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22: What does Marx say the relationship of the Communists to the proletarians asa whole is? In what ways are they different from other working-class parties? What are their immediate aims?
23: Marx argues that his theories are not mere intellectual inventions butscientifically provable facts. What effect might it have on political debate ifone believes that one\'s arguments are irrefutable fact? Marx now sets himselfto answer many of the most common accusations against the Communists. What doeshe say is the usual argument in favor of the right of personally acquiringproperty (land, factories, mines, etc.)? What do you think of these arguments? What are his answers? Do you find them convincing?
24: What does he mean when he says that capital (the money and goods which makecapitalism possible) is a social creation? Again he discusses the \"ironlaw of wages.\" He says that under capitalism living labor (the work ofthe workers) is but a means to increase accumulated labor (the wealth of theowners). What does he say is the aim of labor under communism? Does Marx wantto abolish all individuality and freedom? Read the last paragraph carefully. What is he saying?
25: Some Communists have denounced all individuality and most individualliberty. Do you think Marx would have agreed with them? What does he mean bysaying that the bourgeoisie has done away with private property for nine-tenthsof the population? The fact that most Americans own no part of the means ofproduction doesn\'t seem to make them opposed to private property as such. Whynot? Can you identify factors that Marx overlooked? When he says that themiddle-class owner must be made impossible, he simply means that society must bereorganized so that no one is allowed to own large masses of productiveproperty. Do you think he would have agreed with attempts to kill capitalists? What is his answer to the argument that the ambition to acquire property(become a business owner) is necessary to prevent \"universallaziness?\" (His answer continues on the next page.)
26: In the second paragraph, Marx says that the bourgeoisie fears that aproletarian revolution will destroy all culture because bourgeois culture will no longer be produced. What does he imply about the continuedexistence of culture? Why does he argue it is pointless to use arguments basedon freedom, culture, and law against communism? The earliest Westerntheoretician of communism, Plato, had argued for a lottery rotating the matingsof men and women to create a sense of solidarity in which all citizens wouldview themselves as part of one big family. Some other communists had argued forsimilar arrangements, like group marriage or \" free love,\" but Marxdid not. He did feel that people should be free to form their own unionswithout any role being played by the state. He was also opposed to the idea of\"illegitimacy.\" Here he sarcastically attacks his critics withoutmaking his own position explicit. Remembering Germinal, why doyou think he says the family is \"practically absent\" among theproletarians?
27: He foretells the vanishing of the bourgeois family (though not necessarily the family in general). What evils does he say the bourgeois family causes? Heanswers those who argue that education will be destroyed and replaced bypropaganda by saying that supposedly neutral bourgeois education is in factfilled with more or less hidden propaganda for capitalist values: there is noneutrality possible. The workers have to change the values taught to ones thatsupport rather than undermine them. What do you think of this argument? Is itpossible to have a truly unbiased form of education? Is it desirable? Do wehave one now? What evidence does he offer that the bourgeoisie does not reallyvalue the family for its own sake? He then returns to the most sensationalcharge: the community (sharing) of women. Marx rejects this. A ccording toMarx, why do the bourgeoisie suppose that this is an essential part ofcommunism? How does he argue that it is the bourgeoisie which has reallypromoted the \"community of women?\"
28: How does he say the abolition of the present system of production wouldchange this situation? He agrees that the Communists do want to abolishcountries and nationality. What are his arguments in saying that working peopleare not attached to their countries? Clearly this is not generally true. EvenStalin had to resort to patriotism to muster the support of Russians behind himduring World War II. Why has nationalism proven so persistent and powerful? Does this fact undermine Marxism? What does the passage which begins in thelast paragraphs on this page and continues on the next mean? (Hint: the pointis discussed above, in the introduction to these questions.) This argument isone of the most widespread and powerful still being debated in academic andintellectual circles today, and it is important to understand it.
30-31: As Engels points out, the ten-point program outlined here is veryconservative and preliminary, and would have been much more developed had the Manifesto been written later. Which of the points seem radical,which conservative? Which have been in fact commonly adopted in countries likethe U.S.? Which do you agree with? Disagree with? Explain this ideal:\" the free development of each is the condition for the free development ofall.\" Does this sound like communism as you understand it? As itdeveloped in the Soviet Union?
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