Marx and Engels believed that workers should improve conditions by taking political office.

Marx and Engels, the co-authors of "The Communist Manifesto," believed that the proletariat—or working class—could improve their socio-economic conditions by taking political power. They argued that the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles. In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist class, owns the means of production and exploits the proletariat, who only have their labor to sell.

According to Marx and Engels, workers should form their own political parties and seek to gain control of the state. They saw the state as an instrument of oppression that was controlled by the ruling capitalist class to maintain their economic interests. By taking political office, workers could work towards dissolving the capitalist system and eventually establish a classless, socialist society.

Marx and Engels believed that political action was essential to make this transition, through which the working class would establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. This concept did not mean a dictatorship in the modern sense of an undemocratic regime led by a single ruler, but rather a form of government where the working class would hold political power and use it to dismantle the structures of capitalist exploitation.

The ultimate goal for Marx and Engels was the creation of a communist society where private property and the class system would be abolished, and the means of production would be owned collectively by all members of society. Economic activities would be planned and coordinated for the benefit of all, not for private profit, which would lead to a society where "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" would be the guiding principle.