The Communist Manifesto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
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Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen
Partei), often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was published
on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most influential
political manuscripts.[1] Commissioned by the Communist League and
written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid
out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical
approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the
problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's
potential future forms.[2]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Authorship
* 2 Textual history
* 3 Contents
o 3.1 Preamble
o 3.2 I. Bourgeois and Proletarians
o 3.3 II. Proletarians and Communists
o 3.4 III. Socialist and Communist Literature
o 3.5 IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the
Various Opposition Parties
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links
[edit] Authorship
The Communist Manifesto
Friedrich Engels has often been credited in composing the first
drafts, which led to The Communist Manifesto. In July 1847, Engels was
elected into the Communist League, where he was assigned to draw up a
catechism. This became the Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith.
The draft contained almost two dozen questions that helped express the
ideas of both Engels and Karl Marx at the time. In October 1847,
Engels composed his second draft for the Communist League entitled,
The Principles of Communism. The text remained unpublished until 1914,
despite its basis for The Manifesto. From Engels's drafts Marx was
able to write, once commissioned by the Communist League, The
Communist Manifesto, where he combined more of his ideas along with
Engels's drafts and work, The Condition of the Working Class in
England.[3]
Although the names of both Engels and Karl Marx appear on the title
page alongside the "persistent assumption of joint-authorship",
Engels, in the preface introduction to the 1883 German edition of the
Manifesto, said that the Manifesto was "essentially Marx's work" and
that "the basic thought... belongs solely and exclusively to Marx."[4]
Engels wrote after Marx's death,
"I cannot deny that both before and during my forty years'
collaboration with Marx I had a certain independent share in laying
the foundations of the theory, but the greater part of its leading
basic principles belong to Marx....Marx was a genius; we others were
at best talented. Without him the theory would not be by far what it
is today. It therefore rightly bears his name."[5]
Despite Engels's modesty in these two quotations, in fact he made
major contributions to the Manifesto, starting with the suggestion to
abandon "the form of a catechism and entitle it the Communist
Manifesto." Moreover, Engels joined Marx in Brussels for the writing
of the Manifesto. There is no evidence of what his contributions to
the final writing were, but the Manifesto bears the stamp of Marx's
more rhetorical writing style. Nevertheless, it seems clear that
Engels's contributions justify his name's appearance on the title page
after Marx's.[6]
[edit] Textual history
The Communist Manifesto was first published (in German) in London by a
group of German political refugees in 1848. It was also serialised at
around the same time in a German-language London newspaper, the
Deutsche Londoner Zeitung.[7] The first English translation was
produced by Helen Macfarlane in 1850. The Manifesto went through a
number of editions from 1872 to 1890; notable new prefaces were
written by Marx and Engels for the 1872 German edition, the 1882
Russian edition, the 1883 French edition, and the 1888 English
edition. This edition, translated by Samuel Moore with the assistance
of Engels, has been the most commonly used English text since.
However, some recent English editions, such as Phil Gasper's annotated
"road map" (Haymarket Books, 2006), have used a slightly modified text
in response to criticisms of the Moore translation made by Hal Draper
in his 1994 history of the Manifesto, The Adventures of the "Communist
Manifesto" (Center for Socialist History, 1994).
[edit] Contents
The Manifesto is divided into an introduction, three substantive
sections, and a conclusion.
[edit] Preamble
The introduction begins with the notable comparison of communism to a
"spectre", claiming that across Europe communism is feared, but not
understood, and thus communists ought to make their views known with a
manifesto:
A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism. All the
Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise
this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals
and German police-spies.
Where is the opposition party that has not been decried as
Communist by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition party
that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against
the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its
reactionary adversaries?[8]
[edit] I. Bourgeois and Proletarians
The first section, "Bourgeois and Proletarians", puts forward Marx's
neo-Hegelian version of history, historical materialism, claiming that
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf,
guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, have
stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time
ended either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large,
or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
The section goes on to argue that the class struggle under capitalism
is between those who own the means of production, the ruling class or
bourgeoisie, and those who labour for a wage, the working class or
proletariat.
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an
end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It ... has left
remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest,
than callous “payment in cash” ... for exploitation, veiled by
religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked,
shameless, direct, brutal exploitation ... Constant revolutionizing of
production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions,
everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch
from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that
is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober
senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
However:
The essential condition for the existence and rule of the
bourgeois class is the accumulation of wealth in private hands, the
formation and increase of capital; the essential condition of capital
is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests entirely on the competition among
the workers.
This section further explains that the proletarians will eventually
rise to power through class struggle: the bourgeoisie constantly
exploits the proletariat for its manual labour and cheap wages,
ultimately to create profit for the bourgeois; the proletariat rise to
power through revolution against the bourgeoisie such as riots or
creation of unions. The Communist Manifesto states that while there is
still class struggle amongst society, capitalism will be overthrown by
the proletariat only to start again in the near future; ultimately
communism is the key to class equality amongst the citizens of Europe.
[edit] II. Proletarians and Communists
The second section, "Proletarians and Communists," starts by outlining
the relationship of conscious communists to the rest of the working
class:
The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other
working-class parties.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the
proletariat as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which
to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class
parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians
of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the
common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all
nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the
struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass
through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the
movement as a whole.
It goes on to defend communism from various objections, such as the
claim that communists advocate "free love", and the claim that people
will not perform labor in a communist society because they have no
incentive to work.
The section ends by outlining a set of short-term demands. These
included, among others, the abolition of both private land ownership
and of the right to inheritance, a progressive income tax, universal
education, centralization of the means of communication and transport
under state management, and the expansion of the means of production
owned by the state. The implementation of these policies, would, the
authors believed, be a precursor to the stateless and classless
society.
One particularly controversial passage deals with this transitional period:
When, in the course of development, class distinctions have
disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of
a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its
political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely
the organized power of one class for oppressing another. If the
proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by
the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, if, by
means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such,
sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will,
along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the
existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will
thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class.
It is this concept of the transition from socialism to communism which
many critics of the Manifesto, particularly during and after the
Soviet era, have highlighted. Anarchists, liberals, and conservatives
have all asked how an organization such as the revolutionary state
could ever (as Engels put it elsewhere) "wither away."
In a related dispute, later Marxists make a separation between
"socialism", a society ruled by workers, and "communism", a classless
society. Engels wrote little and Marx wrote less on the specifics of
the transition to communism, so the authenticity of this distinction
remains a matter of dispute.
[edit] III. Socialist and Communist Literature
The third section, "Socialist and Communist Literature," distinguishes
communism from other socialist doctrines prevalent at the time the
Manifesto was written. While the degree of reproach of Marx and Engels
toward rival perspectives varies, all are eventually dismissed for
advocating reformism and failing to recognize the preeminent role of
the working class. Partly because of Marx's critique, most of the
specific ideologies described in this section became politically
negligible by the end of the nineteenth century.
[edit] IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various
Opposition Parties
The concluding section, "Position of the Communists in Relation to the
Various Opposition Parties," briefly discusses the communist position
on struggles in specific countries in the mid-nineteenth century such
as France, Switzerland, Poland, and Germany. It then ends with a
declaration of support for other communist revolutions and a call to
action:
In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary
movement against the existing social and political order of things.
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They
openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible
overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes
tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to
lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Workers of the world, unite!
[edit] See also
* Communism
* Erwin Schulhoff (created a music version of The Communist Manifesto)
* List of current communist states
* Wage slavery
[edit] References
1. ^ Seymour-Smith, Maerin (1998). The 100 Most Influential Books
Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today.
Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press.
2. ^ The Great Philosophers, by Jeremy Stangroom and James Garvey,
Arcturus 2005/ 2008 ISBN 978-1-84837-018-0, pp160 UKP9.99
3. ^ Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, by
Tristram Hunt, Metropolitan Books 2009 ISBN 978-0-8050-8025-4,pg.
142-44
4. ^ Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, introduction by
Martin Malia (New York: Penguin group, 1998), pg. 35 ISBN
0-451-52710-0
5. ^ Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, by
Tristram Hunt, Metropolitan Books 2009 ISBN 978-0-8050-8025-4,pg. 117
6. ^ The Life and Thought of Friedrich Engels: A Reinterpretation,
by J.D. Hunley, Yale University Press 1991 ISBN 0-300-04923-4,pg.
65-79 (quotation pg. 66) for an extended discussion of the two men's
contributions
7. ^ Kuczynski, Thomas, Das kommunistische Manifest (Manifest der
Kommunistischen Partei) von Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels: von der
Erstausgabe zur Leseausgabe, mit einer Editionsbericht (Trier, 1995).
8. ^ :wikisource:Manifesto of the Communist Party
[edit] External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Communist Manifesto
* Full text of The Communist Manifesto English edition of 1888
from the Marxists Internet Archive in all formats: PDF, Audio, HTML,
Word, Text, etc.
* The Communist Manifesto at Project Gutenberg — English edition
of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels
* Free audiobook from LibriVox
* A Marxism resource page
* Only remaining page of the first draft of the Manifesto in
Marx's handwriting from the Marx papers at the International Institute
of Social History.
* Images of English versions
* The Communist Manifesto (Full Version in Google Books)
* The Communist Manifesto 160 Years Later by Michael Löwy
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The works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
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