Communist Manifesto_:--

"In every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production
and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it,
form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be
explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch; and,
consequently, the whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of
primitive society, holding land in common ownership) has been a history
of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling
and oppressed classes; that the history of these class struggles forms a
series of evolution in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached where
the exploited and oppressed class--the proletariat--cannot attain its
emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class--the
bourgeoise--without, at the same time, and once and for all,
emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class
distinctions, and class struggles."[116]

In this classic statement of the theory, there are several fundamental
propositions. First, that class divisions and class struggles arise out
of the economic life of society. Second, that since the dissolution of
primitive tribal society, which was communistic in character, mankind
has been divided into economic groups or classes, and all its history
has been a history of struggles between these classes, ruling and ruled,
exploiting and exploited, being forever at war with each other. Third,
that the different epochs in human history, stages in the evolution of
society, have been characterized by the interests of the ruling class.
Fourth, that a stage has now been reached in the evolution of society
where the struggle assumes a form which makes it impossible for class
distinctions and class struggles to continue if the exploited and
oppressed class, the proletariat, succeeds in emancipating itself. In
other words, the cycle of class struggles which began with the
dissolution of rude, tribal communism, and the rise of private property,
ends with the passing of private property in the means of social
existence and the rise of Socialism. The proletariat in emancipating
itself destroys all the conditions of class rule.

II

As we have already seen, slavery is historically the first system of
class division which presents itself. Some ingenious writers have
endeavored to trace the origin of slavery to the institution of the
family, the children being the first slav