Name: Date: Period: The Communist Manifesto To some people, the Industrial Revolution only seemed to cause greater inequality between social classes. While factory owners made profit, workers fell into poverty. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were two radical thinkers from Germany. They argued that capitalism causes social inequality. They wrote the Communist Manifesto to express their ideas on society. The following excerpt is taken from that book. Document 1 Source: The Communist Manifesto, written by Marx and Engels in 1848. The bourgeoisie (middle class) has left no remaining link between man and man other than shameless self-interest and the heartless desire for cash payment. The work of the proletarians (working class) has lost all individual value and all charm because of the widespread use of machinery and the conditions of factory labor. The modern working class lives only so long as they can find work, and finds work only so long as their labor increases the capital (monev) of the bourgeoisie. These laborers must sell themselves little by little. They are a commodity (product), like every other item that is bought and sold. Modern industry has converted (changed) the little workshop into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers are crowded into factories. They are organized like slave-soldiers in the industrial army of the bourgeoisie. Not only are these laborers slaves to the bourgeoisie, they are enslaved daily by the machines they work with. The Communists do not wish to conceal (hide) their views and aims. The theory of the Communists can be summed up in a single sentence: the abolition (elimination) of private property (possessions). The hard-won, self-earned property of the small peasant has already been destroyed by the development of industry. Private property is already done away with for 90% of the population. Modern bourgeoisie private property only exploits the working class. Bourgeoisie property must be swept out of the way. It. must be converted into common property for use by all members of society. 1. Describe Marx's view (claim) about the idea of self-interest.