The Communist Manifesto Influential Political Document

The Communist Manifesto or the Manifesto of the Communist Party was published on 21st February, 1848. It is one of the worlds most influential political documents. The work was commissioned by the Communist League and the matter was written by the Communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

It was actually a document of the purposes and program of the Communist League. The basic content of the Communist Manifesto was a course of action for the working class or proletarian revolution to overthrow Bourgeoisie and build a classless and stateless society.

The Communist Manifesto carries the name of both Marx and Engels as the authors but in Engels own words, it was essentially Marxs work. The basic thought is exclusively of Marx. Even many scholars including McLellan believe that the actual drafting was solely done by Marx. The Manifesto was first published in German. The English translation was published in 1850 by Helen MacFarlane. Between 1872 and 1890 it went through many editions and incorporated notable prefaces by both Marx and Engels. The most popular text is the English version of 1888 translated by Samuel Moore.

The Communist Manifesto is divided into five sections, the introduction, three substantive sections and a conclusion. The introduction is the Preamble. It begins with comparing communism to a spectre, as across Europe, Communism is feared and not understood. So the Communists must make their views clear about communism through the manifesto.

The first section the Communist Manifesto is about the bourgeois and proletarians. It has Marxs historical materialism claiming that the history of all the societies till then was the history of class struggle. Everywhere there has been a story of oppressor and the oppressed, the freemen and slave, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, etc. there has always been a struggle between the two classes. Sometimes this remained hidden and sometimes came into open. Every time this struggle ended in revolution changing the society a little more, either for the good or bed.

The ruling class or Bourgeois and the working class or the Proletarian are locked in the class struggle in the capitalist world. Though the bourgeoisie has removed feudalism, it has scripted its own fall by creating contradiction between forces of production and relations of production. Then the Communist Manifesto goes to the next section on relationship between the proletarian and the communists. The objective of the communists is not to do any thing that goes against the working class and pursue the struggle of proletarians irrespective of their nationality and national struggles. It goes on to make short time demands that would eventually bring a class-less society.

The third section of the Communist Manifesto distinguishes communism from other socialist doctrines prevailing then. These were dismissed for not recognizing the role of working class. However, these became politically irrelevant by the end of 19th century. The Manifesto ends with the communist position on the various struggles going on in mid-nineteenth century and with a call for action. Wikipedia