Workmen's advocate., 1890-06-07
PREFACE.

Inc Aldull6Slo Was
 the platform of the Communist Lea
 gue," working-men's association, first
 exclusively German, later on inter-
 national, and, under the political con-
 dtions of the Continent before 1S4S,
 unavodably secret society. At Con-
 gress of the League, held in London in November, 1S41, Marx and Engels were
 commissioned to prepare for publication
 complete theoretical and practical
 party programme. Drawn up in German,
 in January, 1S4S, the manuscript was
 sent to the printer in London a few
 weeks before the French revolution of |
 February 24th. A French translation
 was brought out in Paris, shortly before
 the insurrection of June, 1S4S, The first
 English translation, by Miss Helen Mac
 farlane, appeared in George Julian
 Harneys Red Republican, London,
 1850. A Danish and Polish edition had
 also been published.
 The defeat of the Parisian insurrection
 of June, 1S4S,-the first great battle be-
 tween Proletarat and Bourgeoisie-
 drove again into the background, for time, the social and political aspirations of the European working-c class. Thence forth, the struggle for supremacy was , again, as it had been before the revolu- , tion of February, solely between ditfer- ent sections of the propertied class; the 3 working class was reduced to a fight for , political showroom, and to the posi- e tion of extreme wing of the Middle class
 Radicals. Wherever independent prole-
 tarian movements continued to show = signs of life, they were ruthlessly hunted y down. Thus the Prussian police hunted l. out the Central Board of the Communist League, then located in Cologne. The members were arrested, and, after eigh- o teen months imprisonment, they were l. tried in October. 1859. This celebrated " "Cologne Communist trial lasted from
 October 4th till November 18th; seven
 of the prisoners were sentenced to terms !. of imprisonment in fortress, varying .. from three to six years. Immediately '' after the sentence, the League was for l- mally dissolved by the remaining mem- y bers. As to the Manifesto" it seemed r. thenceforth to be doomed to oblivion.
 - When the European working class had y recovered sufficient strength for another e. attack on the ruling classes, the Inter n- national Working Mems Association If sprang up. But this association, formed
 with the express aim of welding into Us one body the whole militant proletariat Is of Europe and America could not al
 once proclaim the principles laid dowr
 in the Manifesto" The International
 was bound to have a programme broac nt enough to be acceptable to the Englisl 10 Trades Unions, to the followers O Lo Proudhon in France, Belgium, Italy anC A0 Spain, and to the Lasselleans in Ger
 many. Marx, who drew up this pro
 gramme to the satisfaction of all parties
 entirely trusted to the intellectual deve
 lopment of the working class, whicl
 was sure to result from combined actiOl
 and mutual discussion. The very event
 and viCissitudes of the struggle agains or Capital, the defeats even more than tn he victories, could not help bringing hom - to mens minds the insufficiency of thei y various favorite nostrums, and prepaI ut ing the way for more complete insigh we into the true conditions of working-clas ,h. emancipation. And Marx was right The International, on its breaking up i 'h- 1874, left the workers quite ditferen !, 1t men from what it had found them i ur- 1864. Proudhonism ill France, Lassa cs leanism in Germany were dying out, an
 even the Conservative English Trades yer Unions, though most of them had lon gle since severed their Connexion with tn led International, were gradually advancin il, towards that point at which, last year $
 Swansea, their President could say sts their name, Continental Socialism hf ng, lost its terrors for us. In fact, the pril , is ciples of the Manifesto" had made col os siderable headway among the workin "' men of all countries.
 1n- The Manifesto itself thus came to Il has front again. The German text bad beel far since 1850, reprinted several times ,s,, Switzerland, England and America. a'A 1872. it was translated into English 'er- New York, where the translation w
 published in "Woodhull and Clafiir rth Weekly" From this English version - French one was made in "Le Socialist ho' of New York Since then at least tv un- more English translations, more or le ac- multilated. have been brought out of America, and one of them has be,
 reprinted n England. The first Russii oi translation, made by Bakounine, W ing published at Herzen's "KolokoP off hat Tn Geneva about 1863; a second one, ,es. the heroic Vera Zasulitch, also in G Al, neva, 1889. \ new Danish edition is a'iy be found in "Socialdemokratisk Blbii still thek,' Copenhagen, 1885; fire the French translation in "Le Socialiste Put Paris, 1886. From this latter Spani -hs version was prepared and published Nho Madrid. 1886. The German reprints a and not to be counted; there have be in twelxe altnereIhar at the least. An