The Communist Manifesto of February 21, 1848

[doug444]

Probably not one in a hundred of us has read the original document, but I found a brief summary today, the 169th anniversary. Know the enemy.

On 21 February 1848 Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels first published the Communist Manifesto. It would be taxing to estimate what rivers and oceans of blood have been shed over that pamphlet. The Manifesto contained ten "planks": 1. Abolition of private property in land & application of all rents to public purpose; 2. heavy progressive income tax; 3. abolition of all rights of inheritance; 4. confiscation of the property of all emigrants & rebels; 5. centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly (in other words, a central bank like the Fed); 6. centralization of the means of communication & transportation in the hands of the state; 7. Extension of factories & instruments of production owned by the state; bringing waste lands into cultivation and improving the soil generally in accordance with a common plan; 8. equal obligation of all to work & establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture; 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing & gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by more equably distributing population, and 10. free education for all children in government schools, abolition of children's factory labor, combining education with industrial production.

There is much more within the document, but these are the highlights. Now you know more about Communism than the vast majority of Americans, and you can get further background in Wikipedia. [text courtesy of Franklin Sanders]