4. K. Marx. Page from the Rough Draft of the Manifesto of the Communist Party

4. K. Marx. Page from the Rough Draft of the Manifesto of the Communist Party(1)

13) ...Proletarians, for the Ten-Hour Bill without sharing their illusions about the results of this measure.[3]

We have seen, moreover: The Communists do not put forward a new theory of private property. They merely state the historical fact that the <means of production) (2) bourgeois production relations and with them bourgeois property relations <and> <eith> <certain> of the <devel> <social> development of the social forces of production no longer <are appropriate> and therefore <to the development of industry itself) (and) in t.... But do not argue with us because you measure (oppose) the abolition of bourgeois property by your bourgeois ideas of freedom, culture, etc.! Your ideas themselves <are only> <prod> <are> (correspond) are products of the (existing) bourgeois production and property relations, as your legal system is merely the will of your class elevated into law. (Your> A will whose content is determined by the material living conditions of your class.

(Your) You share with all ruling classes that have perished the biased idea of transforming (the) your (bourgeois) production and property relations from historical, (and merely> transitory relations corresponding only to a certain (stage in the) development of the productive forces, into eternal laws of nature and reason.

What you comprehend for feudal property, you no longer comprehend for bourgeois <conditi> property. And yet, you cannot deny the fact that <in the course) with the development of <bourgeois> industry the one-sided, on....(3)

The Communists do not put forward any new theory of property. They state a fact. You deny the most striking facts. You have to deny them. You are backward looking Utopians.

Written in December 1847-January 1848

First published as a facsimile in the journal Der Wahre Jakob No. 565 (6), March 17, 1908

Printed according to the manuscript

Published in English for the first time

Endnotes

[3] The Jacobin revolutionary government headed by Robespierre fell as a result of the coup of 9-10 Thermidor (July 27-28), 1794. 5 8 12 ing an armed uprising of the plebeian masses against the bourgeois regime of the Directory and establishing a revolutionary dictatorship as a transitional stage to "pure democracy" and "egalitarian communism". The conspiracy was disclosed in May 1796. At the end of May 1797 its leaders were executed.

(1) The first two lines are in Jenny Marx's hand. The rest in Marx's.—Ed.

(2) Deletions in the original are given here in angular brackets.—Ed.

(3) In the M S. the whole sentence including deleted words is struck out.—Ed. -