The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

I do not agree with Marx but this book is indispensible to understanding the history of the 20th Century, you cannot reach into the mindset of many of the leading actors without tackling this book. There is a reason so many intelligent men and women saw within this book such a lot of truth and tried (in my view falsely) to apply it to their societies- this is a book which deserves to be read by any individual who thinks that they think. If you have read it and dismissed it or not read it you are not yet someone who has grappled with what the world is or might be. The thesis was when it was published provocative- it borrowed from Hegel, Rousseau and even for one of its most significant phrases Edmund Burke and retains features of Hegelian historical progression and Rousseauian account of the formation of civilised man- put together though it is a work of genius and deserves to be read now.


Five stars for the intro alone   September 10, 2006
R. Brightwell (Manchester, England)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

This review relates to the Penguin Classics version which comes with an "Introduction" by Gareth Stedman Jones. I put "Introduction" in quotes because it is about 180 pages long, whereas the pamphlet it is introducing is about 30 pages.

If you are interested in reading the Communist Manifesto, it's well worth getting this one, rather than saving yourself a few quid on an edition which just contains the Manifesto itself. Without putting this book in its historical context, you're likely to find yourself thinking "so what?!". The intro is academic and dense at times, but well worth the effort.

The most enlightening aspect of the manifesto itself, for me, is what is NOT in it, rather than what is. There isn't a description of how a communist society should look, for starters. The story of this book is the story of a pamphlet written for a specific time and place, which became an iconic work when it was seized on by the Soviets for reasons of political expediency. I'm sure if Marx and Engels knew what they would turn this book into, they would have written it very differently. No wonder Marx is quoted as saying "I am not a Marxist".


Revolutionarily Brilliant   June 15, 2001
Andrew Orphanoudakis (Lincoln, U.K)
40 out of 53 found this review helpful

Many people do not realise that Communism existed before Karl Marx, it did, but it was Marx who formulated a workable economic hypothesis from which Communism is structured. It was Marx who exposed the inherent flaws and unjust parasitic nature of capitalism and showed that true democracy and emancipation of mankind can come about only when the worker realises that their true 'labour value' is being undermined by the capitalist. Power is this knowledge and change can only come about through unity and mass movement spurred by this knowledge. That is what this book does, and though written over a hundred years ago it is as relevant now as it was then (if not more so).

Many right-wingers would claim that Communism has proved to be unjust and unworkable because of the extremes of Stalin and Mao, but such manifestations of human nature are not what Marx writes about here in the slightest, and such mindless criticisms are like saying the acts of the Spanish inquisition are a fair reflection of the words of Christ.

The modern world of global capitalism leading to political apathy, the death of democracy, huge poverty, distrust, environmental catastrophe in the making, spiritual, moral and intellectual degradation through excessive competition and materialism has proved what is written in The Communist Manifesto as being timeless wisdom. It is not perfect but Communism will change and adapt around what Marx has layed down here. Put aside western pseudo-democratic conditioning and propaganda concerning this work as it does not strive for a utopian world and is not anti-democratic. In fact, this book represents democracy in it's purest form - rule by the people! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mr's Bush and Blair.


An excellent, simply written introduction to Marxist ideas   October 31, 2001
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This, being one of Marx's earliest works, outlines all his major views in a clear and concise way. Ideal for anyone who is interested in the basics of Marxism and finds the prospect of reading all three Volumes of Das Kapital daunting (as nearly everyone would).


The Communist manifesto: Even more relevant today!   December 2, 2002
Liverpool Roy (Liverpool, UK)
27 out of 43 found this review helpful

The Manifesto of the Communist Party begins: "A spectre is Haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism." As the anti-capitalist movement grows around the world, this spectre, or ghost, is once again rising, only a decade after the fall of the so-called "Communist" countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Young people in particular are asking what the alternative to capitalism is. This book written by Marx and Engels is even more relevant today, and summarises the basic ideas of Marxism.
Of course, the word "Communist" has changed its meaning since Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto over 150 years ago. The word "Communist" today is usually associated with the regimes that took that name, such as those that ruled the former Soviet Union and its East European satellites.
Lenin and Trotsky, the leaders of the Russian Revolution of October 1917, always explained that socialism "requires the joint efforts of workers in a number of advanced countries," meaning Western Europe, while Russia was a backward, feudal society. It was not an advanced capitalist economy, where the processes described in the Manifesto had prepared the ground for a successful transformation into a socialist society.
In the Russian preface to the Manifesto Marx and Engels show that Russia was in part even pre-feudal. Must Russia go through a capitalist development before it could turn to socialism? Marx and Engels reply that if the "Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development." The failure of the Russian revolution to spread led to its inward degeneration into a horrific bureaucracy.
The Manifesto's "vision of the Global Market was uncannily prescient," remarks Francis Wheen, in his biography of Marx. Marx and Engels show how the processes of global capitalism lead to the wars, the ruination of nations, and the starvation of millions today. Larry Elliott commented in The Guardian that the Marxist interpretation of globalisation "may yet be proved right. Its analysis of the events of the last few years has tended to be more coherent than the Panglossian guff emanating from those who believe that the world economy has never been in better shape." (2 July 2001.)
"Class struggle" is the motor force of historical change, the Manifesto explains. Since the earliest beginnings of recorded history, societies have undergone fundamental change because different classes in society are in "constant opposition." These classes represent the "oppressor and oppressed", and the struggle between them eventually results either in "a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large" - or in mutual destruction.
The Manifesto describes the process of globalisation. Capitalism means the "constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation...The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe...It compels all nations, on pain of extinction ... to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst."
The Manifesto also describes the "epidemic of overproduction" today called over-capacity. "Industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce." For instance Marc Andreessen says the "dot.com" boom went bust because people were building "too many switches, too many routers and too much everything else." (Internet Magazine, January 2002)
But in what for me is a crucial sentence the Manifesto says: "But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons - the modern working class."
This new "working class" is defined as those who "must sell themselves piecemeal" for a wage or salary. This applies equally to the car worker, the office clerk, the teacher, and the junior doctor - and the doctor works the longest hours! The modern "strip-lit satanic mills" of the 24hr Call Centre, situated in the north of England where the sons and daughters of redundant miners work, are today using factory methods, imposing zero hour contracts, smashing unions - in a word - teaching the class struggle anew.
Only those salary earners such as the top military brass, or highly paid managers, who are tied by a thousand strings to the capitalist class itself, can be excluded from this category - the vast mass of the population today is "working class."
Trade unions are formed, first locally, and then nationally; unions merge and act together. Working class parties are formed. The working class goes through various stages of development. "This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and consequently into a political party, is continually being upset ... But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier."
And when the working class removes the ruling capitalist class, whereas all previous historical movements were movements of minorities: "The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air."
The working class produce the profit which enriches the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie). However
"What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers."