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KF5JRV > TODAY 21.02.19 14:25l 73 Lines 3853 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 21
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<EA2RCF<LU9DCE<GB7YEW<AB0AF<KF5JRV
Sent: 190221/1223Z 31578@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On February 21, 1848, The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx with
the assistance of Friedrich Engels, is published in London by a group of
German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League. The
political pamphlet–arguably the most influential in history–proclaimed
that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class strugglesö and that the inevitable victory of the proletariat, or
working class, would put an end to class society forever. Originally
published in German as Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (“Manifesto
of the Communist Partyö), the work had little immediate impact. Its
ideas, however, reverberated with increasing force into the 20th
century, and by 1950 nearly half the world’s population lived under
Marxist governments.
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, in 1818–the son of a Jewish lawyer
who converted to Lutheranism. He studied law and philosophy at the
universities of Berlin and Jena and initially was a follower of G.W.F.
Hegel, the 19th-century German philosopher who sought a dialectical and
all-embracing system of philosophy. In 1842, Marx became editor of the
Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal democratic newspaper in Cologne. The
newspaper grew considerably under his guidance, but in 1843 the Prussian
authorities shut it down for being too outspoken. That year, Marx moved
to Paris to co-edit a new political review.
Paris was at the time a center for socialist thought, and Marx adopted
the more extreme form of socialism known as communism, which called for
a revolution by the working class that would tear down the capitalist
world. In Paris, Marx befriended Friedrich Engels, a fellow Prussian who
shared his views and was to become a lifelong collaborator. In 1845,
Marx was expelled from France and settled in Brussels, where he
renounced his Prussian nationality and was joined by Engels.
During the next two years, Marx and Engels developed their philosophy of
communism and became the intellectual leaders of the working-class
movement. In 1847, the League of the Just, a secret society made up of
revolutionary German workers living in London, asked Marx to join their
organization. Marx obliged and with Engels renamed the group the
Communist League and planned to unite it with other German worker
committees across Europe. The pair were commissioned to draw up a
manifesto summarizing the doctrines of the League.
Back in Brussels, Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in January 1848,
using as a model a tract Engels wrote for the League in 1847. In early
February, Marx sent the work to London, and the League immediately
adopted it as their manifesto. Many of the ideas in The Communist
Manifesto were not new, but Marx had achieved a powerful synthesis of
disparate ideas through his materialistic conception of history. The
Manifesto opens with the dramatic words, “A spectre is haunting
Europe–the spectre of communism,ö and ends by declaring: “The
proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to
win. Workers of the world, unite!ö
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx predicted imminent revolution in
Europe. The pamphlet had hardly cooled after coming off the presses in
London when revolution broke out in France on February 22 over the
banning of political meetings held by socialists and other opposition
groups. Isolated riots led to popular revolt, and on February 24 King
Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate. The revolution spread like
brushfire across continental Europe. Marx was in Paris on the invitation
of the provincial government when the Belgian government, fearful that
the revolutionary tide would soon engulf Belgium, banished him. Later
that year, he went to the Rhineland, where he agitated for armed revolt.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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