizations which will help them stabilize their wages? Since most strikesand riots are failures, what is the \"real fruit\" of these struggles? Why can modern workers organize so much more easily than their medievalpredecessors? What is the next step after the proletarians have becomeconscious of themselves as a class rather than as isolated individuals, andbecome organized? As Engels\' footnote points out, one of the early successesof labor organizations was the passing of a law restricting the normal work dayto ten hours (as is the case in Germinal ), though overtimeremained common. In earlier industrialism it was common to keep a factory ormine going around the clock with two shifts of twelve hours each.
19: How does the need of the bourgeoisie to seek allies among the proletariathelp to strengthen the latter? Which of these two classes--bourgeoisie andproletariat--tends to grow the most? According to Marx\' s definitions, whichclass does your family belong to: bourgeoisie (owners of the means of productionwho live off of profits) or proletariat (people who work for a salary), or wouldyou define their status in some other way? When Marx says that \"a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionaryclass\" he is thinking primarily of intellectuals like himself and Engels,who allied themselves with the workers despite their bourgeois background. Therelationship of such idealistic Marxists to working class movements has been atroubled one. Can you think of any examples? What problems might these twogroups have in relating to one another? Why does he call peasantsreactionaries? Was Marx right? Can you think of an important modern Communistrevolution which was created primarily among and for peasants?
20: Professional criminals, prostitutes, beggars, etc. make up what Marx callsthe Lumpenproletariat.They too are not likely to berevolutionary, according to him. When Marx says that the proletarian is withoutproperty he doesn\'t mean workers don\'t own their clothes and toothbrushes. Towhat extent are the workers in Germinal \"withoutproperty?\" It is this narrow definition of \"property\" that Marxuses throughout his writings. He had no objection to people owning personalbelongings. To what extent has modern capitalism stripped workers of theirnational character? Are proletarians less nationalistic than the bourgeoisie? Why does he believe that proletarians will be motivated to destroy the wholesystem of individual private property? What fact makes the proletarian movementdifferent from all previous movements? Does Marx believe that the struggle ofthe proletariat with the bourgeoisie can be carried out int ernationally, all atonce? What might be the weaknesses of carrying it out country by country?
21: Why does Marx say the bourgeoisie is unfit to rule? The final paragraph ofthis chapter summarizes the argument of the whole. Read it carefully. Hebelieves that capitalism inevitably creates its own destruction. What do youthink of this thesis?
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