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THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO: A MODERN EDITION BY KARL MARX AND FREDERICK ENGELS INTRODUCTION BY ERIC HOBSBAWM Published: 1 May 2012 ----------------------------------- “[T]he best possible explanation of what the world was about that I had ever read. It pointed out that the real conflicts in the world were not between black andwhite, men and women, Muslims, Christians and Jews, Americans, Russians andChinese; it was about the conflict of economic interest between 95 per cent of the population of the world, who create the world's wealth, and the 5 per cent who own it. I think of Marx as a prophet: the last of the Old Testament prophets. And we should think of him as a teacher...Karl Marx discovered it all long before I did, and I am very grateful to him.” TONY BENN http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/08/wing-reads-rights-sex-susie “As a force for change, its influence has been surpassed only by the Bible. As a piece of writing, it is a masterpiece.” THE GUARDIAN ----------------------------------- Headlines talk of new rebellions spreading across the capital cities of the continent. A revolutionary “Spring of Nations” sees hundreds of thousands of people rising up in a series of revolts, passing like a contagion from nation to nation. In some countries,autocrats are toppled; in others, constitutional change begins, whilst elsewhere tyrants crush the rebellions with brutal force. Ordinary people suffer horrendous depredations as the cost of living continues to soar; grassroots movements are formed in response to the lack of political representation in parliaments. The year was 1848, yet these headlines couldhave been written just yesterday. MARX and ENGELS’S powerful and persuasive THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO was published just weeks before the 1848revolutions threw European empires into chaos and disarray, and eventually gave birth to the international worker’s movement. In this short, exciting and eloquent text the authors proclaimed that communism as a force already existed across Europe — and it was time that communists made serious endeavours in transforming the working-class from an economic power to a revolutionary political force. THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO is the founding document of a political movement struggling to be born, a document which spawned a revolutionary force that spread across the globe, changing the political order forever. As Eric Hobsbawm argues in his acute and elegant introduction to this modern edition, in such times THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO emerges as a work of great prescience and power despite being written over a century and a half ago. He highlights MARX and ENGELS’S enduring insights into the capitalist system: its devastating impact on all aspects of human existence; its susceptibility to enormous convulsions and crises; and its fundamental weakness. In the two decades following the fall of the Berlin Wall, global capitalism became entrenched in its modern,neoliberal form. Its triumph was so complete that the word “capitalism” itself fell out of use in the absence of credible political alternatives. But with the outbreak of financial crisis and global recession in the twenty-first century, capitalism is once again up for discussion. As the gains of the worker’s movement are being dismantled by strategic austerity campaigns, millions ofworkers across Europe are left financially vulnerable, politically powerless and increasingly discontented. The status quo can no longer be taken for granted; the conditions are ripe for new forms of political organisation, much like in 1848. In this climate, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO cannot be relegated to the role of dusty historical document; it is a vital, passionate plea for revolutionary change that continues to resonate,excite and inspire today. ----------------------------------- KARL MARX studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, completing his doctorate in 1841. Expelledfrom Prussia in 1844, he took up residence first in Paris and then in London where, in 1867, he published his magnum opus CAPITAL. A cofounder of the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864, Marx died in London in 1883. FREDERICK ENGELS was born in 1820, in the German city of Barmen. Brought up as a devout Calvinist he moved to England in 1842 to work in his father's Manchester textile firm. After joining the fight against the counter revolution in Germany in 1848 he returned to Manchester and the family business, finally settlingthere in 1850. In subsequent years he provided financial support for Marx and edited the second and third volumes of CAPITAL. He died whilst working on the fourth volume in 1895. ----------------------------------- ISBN: 978 1 84467 876 1 / $12.95 / £5.99/ Paperback / 96 pages ----------------------------------- For more information about THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1109-the-communist-manifesto ----------------------------------- Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577 And get updates on Twitter @VersoBooks http://twitter.com/VersoBooks Sign up to the Verso mailing list https://www.versobooks.com/users/sign_up ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
