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The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based

on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by

this or that would-be universal reformer. They merely express, in

general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class

struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very

eyes. The abolition of existing property relations is not at all

a distinctive feature of Communism.

All property relations in the past have continually been subject

to historical change consequent upon the change in historical

conditions.

The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in

favour of bourgeois property.

The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of

property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But

modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete

expression of the system of producing and appropriating products,

that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the

many by the few.