Communist Manifesto, Then and Now
2018 marks the bicentenary of Karl Marx’s birth. The founder of modern, scientific socialism left an immense intellectual and political legacy that will be the subject of a series of public meetings commemorating his birth and examining the contemporary significance of his ideas.
The first meeting will deal with the Communist Manifesto. Written on the eve of the great revolutionary upheavals that swept through almost the entire European continent in 1848-9, the manifesto expressed in brilliant literary form the essential views of the materialist conception of history, along with the political outlook and program of Communism. It predicted the relentless and inevitable globalization of capitalist society, affirmed the political independence and centrality of the working class at a time when it constituted a tiny portion of the world’s population, and sketched out, with remarkable accuracy the enduring problems and tasks that, after over 170 years of crises, wars, and revolutions, continue to define the contemporary political situation. Social Science Building, Room 414.