This episode is an attempt to make the first part of the Communist Manifesto, the part called “Bourgeois and Proletarians” intelligible for some one knew to socialism. This text is a part of the DSA NPEC “What is Capitalism?” curriculum.
Written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, this is one of the foundational texts of the socialist movement. The first chapter covers the expansion of capital and the consolidation of the bourgeoisie as a class, as well as their relationship to the proletariat (the working class) and their role in history.
Crucial to Marx and Engels’ understanding of socialism is their appreciation of the power of capitalism, not simply to dominate and exploit, but to create vast amounts of wealth. Prior to capitalism, no society existed that produced enough for every person to not only be fed, clothed and housed, but to enjoy luxuries and meaningful free time. While capitalism is incapable of providing a just distribution of this wealth, it has ushered in an era of unprecedented wealth. Because the working class produces this wealth, it is the unique agent of change that can upend this status quo.
The Manifesto not only shows capitalism to be a historical phase, and not something that has existed forever, but it also points towards the potential, even the inevitability, that something else will replace it.
Elton L.K. will be returning to his personal podcast The Working Class Intelligentsia. In The Working Class Intelligentsia he follows serially the writings and biography of Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, and the lessons we can learn today from them. Gramsci is famous for participating in a socialist movement that collapsed under Mussolini’s fascism. Mussolini put a few socialists in prison, including Gramsci. While in prison Gramsci was for some reason allowed to theorize how the Italian revolution failed, and analyze how power worked through Italian history. Season 2 is going to cover the Russian Revolution and the simultaneous socialist movement building in Italy in the year 1917.
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