Arrighi juxtaposes the practice of the communist parties with the basically contrary principles laid down in the Communist Manifesto. He outlines the three periods of the history of the working class movement; the process when in the first stage, it was still adjusted to the Marxist ideas and then the increasing separation from them. He gives a detailed analysis of the standpoints of the trends that can be linked with Bernstein and Lenin and the failure of the Kautsky-standpoint in between the two. One of the key theses of Arrighi is that the strength and revolutions of the proletariat are in reverse correlation with one another. He offers new points of view for the analysis of the restructuring of the working class on a world scale. He registers the increase in the role of the periphery and the intellectual producers as the main trend. Arrighi states that for the time being, the left has failed to adjust appropriately to the new trends and its choice was bad from the very beginning when it undertook to represent those stricken by poverty.