Manifesto of the Communist Party (eBook)

"A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of communism"                                                                           

The Manifesto of the communist party published in 1848, written by political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, has been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms. The Communist Manifesto is divided into a preamble and four sections, the last of these a short conclusion. The first section of the Manifesto, "Bourgeois and Proletarians", elucidates the materialist concepton of history, that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". "Proletarians and Communists", the second section, starts by stating the relationship of conscious communists to the rest of the working class. The communist's party will not oppose other working-class parties, but unlike them, it will express the general will and defend the common interests of the world's proletariat as a whole, independent of all nationalities. The third section, "Socialist and Communist Literature", distinguishes communism from other socialist doctrines prevalent at the time—these being broadly categorised as Reactionary Socialism; Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism; and Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism. The concluding section of the Manifesto, briefly discusses the communist position on struggles in specific countries in the mid-nineteenth century such as France, Switzerland, Poland, and Germany, this last being "on the eve of a bourgeois revolution", and predicts that a world revolution will soon follow. It ends by declaring an alliance with the social democrats, boldly supporting other communist revolutions, and calling for united international proletarian action.

"Working men of All Countries, Unite!"

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