170 years of the Communist Manifesto

Today marks the 170th anniversary of the publication of The Communist Manifesto. Written in a period of black reaction, and published in the heat of the 1848 revolutions, arguably no other book has had a more profound impact over the history and destiny of the human race. You can purchase a copy of this founding Marxist text from Wellred Books, along with three other Marxist classics.

To mark the occasion, we republish an article by Alan Woods commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Manifesto's publication, in which he explains the book's prescience (considering the current political and economic situation), and defends the relevance of Marxism in the modern world:

"Despite all the efforts of its detractors, Marxism today retains its full validity, both as an accurate analysis of present-day society and as a fighting programme to change it. There can be this or that detail that has changed, but in all the fundamentals, the ideas of The Communist Manifesto are as relevant and true today as when they were first written. Indeed, in some respects, they are even more true. The revolution of 1848 swept across Europe, but had only a small echo outside. The great wave of revolutions that emanated from the October Revolution in 1917 affected not only Europe but China, India, Persia and Turkey. But now, the knitting together of the entire globe by world capitalism is preparing for a much more dramatic development. Such is the degree of interrelation that we can predict with confidence that the victory of the working class in any significant country will rapidly lead to the overthrow of capitalism in one country after another, laying the basis for the establishment of a socialist Britain, a Socialist United States of Europe, and a Socialist Federation of the entire world."

Click here to read Alan's article