What arguments against capitalism did Marx and Engels make in The Communist Manifesto?

In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels presented a critique of capitalism centered on the concept of class struggle. They argued that human history is defined by the conflict between opposing classes, specifically the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (the industrial working class).12

Key arguments against capitalism in the Manifesto include:

• Systemic Exploitation: Marx and Engels maintained that the poverty, disease, and misery experienced by the working class were not accidental but endemic to the capitalist system. They argued that the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat by appropriating the value created by workers' labor.3
• Historical Inevitability: They viewed capitalism as a historically necessary but temporary stage of development. They predicted that the internal "contradictions" of the capitalist system would lead to its collapse, as the bourgeoisie produced its own "grave-diggers" in the form of an increasingly organized and conscious proletariat.42
• Abolition of Private Property: The authors argued that the capitalist system relied on the private ownership of the means of production (such as mines, mills, and factories). They proposed that these should be publicly owned and operated for the benefit of all, necessitating the abolition of private property to resolve the class divide.13

Ultimately, they called for a revolution to replace capitalist society with an association where "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all".2