The Humble Origins of Marxism’s Founding Document

[marmar]

By Mary Gabriel Sep 26, 2011 8:01 PM


The League of the Just had been based in Paris, but by the fall of 1846 police harassment had intensified and most of its strongest members fled France. The organization moved its central committee to London, coalescing around the German communists and English Chartists with whom Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had met the year before.

Marx had approached these men early in 1846, but the league rebuffed him. By the fall, however, Marx’s letters had convinced them that the times demanded the abandonment of the vague, utopian goal of a future ideal society in favor of “scientific” communism, which sought to understand and materially support the modern oppressed class, the proletariat, who were already engaged in a revolutionary struggle even if they did not recognize it as such.

Evidence to support Marx’s argument could be found in the economic and agricultural crisis then raging across the continent, which had triggered widespread unrest. The bad harvests that began in 1845 had continued, and this, coupled with new trade policies that had forced small growers out of business while allowing large producers to ship food to lucrative foreign markets, caused the price of many staple items to double from 1845 to 1847. The number of bankruptcies during this period was unprecedented. Businesses closed; starvation began appearing in the cities.

Food Riots

Across Europe, food riots erupted, followed by workers’ strikes. Some provincial governments tried to tame restless cities by directing grain away from villages and towns, but that only exacerbated dire conditions in the countryside. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-27/the-humble-origins-of-marxism-s-founding-act-commentary-by-mary-gabriel.html