Communist Manifesto
STUDY BLOCKS: POLITICAL ECONOMY, ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY, HISTORY
Summary.
Marx and Engels penned this manifesto to elaborate their theory of the class struggle and the role of the working class in revolutionary politics. Marx and Engels penned these observations in the 1840s, but their interventions continue to have direct relevance for confronting capitalism in the current moment. After all, they describe capitalism as a world system with such clarity that it became the most influential political writing in the nineteenth century. Through close readings and discussions, we encourage you to read the Manifesto in its context, and in ours. We must also consider how the text inspired the Marxist tradition that emerged from the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggles of the twentieth century and its unfinished business in the twenty-first.
Study Materials.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Written in 1848 for the Communist League, an international political party founded in London, the Manifesto is a call for workers everywhere to organize and build the political force necessary to overthrow capitalism. It is in this period that the idea of democracy and the participation in the people in political matters is beginning to take off. The predominant ideologies are liberalism and idealism, which Marx and Engels are arguing against in the manifesto. The manifesto seeks to explain to working people how capitalism, a system that is inherently exploitative to workers, is not natural but is a project of the bourgeoisie, and that only the organized working class can and should overthrow it.
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Race and the Communist Manifesto, by Robin D.G. Kelley
In this article, Robin D.G. Kelley argues that though the Communist Manifesto was written in a certain time and place, we cannot ignore the importance of Marxist theory internationally, and that we need to pay attention to the Marxist traditions that rose out of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century.
“The Communist Manifesto in its Own Time, and Ours,” in A World to Win: Essays on The Communist Manifesto, by Aijaz Ahmad.
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CAPITALISM MUST DIE! By Stephanie Mcmillan
From the INIP (Idées Nouvelles Idées Prolétariennes/New Ideas Proletarian Ideas): A basic introduction to capitalism: what it is, why it sucks, and how to crush it. With great comics and illustrations
“Part I: Developments” from Age of Revolutions by Eric Hobsbawm
British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote a trilogy that presents the development and rise of the capitalist system. The three books: Age of Revolutions (covering 1789-1848), Age of Capital (covering 1848-1875) and Age of Extremes (covering 1914-1991) are a comprehensive introduction to some of the major historical events in the development of capitalism. In Part I of the first book of the trilogy, Hobsbawm discusses the two major events that were fundamental to the emergence of capitalism. These are, the industrial revolution which provided the material conditions for industrial capitalism to rise, and the French revolution which created the political conditions for capitalism.
[FILM] Young Karl Marx
This film, by Haitian filmmaker and activist Raoul Peck, tells the story of the early years of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and their politicization process that led to the creation of the Communist League and the Communist Manifesto.
Red Books Day
“On 21 February 2020, more than thirty thousand people from South Korea to Venezuela joined the public reading of the Manifesto in their own languages. The idea for Red Books Day, however, was not merely to celebrate the publication of the Manifesto, but to stand in solidarity with the comrades who have been facing attacks from the right-wing. This booklet captures the day in words and images.”