Organizing the Working Classes

The desire to improve their working and living conditions led many industrial workers to form socialist political parties and socialist trade unions. These organizations emerged after 1870, but the theory on which they were based had been developed earlier by Karl Marx.

Marx's Theory

In 1848, The communist manifesto was published and written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.One form of Marxist socialism was eventually called communism.

In the industrialized societies of Marx's day, the class struggled continued. The bourgeoisie (the middle class) were the oppressors. The proletariat (the working class) were oppressed. Marx predicted that the struggle between the two groups would finally lead to an open revolution where the proletariat would violently overthrow the bourgeoisie. After their victory, the proletariat would form a dictatorship (government in which a person or group has absolute power) to organize the means of production.