This week in 1848 a small group of political refugees, mainly German, along with a few other radicals published to a world that hardly noticed it the most famous document in working class history, the Communist Manifesto. For more on this see, for example,
In commemoration of the Communist Manifesto and this gem.
This seminal work remains relevant: "'we are members of the working class and hold, with the writers of the Manifesto, that "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." We hold further that this world can only be won by the workers prosecuting the class struggle unremittingly, spurning all attempts to seduce them into support of reform programmes, abandoning the worship of leaders and depending upon their own efforts alone".
During this week in 1965 the religious leader and nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated. "According to his autobiography Malcolm X expected to die violently...by the hand of a white man...The murdered man moved in a world of violence. His mother, he said, was conceived after a white man had raped his grandmother. His father was also murdered, his skull smashed in and his body flung under the wheels of a street car. It was only after the seemingly inevitable career of crime and drug addiction that Malcolm X became interested in the Black Muslims - an event which, he wrote, gave him "a little feeling of self-respect." He soon became prominent in the movement, attracting a lot of publicity with his teachings that the Negro should be strong, disciplined and ready to answer violence with violence....In many ways, the United States today is a cauldron of savagery and hatred....The Negros are desperate, and in their desperation they have turned to organizations which sometimes are little better than a black Ku-Klux-Klan. They show little interest in the fact that race prejudice is only one part of the monstrous wall of ignorance which shields and supports the oppressive capitalist system..." (Socialist Standard, April 1965)
Just over thirty years ago another event, undoubtedly of less historical note to Socialists but which nevertheless contributed to the growth of a particular youth movement of the late 1970s, was that of the Sex Pistols starting to record Never Mind The Bollocks. an album which was banned and never officially charted 'Number 1'. For the Socialist perspective see Punk rock's silver jubilee
“Oh bondage, up yours!” - Poly Styrene. Indeed.
In commemoration of the Communist Manifesto and this gem.
This seminal work remains relevant: "'we are members of the working class and hold, with the writers of the Manifesto, that "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." We hold further that this world can only be won by the workers prosecuting the class struggle unremittingly, spurning all attempts to seduce them into support of reform programmes, abandoning the worship of leaders and depending upon their own efforts alone".
During this week in 1965 the religious leader and nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated. "According to his autobiography Malcolm X expected to die violently...by the hand of a white man...The murdered man moved in a world of violence. His mother, he said, was conceived after a white man had raped his grandmother. His father was also murdered, his skull smashed in and his body flung under the wheels of a street car. It was only after the seemingly inevitable career of crime and drug addiction that Malcolm X became interested in the Black Muslims - an event which, he wrote, gave him "a little feeling of self-respect." He soon became prominent in the movement, attracting a lot of publicity with his teachings that the Negro should be strong, disciplined and ready to answer violence with violence....In many ways, the United States today is a cauldron of savagery and hatred....The Negros are desperate, and in their desperation they have turned to organizations which sometimes are little better than a black Ku-Klux-Klan. They show little interest in the fact that race prejudice is only one part of the monstrous wall of ignorance which shields and supports the oppressive capitalist system..." (Socialist Standard, April 1965)
Just over thirty years ago another event, undoubtedly of less historical note to Socialists but which nevertheless contributed to the growth of a particular youth movement of the late 1970s, was that of the Sex Pistols starting to record Never Mind The Bollocks. an album which was banned and never officially charted 'Number 1'. For the Socialist perspective see Punk rock's silver jubilee
“Oh bondage, up yours!” - Poly Styrene. Indeed.
RS
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