A Stupid Question, sure.

[Genosse Kotze]

Ok, I've read the Communist Manifesto several times now, and still react to it as if I were hearing it on mainstream, cable news (i.e. it still makes me say 'wow'), but there's always been one point where I'm not quite sure what's being talked about. In the part where Marx is trying to debunk some of the charges brought up against Communists by its detractors, he goes into that whole bit about the "community of women" (this phrase may vary according to which translation you have)--just what are we talking about here? Prostitution? He starts talking about how Capitalists basically are all into wife swapping, so is it more of big, free love, socialist orgy Communists were being accused of trying to bring about?

I love it how 19th century writers can talk about things like sex, murder, or really let some one have it in their writings in such vague language, don't you? C'mon, when was the last time somebody called you a 'knave' or a 'scoundrel' as opposed to the usual "dickweed," "douche bag" "mother fucker" we're all accustomed to?

This is a stupid post I know, and I wouldn't be shocked to see it get trashcanned or stuck in chit chat before long, but it's been something in the back of my mind for a while now.

[Hit The North]

I've always understood like it this:

The capitalists charge that the communists would reduce women to the status of prostitutes - as a consequence of abolition of the family and the socialisation of property and Marx argues that this demonstrates only how capitalists currently view women as a form of private property (marriage, after all, is another form of property relation).

Thus, rather than the status of women being reduced under communism it will be raised as women will be seen as free human beings, rather than someone's property.

[Janus]

just what are we talking about here? Prostitution?
The sharing of women in general.


so is it more of big, free love, socialist orgy Communists were being accused of trying to bring about?
Yes, that was the accusation leveled at communists based on their support for the abolition of the contemporary family and marriage systems.