176th Anniversary of Communist Manifesto
P J James
The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on 21 February 1848, with the clarion call of “Workers of the World Unite” for overthrowing capitalism, towards the establishment of a classless society led by the workers. The Left sections in India since 2020 have started celebrating it as Red Books Day also. It is a Day of commemoration of Left and Revolutionary books and their authors along with the movements and people’s advancements that they have ushered forward. 21 February is also marked as International Mother Language Day.
Still, 21 February is widely known and celebrated as the Day of publication of Communist Manifesto, considered as the most important political document and monumental text widely read the world over. In essence, Communist Manifesto, written during the turbulent political context of Europe, is an evaluation of capitalism or industrial capitalism that emerged in the context of Industrial Revolution, and a Program and Path for its overthrow and replacement by a classless Communist society under the leadership of the workers, the revolutionary class in capitalist society.
However, consequent on the transformation of industrial capital into more reactionary finance capital by the turn of the 19th century, capitalism gave way to imperialism which necessitated further development of Marxism according to the concrete situation. It was Lenin who took up this task by putting forward the theory and practice of revolution in the changed situation. Thus, October Revolution of 1917 and establishment of Soviet Union led by Communist Party under the leadership of Lenin concretised the further development of Marxism into Marxism-Leninism. Meanwhile, taking into account the objective situation of imperialist-oppressed Afro-Asian-Latin American countries and hence taking the colonial question also into consideration, together with socialist revolution in capitalist countries, Lenin also suggested a transformation of the slogan “Workers of the World Unite” into “Workers and Oppressed Peoples of the World Unite” that was adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist International held in 1920 which further developed the theory of People’s Democratic Revolution in oppressed and dependent countries. Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong who applied the theory and practice of PDR in China could successfully carry out Chinese Revolution in 1949.
Today, the situation is fundamentally different. Developments during the quarter century following Second World War have resulted in the collapse of all erstwhile socialist countries and their integration with imperialism leading to grave ideological, political and organisational setbacks of the International Left. Taking advantage of this failure of the International Communist Movement, imperialism has unleashed neoliberalism and neofascism, with unbridled global mobility of corporate capital and a whole set of postmodern theories as the the material and ideological bases respectively. Today, utilising the latest advancements in technology including AI, corporate-finance capital, through internationalisation of production and capital and horrific speculation, has accomplished a super exploitation of labour and plunder of nature resulting in hitherto unknown levels of wealth appropriation by corporate billionaires at a global level.
At this critical juncture, the working class and oppressed peoples of the world and the revolutionary movement can proceed further only by developing Marxist-Leninist theory and practice according to the concrete situation. A mere stereo-typed understanding or text-book copy of the past cannot resolve the problems confronted by humankind today. The laws of motion of 21st century capital have assumed many qualitative dimensions compared to the last century.
As such, when we commemorate the publishing of Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engles, it should not be done in a mechanical, ritualistic or religious way. Our task should be to grasp the essence of Marxism-Leninism, the dialectical approach, the methodology pursued by Marx, Lenin and Mao according to concrete conditions of today. Only such an approach will make a meaningful commemoration of Communist Manifesto today’s context.
