Part 1 - Economic Development × Political Struggle

Karl Marx x Fredreich Engels — The Communist Manifesto 🌸
A yellow Pixel art factory pumping out smoke and a profit graph
Contradiction: collective labour vs private profit.

1) Economic Development Never Ceases

Shareholders demand returns on investment and increasing profits every year. As workers, we're the ones tasked with actually doing it.

Two Hands held out: in the left is an empty wallet with flies leaving the folds. in the right is a paper marked 'BILL' with dollar signs and an upwards arrow
Organization: unions, tenant groups, strike committees.

2) Under Capitalism None of That Money Goes To Us.

No matter how hard we work, we are left with a sinking feeling every month as expenses keep hitting harder.

Pixel art of a protestor in a red beret and shirt holding a sign that says 'My Rich Boss Doesn't Do Shit'.
Struggle: strikes, occupations, and campaigns force concessions.

3) We are Forced Into Political Struggle.

When our reasonable wants are ignored and pushed away by the established systems, we have no choice but to organize with our communities. Political struggle makes contradictions visible and winnable.

How We Win:

Our bosses will never stop demanding more profit. It's baked into the system. Every year it has to grow, produce more, squeeze harder, or else it collapses under its own weight. That's why wages stagnate while rent, bills, and prices climb: we're carrying the burden of their endless chase for growth. Marx and Engels nailed this in The Communist Manifesto when they showed how capital can't sit still, it must expand or die. And in that hunger, the ruling class digs its own grave, because eventually workers see the pattern: our lives get harder so their profits get fatter.

Political struggle is the direct expression of the contradictions created by economic development. You can't separate them. Every strike, protest, rebellion, or election that pits working people against entrenched power is the living manifestation of this dialectical relationship.

Marx argued that workers cannot limit themselves to trade-union fights over wages or conditions. In his 1871 letter to Friedrich Bolte, he insists: "Every class struggle is a political struggle." Why? Because for workers to win lasting change, they must confront state power, not just individual bosses.

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