Communist Manifesto - In 8 paragraphs a Day

The following entries represent an interpretation of The Communist Manifesto. All italicized text is a direct interpretation from the book itself. I will reserve comment and comparison until the end. Might be of interest to anyone that is concerned with the direction that our country is headed. While the conservative talk shows tout a return to communism. One wonders, is it propaganda or is it true? Some may not know that this document was written by 2 individuals together, Marx and Engel. While Marx get's most of the face time, new readers should be familiar with Engel who seems to have done most of the writing. Engle adds at one point that Marx forms the nucleus for the "fundemental proposition". What follows is a primer on what Karl Marx and Freidrich Engel delivered to us as The Communist Manisfesto in what will be a 6 part series. Please note that the following is a precis' of the work, NOT an endorsement!

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Communist Manifesto
Preface
by Fredrick Engels

This Manifesto was written for a group that was originally called the "Communist League" which was the late 1800's version of a modern day union. This union started locally in Germany and then spread International. The movement was forced underground because of a lack of openess to it's tenents in the late 1800's. (1847) Marx and Engel agreed to put the ideas down on paper so as to have and official document establishing the group. (political party)

There was an uprising (meaning internal conflict boardering on war) in Paris a few years later in 1830 and the working man was pummelled at their attempt to revolt. After that revolt, the only groups of people (called classes) involved in decision making for society were those that had property in varying degrees (called Bourgeoisie). Non-propertied individuals (proletariat) were considered non-decision makers and had no impact on the political dialogue. When the working class started to make gains, the propertied class would hunt them down using their enforcement power to silence descent. The main leaders for this group (the Communist League) spent 2 years in jail. They weren't given a trial until 18 months after they were tracked down and put in jail. After finally being tried and convicted, 7 of the leaders of the group were given an additional 3 to 6 years in a "fortress". Which is to say an ugly, cold dark prison. After these men were given their official sentence the "dissolved" the group. No one, including the broken leaders, believed it would ever return.

After a while though, the European working class had taken a break from "revolution" and, in the context of them times been beaten down so the ideas came back to the forefront. This time, however, the European and American working class seem to be working together. It required something less specific, broad enough to be able to cross the vast cultural and political differences between the US and Europe. What they found is that the group (thousands of men, if not millions) was very different now from what it was when it first started. They even found that "socialism" was a word that was being spoken in large political gatherings.

So the Manifesto came back into public discourse around 1872 in English in New York in what to us would seem an obscure Weekly Newpaper, but was at the time quite successful. Then the french copied this into an American published French Newsletter in New York. This was followed by no less than 12 reprints in a host of different languages being proclaimed (by Engle, at least) as the most widespread of all socialist literature reaching from "Siberia to California".

It could not, at the time been called a "socialist" manifesto. Socialists at the time were a dying "sect" and were considered in the mainstream to be "quacks". Trying to solve problems without considering the impact on "profit" or money. They relied instead upon the "educated" classes (propertied classes) for support. Instead, those working people that grew weary of mere attempted and unsuccessful political change called themselves communists. Socialism was a middle class movement, Communism a working class movement at this time. It was socially acceptable to be a socialist, but not so for the Communists. (working class)

The foundation for this work is mostly Marx's. And this is it: history proves that in every cycle there is a history of class struggle between those that are exploiting and those that are exploited. That is those that rule and those that are ruled. And it has reached a degree that requires freeing the entire working class from constraint by the ruling class. This will do for history what Darwin's theory has done for biology.


Engle then concludes with evidence of his support for this doctrine and that it is as valid as he writes it as it was when it was conceived. Also says that they cannot change the doctrine now because it has become a historical document "which we no longer have any right to alter".


Friedrich Engle, London
January 30, 1888