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 PERSPECTIVES
previousmodes of appropriation, which
CommunistManifestoand Marxian Idea impliesnot only the self-emancipation of
the proletariatbut also the emancipation
of Society
Post-Capitalist of the whole humanitymediatedby the
communistrevolution.This revolutionis
Paresh Chattopadhyay notat all a momentaryevent.It is a whole
processof developmentof whichthe rise
The essential ideas concerning the society of free and associated to powerof theproletariat - the"conquest
of democracy" -constitutesthe"firststep".
producers - the post-capitalist society - as well as the conditions of But in course of developmentof this
its realisation, elaborated by Marx in his writings of different periods, revolution
publicpowerloses its political
are already found in the Communist Manifesto in a condensed form. character along with the increasing
disappearance of class antagonismandof
IN the text thatfollows we arguethatthe of the new society correspondto these new classes themselves. At the end of this
basic Marxianideas concerningthe type relations of production. Capital is trans- trajectorythe old society with its classes
of society supposedto follow the demise formed into collective property,class pro- disappearsyielding place to a free asso-
of capitalismarecontainedintheManifesto pertyin the meansof productiondisappears ciation of individuals.
in a condensedform. Accordingly,the yielding place to social appropriation.
II
firstsectionoffersanoutlineof whattype However, this social appropriation does
of
of society the Manifesto envisages for the not affect the personal appropriation the These ideas of the Manifesto Marx
futureas well as theconditionsnecessary products of labour with a view to the elaboratesin his differenttexts bothpre-
foritsappearance, whilethesecondsection reproduction of the immediate life. cedingand posteriorto this composition.
relatesthese ideas to Marx'sothertexts. As regards the conditions of realising Thiscanbe convenientlydiscussedunder
the post-capitalist society, the Manifesto two headings:(1) communistrevolution
I asserts that the proletarian revolution, and its conditions,and (2) natureof the
In this paper post-capitalist society indispensable for establishing the com- communist(socialist) society.
signifieswhatMarxcallsa "societyof free imunist mode of production and appro- (1) The communist (proletarian)
and associated producers"- also, in- priation, presupposes the existence of a revolution,farfrombeinga simpleseizure
differently.'communism'or 'socialism'l developed and advanced proletariat and of power by the proletariat,is a secular
- basedon the "associatedmode of pro- material conditions adequate for the process.Inhisfamous1859'Preface'Marx
duction".This"unionof freeindividuals", emancipationof the proletariat.Now, these speaks of the "beginning"of an "epoch
thecrowningpointof theself-emancipation conditions are the productof the bourgeois of social revolution".The periodof tran-
of the immediate producers, where epoch. The bourgeoisie has destroyed the sition betweenthe capitalistsociety and
individualsaresubjectneitherto personal pre-capitalistrelationsof productionbased thesocietyof freeandassociatedproducers
dependence,as in pre-capitalism,nor to on personal dependence of the individual. is included within this revolutionary
materialdependence,as in commodity- It has equally destroyed the old local and process which Marx calls, in the
capitalistsociety,excludes,by definition, national autarchy and put universal Gothakritik,the "periodof revolutionary
state,privateownershipof the conditions exchange in their place. At the same time transformation" duringwhichthecapitalist
of production.commodityproductionand the bourgeoisie cannot exist without society is revolutionisedtowardscom-
wage labour.The Manifestoindicates,in continuously revolutionising the material munism. During this whole period the
a condensed and concise fashion, the productive forces. The bourgeoisie is the immediateproducersremainproletarians
essentialelementsof the envisagednew unconscious carrierof industrywhose own (whence the "dictatorshipof the pro-
society as well as the objective and the product is precisely the proletariat, the letariat") and,asMarxinsistsinhiscritique
subjectiveconditionsof its realisation. 'grave diggers' of capital. The power of ofBakunin.the"oldorganisation of society
Thenew societyis an 'association'-the organisation of the proletariat marches doesnotyetdisappear" (1874-75),( 1973c:
whole productionbeing in the handsof handin handwith industry'sdevelopment. 630). Marxaffirmsthe same idea in his
the 'associatedindividuals'- where the Simultaneously the bourgeoisie is forced addressto the Internationalon the Paris
freedevelopmentof each is the condition to bring the elements of its own culture Commune."The workingclasses know
of the free development of all. The to the proletariat thereby furnishing the that the supersedingof the economical
"communist mode of production and latter with arms against itself. conditionsof the slaveryof labourby the
appropriation" is based on the specific The proletariat, the historical agent of conditionsof free and associatedlabour
production relations.Oncethedomination the communist revolution, is the only class can only be a progressiveworkof time.
of the accumulatedor dead labourover facing the bourgeoisie which is truly They knowthatthe present'spontaneous
the living labouris turnedupsidedown, revolutionary. Constituting the immense actionof the naturallaws of capitaland
the accumulatedlabourbecomesa means majority of the capitalist society, having landedproperty'can only be superseded
of enlarging, enriching and advancing no propertyand no country, the proletariat by the 'spontaneousactionof the laws of
the life of the labourers.Commoditypro- is the universal class which carries the the social economyof freeandassociated
ductionceases to exist, the money form future in its hands. Consequently the labour'in a long processof development
and the capital form of the productof revolution led by the proletariatis the most of newconditions,as wasthe'spontaneous
labourdisappearandwagelabourvanishes radicalrevolutionwhich not only abolishes actionof the economicallaws of slavery'
alongwithcapital.Theownershiprelations ils own mode of appropriationbut also all and the 'spontaneous action of the

Economic and Political Weekly August 8. 1998 2165

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 economical laws of serfdom"' ('First
Outline') [Marx i976b: 156-57).
The communist revolution has a
universal character. This is because the
proletariat, having no property and no
country,is theexpression of the dissolution
of all classes and all nationalities. More-
over, becauseof the universaldevelopment
of the productiveforces (undercapitalism)
and the 'world-historical' extension of
capital - appearingas a power alien to the
proletariat- the proletariat'ssubjection is
universal. The proletariat can exist only
as a world historical (weltgeschichtlich)
force, in the same way as communism can
exist only as a world historical reality.
Another fundamentalaspect of the univer-
sal characterof the communist revolution
is that the emancipation of the proletariat,
the result of the communist revolution,
does not mean that the emancipation is
limited to the proletariat. It is universal.
human [Marx 1973a:34, 1965:1538].
As a consistent materialist Marx insists
that if, in the society as it is, the material
conditions of production and the corres-
ponding relationsof circulation for a class-
less society do not already exist in a latent
state, all attempts at exploding the society
would be Don Quixotism (1953: 77).2
Precisely it is capital which creates the
material conditions of the proletarian
(human) emancipation. In his different
texts Marx returnsagain and again to one
of the main them es of the Manifesto.
namely. thatthe great revolutions effected
by the bourgeoisie in thle material pro-
ductive forces along with the development
of the "greatest productive force", the
proletariat,the "revolutionaryclass"( 1965:
135). are the Indispensable conditions of
the emancipation of the proletariat.In this
we see a veritable demonstration of the
"dialectic of negativity" which Marx
discerns in Hegel's Phenomenology.
Inanearliertext addressedto the workers
Marxhadclearly underlinedwhat he called
the "positive side of capital'", that is,
without the big industry, free competition,
the world market and the corresponding
means of production there would be no
materialresources lor the emancipation of
the proletariatand the creation of the new
society. and he added that without these
conditions the proletariatwould not have
taken the road ol the union nor known the
development which makes it capable of
revolutionising the old society as well as
itself (1973b: 555). This idea is pursued
in latertexts. Thus Marxwrites thatcapital,
by its unceasing pretension to a universal
form of wealth, pushes labour beyond the
limits of the latter's needs and thereby
creates the material elements of the
2166
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development of a rich individuality (1953:
23). In the same way, to the extent that
it is capital's disciplining constraintwhich
lorces the great mass of society to create
surplus labour beyond its own immediate
needs, capital creates culture and fulfils
a social-historical function (1976a: 173).
Marxin factpraisesthe"scientifichonesty"
of Ricardo against the "sentimentalists"
like Sismondi for Ricardo's insistence on
the necessity of productionforproduction's
sake inasmuch as this latter signifies the
"development of the human productive
forces, that is, the development of the
wealth of humannatureas an end in itself'.
This development of the productive forces
is an "absolutely necessary, practical pre-
condition (of human emancipation)
because without it only the penury and the
necessity will be generalised and. with the
need, shall also restart the struggle for
necessity. On the other hand. only with
this universal development of the pro-
ductive forces can a universal intercourse
be posited". In this connection Marx
observes that this development, though
effected at the cost of the majority of
individuals and even of the entire classes,
ends by smashing this antagonism [diesen
Anraigoniismnsdutrclhricht] (1959:107.
1973a:33). Marx underlines that this type
of development,namely."thedevelopment
of the general humanity at the cost of the
greatest waste of the development of the
individual" takes place in the epochs
preceding "the socialist constitution of
mankind" (1976a:327),3 that is - in the
language of 1859 'Preface' - in the "pre-
historyof humansociety".The domination
of the workerby the capitalist, by violence
and against the majority- writes Marx in
anothermanuscriptof the sixties - contri-
butes to the "unlimited [rucksichtslosen
- reckless] productivity of social labour"
which alone can create the material basis
of a free human society (1969: 18), and
in a letter: "The big industry is not only
the mother of antagonisnmbu it is also
the creatorof the materialand intellectual
conditions necessary for resolving this
antagonism" (to Kugelmann, March 17,
1968). As Marx writes in Capital I: "In
history as in nature putrefaclion is the
laboratoryof lile".4 In his last program-
imaticcomposition addressedto the French
working class Marx wrote thatthe material
and intellectual elements of the collective
form of the means of production are
constituted by the development of the
capitalist class itself (1965:1538).
(2) We arrive now at the nature of the
of the new society, as envisaged by Marx.
Communism is the real reappropriationof
tihehuman essence by the human and for
Economic and Political Weekly
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the human, a complete returnof the indi-
vidual to oneself as a social and human
being, a return which is realized while
conserving all the wealth of the preceding
development. The entire movement of
history is the real process of its birth, it
is also the movement of its own becoming,
understood and conceived as such [die
begriffne iilndgewlisste Bewegung seines
Werdens)](1966:99).
Freed from materialandpersonaldepen-
dence, the members of the new society,
freely associated and masters of their own
social movement, areuniversally develop-
ed individuals whose social relations are
subject to their own collectivc control as
personal and common relations (1953:79,
1962:92-93). Replacing the "falsecommu-
nity" which confronted the individuals as
an autonomous power in the "pre-history
of human society", there arises in the
Association the "truecommunity" whose
membersareuniversallydeveloped "social
individuals" (1966:252-53. 1953:79).
Corresponding to the new associated
mode of production there is now a new
mode of appropriation.After the demise
of class property-that is, 'privateproperty'
in its fundamental sense - there appears
the social appropriationof the means of
production. Let us add that the (workers')
statepropertyover the meansof production
is not yet the social appropriationover the
means of production. While it is possible
to abolish individual or corporate private
property juridically, it is impossible to
'abolish' juridically class property,which
continues to exist till the possessing classes
disappear. A mode of production (appro-
priation) cannot be decreed away
(wegdekretieren) (1962:16). It is only at
the end of the "period of revolutionary
transformation",when the associatedmode
of production has replaced the old mode
of production, when political power has
ceased to exist, that private propertyin the
fundamental sense of class property
disappears yielding place to the collective
appropriationby whole society. It is in this
sense that the Manifesto speaks of the
"abolition of class property"(Alufi7ren tles
Kliasseneigenltitts). The same idea
reappears in Marx's address on the
commune. Contraryto all the earlierforms
of appropriation, where the latter's
characterwas limited, the collective appro-
priation by the producers has a total
character inasmuch as the dispossession
of the producersin capitalism is total. and,
secondly, the development of the produc-
tive forces under capitalism has attained
a universal character such that they can
only be appropriatedglobally by the entire
society (1973a:67, 1953:387, 1976a: 148).
August 8, 1998
 As regardsthe exchange relations of the labour.Ina word."withintheco-operative References
new society, both the material exchanges societybasedon thecollectiveownership Marx.K (1953): GrundrtsselerKritikderpolitis-
(Stoffwvechsel) of humanbeings with nature of the meansof production,theproducers chenkonotie ( 1857-58), Berlin,Dietz Verlag.
and the social exchanges among indi- do not exchange their products" - (1958): Zur Kritik der politischen konomie
(1859), Berlin. Dietz.
viduals - which are independent of any (Gothakritik). - (1959): Theorien ber den Mehrwert. Vol II
specific mode of production - continue to Wethusconcludethattheessentialideas (1861-63), Berlin, Dietz.
operate in the Association. Nevertheless, concerningthesocietyof freeandassoci- -(1962): Das Kapital Vol I (1867, 1873), Berlin,
Dietz.
there are qualitative changes. As regards atedproducers-thepost-capitalist society -( 964): Das KapitalVol 111( 1864-1875), Berlin.
the first type of exchange, the associated - as wellastheconditionsof itsrealisation. Dietz.
producersregulaterationallytheirmaterial elaboratedby Marx in his writings of - (1965): Mis re de la philosophte (1847); Le
exchanges with naturespending minimum differentperiods,arealreadyfoundin the Capital I (1875); 'Considrantsdu programme
du partiouvrierfranais'(1880), all in Oeuvres:
force and in the conditions most worthy Manifesto in a condensed form. Economie 1, Paris. Gallinard.
of and most conforming to their human - (1966):konomnisch-philosophische
Notes Manuskripte
nature[Marx 1964:828]. As to the second (1844) and 'Aus den Exzerptheften'(1844) in
[A shorter (French) version of the paper was Marx-Eng,elsII, Studienausgabe.Frankfurt,
type, in the associated mode of production earlier at the 'InternationalEncounter' Fischer.
presented
wherethe labourof the individualis posited in Paris on the occasion of the 150th anniver- - (1969): Resultate des unmittelbaren
trom the startas social labour, the product s;aryof the CommunistManifesto, May 13-16, Produktionsprozesses (1863-65). Frankfurt,
of labourceases to take commodity form, 1998.] Verlag Neue Kritik.
this form of "all-sided alienation".The old I The distinctionsocialism-communism,absent Marx, K and F Engels (1973a): 'Die Deutsche
Ideologie' (1845-46) in Marx, EntgelsWerke
society's exchange of products taking the in Marx, is of later vintage and was made
(hereafterMEW) vol III, Berlin, Dietz.
form of exchange values yields place to familiar by Lenin. - ( 973b): 'Arbeitslohn'(1847) in MEW.vol VI,
the "free exchanges of activities" among 2 The series of 'Don Quixotism' in the name of Berlin, Dietz.
socialist revolution in the twentieth century - (1973c): 'Konspekt von Bakunins Buch
the social individuals.determineduniquely have been a telling confirmation of Marx's "Staatlichkeitund Anarchie"' (1874-75) in
by needs and collective ends [Marx prognosis. MEW, vol XVIII, Berlin, Dietz.
1958:54. 1953:77. 781. Naturally, in the 3 In English in the text. - (1976a): 'Zur Kritik der politlschen konoilie,
new society the allocation of resources 4 This sentence appears only in the French Manuskripte'(1861-63) in Marxand Engels.
version (1965:955). About three decades Gesanmtsausgabe,Section 2, vol 3. Part I.
among the different productive branches earlier, in his 'Anti-Proudhon'. Marx had
as well as distribution of products among Berlin, Dietz.
written:"It is the bad side (in its struggle with - (1976b): 'The Civil War in France' (1871)
social individuals cease to be mediated the good side) which producesthe movement ('First Outline') in Marx and Engels. On the
by the conmmodityfrom the product of that makes history" (1965:89). Paris Co,ltnune, Moscow. Progress.

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10.

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