Re: SPEWS: Urgent Record # S835 Removal Request
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"the emancipation of
the workers must be the task of the working class itself," we could have
no hesitation as to which of the two names we should choose. Nor has it
ever occured to us to repudiate it.
"Working men of all countries, unite!" But few voices responded when we
proclaimed these words to the world 42 years ago, on the eve of the
first Paris Revolution in which the proletariat came out with the
demands of its own. On September 28, 1864, however, the proletarians of
most of the Western European countries joined hands in the International
Working Men's Association of glorious memory. True, the International
itself lived only nine years. But that the eternal union of the
proletarians of all countries created by it is still alive and lives
stronger than ever, there is no better witness than this day. Because
today, as I write these lines, the European and American proletariat is
reviewing its fighting forces, mobilized for the first time, mobilized
as _one_ army, under _one_ flag, for _one_ immediate aim: the standard
eight-hour working day to be established by legal enactment, as
proclaimed by the Geneva Congress of the International in 1866, and
again by the Paris Workers' Congress of 1889. And today's spectacle will
open the eyes of the capitalists and landlords of all countries to the
fact that today the proletarians of all countries are united indeed.
If only Marx were still by my side to see this with his own eyes!
FREDERICK ENGELS
May 1, 1890
London
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NOTES ON THE MANIFESTO AND TRANSLATIONS OF IT
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The Communist Manifesto was first published in February 1848 in London.
It was written by Marx and Engels for the Communist League, an
organisation of German emigre workers living in several western European
countries. The translation above follows that of the authorised Eng