Above: detail from “El Mundo de hoy y manana” (1935) by Diego Rivera at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City
Karl Marx is a 24-year-old journalist writing for a radical journal in Cologne, Germany, when Friedrich Engels visits him on November 16, 1842.
The 22-year-old son of a cotton manufacturer who had emigrated to England, Engels works in his father’s business in Manchester by day and writes radical journal articles by night.
On August 28, 1844, Marx and Engels meet again in Paris, where Marx had lived since the previous October. A 10-day visit leads to a permanent partnership to promote socialist revolution.
When various German craftsmen form a socialist secret society that meets in London in June 1847,
Engels convinces them to call their group the “Communist League.”
From December 1847 to the end of January 1848, Marx and Engels begin writing a description of the group’s beliefs.
On February 21, 1848, Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
They recommend confrontation and predict victory. They call for higher taxes on the rich, free education for all children, and an end to inheritances.
In the first months of 1848, democratic revolts break out throughout Europe and in the capitals of the three great monarchies, in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, whose stunned governments do little at first to defend themselves. In time, however, the revolutions fall short of their goals.
"Workers of the world unite;
you have nothing to lose
but your chains."
No comments:
Post a Comment