All I Know Is That I Am

The Rule Of The Bourgeois Democrats [in Pre-federal Germany], From The Very First, Will Carry Within It The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction

The Bourgeoisie Of The Whole World, Which Looks Complacently Upon The Wholesale Massacre After The Battle, Is Convulsed By Horror At The Desecration Of Brick And Mortar.

It Has Drowned The Most Heavenly Ecstasies Of Religious Fervour, Of Chivalrous Enthusiasm, Of Philistine Sentimentalism, In The Icy Water Of Egotistical Calculation. It Has Resolved Personal Worth Into Exchange Value, And In Place Of Numberless Indefeasible Chartered Freedoms, It Has Set Up That Single, Unconscionable Freedom -- Free Trade. In One Word, For Exploitation, Veiled By Religious And Political Illusions, It Has Substituted Naked, Shameless, Direct, Brutal Exploitation.

What The Working Man Sells Is Not Directly His Labor, But His Laboring Power, The Temporary Disposal Of Which He Makes Over To The Capitalist. This Is So Much The Case That I Do Not Know Whether By The English Law, But Certainly By Some Continental Laws, The Maximum Time Is Fixed For Which A Man Is Allowed To Sell His Laboring Power. If Allowed To Do So For Any Indefinite Period Whatever, Slavery Would Be Immediately Restored. Such A Sale, If It Comprised His Lifetime, For Example, Would Make Him At Once The Lifelong Slave Of His Employer.

The Need Of A Constantly Expanding Market For Its Products Chases The Bourgeoisie Over The Entire Surface Of The Globe.