kasama-rl
14th January 2008, 01:03
by Mike Ely
This historical sketch was written ten years ago for the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. It has since been published in many places and languages, including A World To Win magazine. This is the story of how the revolutionary communist movement first emerged from the fusion of deep theoretical work and fearless revolutionary practice.
Join us in commemorating the 160th anniversary. And, even more important, join with us in creating the fusion of fresh revolutionary theory and practice that is so urgently demanded today.
* * * * *
In mid-February 1848, a new communist pamphlet rolled off the presses of a small printshop on Londons Bishopsgate. It was written in German and entitled Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. Copies were rushed off to the mainland of Europe. Uprisings and disturbances had broken out in most of the main population centers of the continent. Small cores of revolutionary activists were waiting for a high-powered declaration that could guide their work and rally the masses of people to a thoroughgoing revolutionary movement.
The bold opening lines of this pamphlet threw down a challenge: A spectre is haunting Europethe spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
This work was quickly translated into many languages of Europe and the Americas. In English it became known as the Communist Manifesto. In one early English version, published in 1850, the previously unknown authors were listed for the first time: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
While countless other documents and manifestos of those days lie forgotten and dust-covered in library archives, this Manifesto lives, studied intensely in ghettos, jungle base areas, and even classrooms all over the worldstill inspiring and training one new revolutionary generation after another.
The Communist Manifesto is the visionary founding document of the modern communist movement. It is the opening statement of that scientific ideology now known as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. In honor of its 150th anniversary, here is the story of how the Manifesto came to be.
for the rest of this article (http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/the-story-of-the-communist-manifesto/)
This historical sketch was written ten years ago for the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. It has since been published in many places and languages, including A World To Win magazine. This is the story of how the revolutionary communist movement first emerged from the fusion of deep theoretical work and fearless revolutionary practice.
Join us in commemorating the 160th anniversary. And, even more important, join with us in creating the fusion of fresh revolutionary theory and practice that is so urgently demanded today.
* * * * *
In mid-February 1848, a new communist pamphlet rolled off the presses of a small printshop on Londons Bishopsgate. It was written in German and entitled Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. Copies were rushed off to the mainland of Europe. Uprisings and disturbances had broken out in most of the main population centers of the continent. Small cores of revolutionary activists were waiting for a high-powered declaration that could guide their work and rally the masses of people to a thoroughgoing revolutionary movement.
The bold opening lines of this pamphlet threw down a challenge: A spectre is haunting Europethe spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
This work was quickly translated into many languages of Europe and the Americas. In English it became known as the Communist Manifesto. In one early English version, published in 1850, the previously unknown authors were listed for the first time: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
While countless other documents and manifestos of those days lie forgotten and dust-covered in library archives, this Manifesto lives, studied intensely in ghettos, jungle base areas, and even classrooms all over the worldstill inspiring and training one new revolutionary generation after another.
The Communist Manifesto is the visionary founding document of the modern communist movement. It is the opening statement of that scientific ideology now known as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. In honor of its 150th anniversary, here is the story of how the Manifesto came to be.
for the rest of this article (http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/the-story-of-the-communist-manifesto/)