A spectre that haunted Europe, and the world
"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles"
On February 21, 1848, a small pamphlet, no longer than 23 pages, was released to the world — a manifesto that would come to define revolutions, inspire movements and terrify those in power.
Originally published in German as Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei, the opening words of the manifesto still echo across the pages of history, some 176 years later: "A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Communism."
Europe was on the edge of a reckoning. The Industrial Revolution had turned cities into dense hives of factories and workers, the air thick with soot and unrest. Political dissatisfaction simmered beneath the surface, and whispers of change grew louder.
Meanwhile, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the authors of the manifesto, were watching, waiting and writing.
The Manifesto of the Communist Party was commissioned by the Communist League, a small but ambitious political group. The manifesto did not appear in a vacuum, but in a time of fervent change. It was published in London, just weeks before revolutionary fires would spread across the continent. Marx, with his keen analytical mind and unrelenting prose, crafted a text that was part history, part prophecy — entirely radical.
Make no mistake, it was not a passive observation of society — it was a call to arms.
The manifesto unfolds in a structured argument. It is divided into four sections. The first and most famous, Bourgeois and Proletarians, declares, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". This section lays out the theory of historical materialism, explaining how economic forces drive social change. The second section, Proletarians and Communists, distinguishes the role of communists within the broader workers' movement. The third critiques existing socialist literature, while the fourth serves as a rallying cry, closing with the now-immortal words: "Workers of the world, unite!"
What Marx and Engels wrote was a challenge to the status quo. It declared, in clear and unyielding terms, that history was the story of class struggle, and that capitalism, for all its innovation, was merely another chapter in an inevitable cycle.
The bourgeoisie — the ruling class of industrial capitalists - had constructed a world where the workers — the proletarians — were reduced to mere cogs in a vast, profit-driven machine. The solution? Revolution.
The vision was a world where the means of production were collectively owned and where the workers controlled their own fate — where chains of oppression were shattered.
The manifesto was met with mixed reactions. Some dismissed it as radical fantasy, the work of dreamers who did not understand the real world.
Others saw it as a direct threat to the order they had spent centuries building. But for workers who read it, or heard its words spoken aloud in secret meetings, it was validation — it put their suffering into words, and their struggles into context.
Within weeks of its publication, Europe erupted. The revolutions of 1848 swept across France, Germany, Austria and beyond. Monarchs trembled. Crowds marched. Barricades rose. While the manifesto itself did not cause these uprisings, it provided a language for the discontent, a framework for rebellion.
Now known as the famed ambitious thinker — for better or for worse — Marx was then a 29-year-old journalist, philosopher and economist — deeply opinionated and often struggling financially. His co-author, Friedrich Engels, was the son of a wealthy industrialist but had no love for the class he was born into.
Together, they were an unlikely but formidable pair, bound by a shared belief that capitalism's days were numbered.
Marx's writing was not the cold, detached analysis of an academic - it burned with conviction. He was not just explaining the world; he was demanding that it change.
More than a century and a half later, the Communist Manifesto remains one of the most widely read political texts in history.
It has been adapted, debated, banned, interpreted and reinterpreted countless times.
The 20th century saw its principles shape revolutions, governments and economies — sometimes in ways Marx himself might not have foreseen.
Even in the 21st century, in a world dominated by corporations, financial crises and wealth disparity, the questions posed by the manifesto remain eerily relevant. The struggle between the wealthy elite and the working class is still very much alive.
Debates over labour rights, inequality and economic systems still trace their roots back to Marx's words. Whether one sees it as a blueprint, a warning or a relic of another time, the manifesto refuses to be forgotten.
Perhaps, that is the true power of an idea - once set free, it can never truly be contained.
