by Skye Martin

Created on: March 20, 2009

The foremost philosopher of Communism was Karl Marx (1818-1883) from whom proceeds the line of Marx-Engels-Lenin. The Manifesto of The Communist Party, written in collaboration with Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), is the most popular of his nonacademic writing. The following major tenets of Communism are largely but not exclusively Marx's.

Communism is essentially a philosophy advocating the "common ownership of the means of production." or the, "absolution of private property." No individual (or group) may monopolize except for minor personal belongings, because property belongs to the people, collectively. Communism warns that whenever property can be privately owned, "exploitation of the many by the few" will result.

Consumer good as such lack inherent monetary value: their price is a concomitant of the man hours of labor expended in the manufacture of the product. The greater number of man hours spent in production, the higher the selling price. "We see then that which determines the magnitude of the value of any article is the amount of labor socially necessary, or the labour-time socially necessary for its production... The value of a commodity would therefore remain constant if the labour-time required for its production also remained constant." (Karl Marx, Capital). However, an article which is useless, irrespective of the man hours cost to produce it, is worth nothing, for without some utilitarian value, an object is valueless.

According to Engles, the most important doctrine of Marx is that of Inherent Class War raging between two irreconcilable groups: capitalist employers (the Bourgeoisie) and the workers (the Proletariat). Since the interests of each class are opposed and in conflict with each other, the only solution is to eliminate one, the Bourgeoisie, for they fail to contribute any work to society, and hence are social parasites. In the Communistic society, all must contribute: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!" (Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program)

The Bourgeoisie are responsible for a number of social evils: They have exploited the employee by giving him less than he has rightly earned; they have treated the worker as a commodity on the market, whose wage is dependent upon the fluctuations of the labor market, not upon the worth of the work produced. They have commercialized most occupations, including the professions, and most social institutions such as marriage.

With the elimination of the capitalistic

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