166th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto

8/12/2019 166th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto

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166th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto

The Proletarian Front Appears

in All Its Determination and Splendour!

Revolutionary leaders Frederick Engels and Karl ar" authors o# the $ommunist ani#esto" %hich decisively

summed up the communists& eperience and outlook" and the historic role o# the %orking class'

The Communist Manifesto published in February 1848 declares, "A spectre is hauntin !urope the

spectre of communism# $###%

"&t is hih time that Communists should openly, in the face of the 'hole 'orld, publish their vie's,

their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the (pectre of Communism 'ith a manifesto

of the party itself# $###%

"The Communists disdain to conceal their vie's and aims# They openly declare that their ends can beattained only by the forcible overthro' of all e)istin social conditions# *et the rulin classes tremble

at a Communistic revolution# The proletarians have nothin to lose but their chains# They have a 'orld

to 'in#

Workers of All Countries, Unite!"The heroic 'ords of the Manifesto summed up the practice of the +roletarian Front and fashioned itsaim for the emancipation of the 'orin class and elimination of social classes and class society# -ith

breathtain scope, the Communist Manifesto 'ritten by the t'o most active and leadin

revolutionaries of !urope, .arl Mar) and Frederic !nels, analy/ed the current conditions andrevie'ed the history of classes and class strule# The Manifesto issues a clarion call for the proletariat

to deepen the orani/ation of itself into a political front capable of the con0uest of political po'er to

constitute itself the nation and free it from boureois rule#


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"The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties formation of

the proletariat into a class, overthro' of the boureois supremacy, con0uest of political po'er by the

proletariat#

"The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no 'ay based on ideas or principles that havebeen invented, or discovered, by this or that 'ouldbe universal reformer#

"They merely e)press, in eneral terms, actual relations sprinin from an e)istin class strule, from

a historical movement oin on under our very eyes#" 23nless cited other'ise, all 0uotations are from

the Communist Manifesto#

Mar) and !nels presented to the 'orld a livin dialectic of history and the tass ahead usin as uidethe philosophical considerations of dialectical and historical materialism only recently elaborated in

their 5oint 'or The German Ideology#

oth men for years consciously participated in revolutionary acts to orani/e the proletarian movement

for emancipation on the political, economic, social and theoretical fronts# They 'ere leadin membersof the Communist *eaue, 'hich held its (econd Conress in *ondon from 7ovember 9 to :ecember

8, 184;# The (econd Conress 'as a reat victory for the +roletarian Front, and upon its instructions,

Mar) and !nels 'ere ased to sum up the movement and ive 'ritten form to its revolutionary

outloo and theoretical and practical proram in a Manifesto of the Communist +arty#

The result is a livin dialectic that 5umps from every

pae 'ith its rich analysis of the conditions, tass and

aims of the proletarian movement for emancipation#The present dialectic is the title of "Chapter


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oppressor, never before has the reality of the ob5ective 'orld and a 'ay for'ard been presented 'ith

such precision# The ob5ective class contradictions drive society either to their resolution or into ruin#

-ith the Communist Manifesto, 'ith Contemporary Mar)ist*eninist Thouht, the 'orin class has

been iven the tools of developin its sub5ective conditions on par 'ith the ob5ective conditions todrive history for'ard 'ith conscious unity and determination#

"&n boureois society, livin labour is but a means to increase accumulated labour# &n Communist

society, accumulated labour is but a means to 'iden, to enrich, to promote the e)istence of the labourer#

"&n boureois society, therefore, the past dominates the present= in Communist society, the presentdominates the past# &n boureois society, capital is independent and has individuality, 'hile the livin

person is dependent and has no individuality#

"$The% proletariat must first of all ac0uire political supremacy, must rise to be the leadin class of the

nation, must constitute itself the nation# $###%"

The Manifesto not only states the aim of the +roletarian Front, it embodies dialectical and historicalmaterialism, the philosophy of the 'orin class# &t sho's ho' to analy/e the ob5ective conditions of

the present and use the past to add clarity to the contradictions of the present and ho' to resolve them#

&n this 'ay, the Manifesto is a livin breathin document that ains sinificance as conditions chane#

As the proletarian front analy/es the current conditions as they present themselves, the Manifestoencouraes this attempt as it sho's in practice ho' it can be done#

As a livin dialectic, the content of Mar)ism continually evolves 'ith the unfoldin conditions and

their analysis# "The present dominates the past#" And so it is 'ith the Manifesto as it evolves 'ith thedevelopin class strule into somethin even more compellin# T'entythree years after its

appearance, Mar) and !nels alluded to the endurin 0uality of the Manifesto as lon as the +roletarian

Front bases itself on a concrete analysis of the concrete conditions# &n their +reface to the 18; >erman

!dition of the Manifesto, they specifically point to a development in their thinin correspondin to theob5ective conditions

"The practical application of the principles 'ill depend, as the Manifesto itself states, every'here and

at all times, on the historical conditions for the time bein e)istin, and, for that reason, no specialstress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of (ection & That passae 'ould, inmany respects, be very differently 'orded today# &n vie' of the iantic strides of Modern &ndustry

since 1848, and of the accompanyin improved and e)tended orani/ation of the 'orin class, in

vie' of the practical e)perience ained, first in the February ?evolution $1848%, and then, still more, inthe +aris Commune $18;1%, 'here the proletariat for the first time held political po'er for t'o 'hole

months, this proramme has in some details been anti0uated#


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"# Conservative or oureois (ocialism

"# Critical3topian (ocialism and Communism"

This content teaches the +roletarian Front to be conscious and a'are of the political subterfues of the

boureoisie# The class enemy consciously and spontaneously orani/es roups and tendencies callin

themselves socialists and Mar)ists to undermine the proletariat on the political, theoretical andideoloical fronts# &n this reard, the boureoisie becomes ever more e)perienced even posin as

Mar)ists# !nels repeats a comment 'here Mar) famously said of a selfproclaimed "Mar)ist" roup in

France "-hat is no'n as @Mar)ism@ in France is, indeed, an altoether peculiar product so much sothat Mar) once said to *afarue @Ce #u'il y a de certain c'est #ue moi, $e ne suis %as Mar&iste'#" 2"&f

anythin is certain, it is that & myself am not a Mar)ist#" !nels@ letter of 7ovember 188 to !duard

ernstein

)arricade esta*lished *y the %orkers at the Paris commune" arch +," +,-+'

European Socialism Revises and De#ames the $ommunist

ani#esto

The importance of a thinin +roletarian Front that is conscious of socialist tendencies and thenecessity to defend the purity of Mar)ism intensified in the period after the deaths of Mar) and !nels

durin the rise of imperialism at the turn of the century# !uropean socialism sub5ected Mar)ism and the

Communist Manifesto to a revision of its ideoloy to mae it acceptable to the imperialist boureoisie#The 'orst e)ample of revisionism and its betrayal of the Communist Manifesto 'as the capitulation of

!uropean socialism to the imperialist 'ar of 1914#

Bladimir *enin 'rites of the deeneration of !uropean socialism into revisionism and social

chauvinism

"(ocialchauvinism is advocacy of the idea of @defence of the fatherland@ in the present 'ar $--&%#Further, this idea loically leads to the abandonment of the class strule durin the 'ar, to votin 'ar

credits, etc# $###% The socialchauvinists repeat the boureois deception of the people that the 'ar is


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bein 'aed to protect the freedom and e)istence of nations, and thereby they o over to the side of the

boureoisie aainst the proletariat# $###% (ocialchauvinism, bein actually defence of the privilees,

advantaes, robbery and violence of one@s @o'n@ 2or every imperialist boureoisie, is the utter betrayal

of all socialist convictions and of the decision of the asle &nternational (ocialist Conress# $###% Themanifesto on 'ar that 'as unanimously adopted in asle in 1911 had in vie' the very 'ar bet'een

!nland and >ermany and their present allies that broe out in 1914# The manifesto openly declares

that no plea of the interests of the people can 5ustify such a 'ar, 'aed @for the sae of the profits of thecapitalists@ and @the ambitions of dynasties@ on the basis of the imperialist, predatory policy of the reat

po'ers# $###% The asle Manifesto lays do'n, precisely for the present 'ar, the tactics of revolutionary

strule by the 'orers on an international scale aainst their overnments, the tactics of proletarianrevolution# The asle Manifesto repeats the statement in the (tuttart resolution that, in the event of

'ar breain out, (ocialists must tae advantae of the @economic and political crisis@ it 'ill cause, to

@hasten the do'nfall of capitalism,@ i#e#, to tae advantae of the overnments@ embarrassments and theaner of the masses, caused by the 'ar, for the socialist revolution#

"The policy of the socialchauvinists, their 5ustification of the 'ar from the boureoisliberation

standpoint, their sanctionin of @defence of the fatherland,@ votin credits, enterin cabinets, and so on

and so forth, is do'nriht treachery to (ocialism, 'hich can be e)plained only, as 'e 'ill see lo'er

do'n, by the victory of opportunism and of the nationalliberal labour policy in the ma5ority of!uropean parties# $###% 7ot a sinle Mar)ist has any doubt that opportunism e)presses boureois policy

'ithin the 'orinclass movement, e)presses the interests of the petty boureoisie and the alliance of

a tiny section of boureoisified 'orers 'ith @their'boureoisie aainst the interests of the proletarianmasses, the oppressed masses# $###%


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.'I' /enin declares Soviet po%er at the historic meeting o# the Second All0Russia $ongress o# Soviets at )olshevik

head1uarters2the Smolny Institute3" St' Peters*urg" Russia" 4ovem*er -" +5+-' Pictured alongside /enin are othermem*ers o# the )olshevik leadership6 7oseph Stalin" Feli D8her8hinsky and 9akov Sverdlov 2le#t to right3'

(Detail from "Lenin proclaims Soviet power" by laimir Serov, #$%&

The adherence of the ?ussian (ocial:emocratic *abour +arty 2olshevis to Mar)ism in 'ords anddeeds and to the principles of the Communist Manifesto allo'ed the 'orin class in ?ussia to play its

'orldrevolutionary role 'ith the victory of the +roletarian Front in alliance 'ith the peasantry in the191; >reat


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+roletarian Front from solvin the problems of developin the socialist revolution to a ne' stae and

e)tendin it throuhout the 'orld#

Eardial ains led the formation of the antiimperialist youth and students@ movement, The

Internationalists, in 196 in Bancouver to settle scores 'ith modern revisionism and rebuild the+roletarian Front# To uphold the thesis and principles of the Communist Manifesto and to settle scores

'ith modern revisionism re0uire orani/in and buildin the +roletarian Front and developin modern

definitions of the political, economic, cultural and social affairs of today accordin to the ob5ectiveconditions# &t demands conscious participation in individual acts of findin out ho' to advance theproletarian movement for emancipation= it entails collective 'or and individual responsibility to build

the institutions of the +roletarian Front and to deepen and disseminate Contemporary Mar)ist*eninist

Thouht#

Eardial ains in a preface 'ritten for the 1998 !dition of the0ecessity for Changepamphlet states

"$The pamphlet by The Internationalists% puts for'ard the analysis that lays do'n ideoloical

remouldin as the ey to the uninterrupted advance and victory of revolution# asin themselves on the

concrete contemporary situation and the problems of the 'orin class movement, The

Internationaliststoo up the 0uestions of oranisation and the role of the individual in the

revolutionary transformation 'ithin the conte)t of the 'or of the collective# To achieve this, TheInternationalistslaunched their most resolute offensive aainst the prevailin culture in ideoloical and

social forms, so as to prepare the sub5ective forces for revolution in the course of 'ain therevolutionary class battles#

"The creation of a ne' class, such as the 'orin class, has brouht forth its o'n ideoloy and social

form 'ith its o'n coherence# The ascendancy of the 'orin class has left its imprint to the e)tent it is

fihtin for its o'n interests and its o'n ne' coherence# The most distinuishin feature of the'orin class, main it so distinct and radically different from all other classes, is that it cannot

emancipate itself 'ithout emancipatin the entire humanity# Thus, its ne' coherence has to be

consistent 'ith its aim of emancipatin the 'hole of humanity#

"The capitalist class, the old class, as it is passin a'ay, has introduced its o'n notions ofemancipation, its o'n corruption into the 'orin class movement# &t calls upon the 'orers to fiht

for @a bier slice of the pie,@ for a redistribution of 'ealth, 'hile eepin the old society intact# &t has

created an untenable situation 'hereby the 'orin class finances its o'n leaders to fiht aainst itso'n interests#

"y 196;, these boureois tendencies had also entrenched themselves in the communist movement and

brouht it to the point of li0uidation, aainst 'hich a hue movement developed# A number of

tendencies 'ere tain shape in this strule, from purely intellectualisin about 'hat the @most correct@position should be, to merely linin 'ith some centre 'hether in Mosco', elrade, ei5in, !urope

or any other#


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"The Internationalistslined the ideoloical strule and the strule aainst boureois culture 'ith

the concrete 'or to build and strenthen an oranisation# The0ecessity for Change27FC analysis

'as directed to'ards main people conscious about this approach# -ith its broad s'eep, the analysispresented a vision that aroused everyone to undertae ideoloical 'or and tae up the social forms

consistent 'ith their tass# &t 'as a clarion call for the activists, communists and those aspirin to be

communists to brea 'ith the old conscience, the anticonsciousness, the @particular pre5udices of

society, transmitted throuh parents and social institutions#@ This call 'as lined directly 'ith @seeinthe truth to serve the people#@ The 7FC analysis forcefully provided a 'orld outloo based on Mar)@s

dialectical and historical materialism as a uide to action and provided a solution to tacle the problems

of ideoloical strule and social forms# $###%

"The 7FC analysis beins 'ith 'hat is iven# &t analyses the iven to overcome it and to establish 'hatreally is 'ithin those conditions# &t establishes a valuable approach and provides a concrete 'ay to

tacle reality# &t beins by tain up the important 0uestion of history# 3nder the section EistoryAs(uch, the 7FC puts for'ard the profound role of history, as opposed to 'hat merely e)ists at thepresent time#

"Eistory, accordin to our historicism, beins from the present# &t reveals in precise terms the problem,

'hich has been brouht forth for solution# &t is the solution of this specific problem, 'hich creates

history# &f the problem, as a historical problem, or, if the contradictions 'hich are historical are notresolved, there 'ill be no for'ard march, and thus no history# $###%

"The 7FC actually made history# &t revealed ho' revolutionary forces could march from point A to

$over o# the Second Edition o# the 4ecessity #or $hange! pamphlet pu*lished in +55,' The design sho%s :ardial

)ains addressing the 4ecessity #or $hange $on#erence o# 9outh and Students in August +5


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point , ensurin that each step becomes a cornerstone in the development of history# Today, as 'as the

case in the si)ties, the ideoloical strule and culture in social form have assumed the first position in

the buildin of a revolutionary oranisation and in the creation of sub5ective conditions for revolution#

For instance, can a communist party be strenthened if it 'ithdra's from the ideoloical struleaainst the class enemy or 'aes it in an unprofessional, amateurish and spontaneous manner The

ans'er is no, it cannot strenthen itself# $###% A Communist +arty, if it is to realise its tass in a mature,

professional and onoin manner, must develop revolutionary culture in ideoloical form, on the onehand, and the revolutionisation of culture in social form, on the other# The 7FC analysis precisely

establishes the frame'or for doin so# $###%

"The prevailin factor, 'hich is everythin that the capitalist class hopes 'ould safeuard its future,

can be summed up in its antihuman factorGanticonsciousness# $###% Accordin to the capitalist class,neither human beins nor their social consciousness play any role in solvin problems# &t places in the

first place private property and the institutions created to defend it, alon 'ith the ideoloy of

irrationalism# The boureoisie subordinates human beins and the human factorGsocial consciousness tothem# The capitalist class uses the antihuman factorGanticonsciousness as a 'eapon aainst all social

forces for chane, development and motion# $###%

"&n all its 'or, C+C2M* pays firstrate attention to the human factorGsocial consciousness# 7o 'or

can be realised 'ithout brinin it into play# C+C2M* must be seen as the political party 'hich has asits main interest to raise the ideoloical, theoretical and political level of the 'orin class and people

so that they themselves can 'or out and build that system 'hich 'ill enable them to e)ercise control

over their lives# -hether it is consolidatin an aspect of the 'or of C+C2M*, fihtin the antisocialoffensive or 'innin the battle for a prosocial aenda, the first problem 'hich arises is of the human

factorGsocial consciousness# -hat is the state of the human factorGsocial consciousness -hat is needed

to brin it on par 'ith 'hat is re0uired to mae the 'or successful ?aisin these 0uestions and

findin the 'ays and means of doin 'hat is necessary is the beinnin of the development of thehuman factorGsocial consciousness# The 7FC analysis provides this problem 'ith a solution#"

At the historic meetin in Chertsey, Huebec in 1989,

Eardial ains declared, "-e say very openly that 'e'ant the rule of the 'orin class and no one else $###%because it is the 'orin class 'hich is the producin

class and is the most thorouhoin revolutionary class

'hose aims cannot be achieved 'ithout overthro'incapitalism throuh revolution# $###% Today it does not

matter 'hich 0uestion is taen up $###% the boureoisie

cannot find a solution#


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Contemporary Mar)ist*eninist Thouht is a sinle sheet of steel stretchin from the present bac to

the Communist Manifesto and beyond to all that humanity has produced in its strule to be# The

'orin class is one class 'ith one proram around 'hich it mobili/es the people to defend the rihts

of all and prepare itself sub5ectively, especially ideoloically, as an orani/ed, determined and unitedforce to deprive the rulin monopoly capitalist class of its political, economic and ideoloical po'er to

deprive the 'orin class of its riht to assume its modern role to constitute itself the nation, vest

sovereinty in the people and let flo'er the human factorGsocial consciousness#Eistory and life itself demand that the thinin proletariat enae in acts of conscious participation inacts of findin out to settle scores 'ith modern revisionism and solve the problems of orani/in the

+roletarian Front throuhout the country# The Canadian 'orin class as a continent of the

international proletariat is the inheritor of the Communist Manifesto and the >reat

166th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto

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