Friday, May 15, 2020

The Communist Manifesto (1976)

From the May 1976 issue of the Socialist Standard

We have been asked to clarify references, in the March Socialist Standard, to Prefaces to the The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.

Page 50 of the March issue refers to the 1872 Preface. This was written jointly by Marx and Engels, not Engels alone. The quotation from it omitted a word, and should read: “no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of section 11. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today.” The omission was inadvertent; in case anyone thinks otherwise, he will find the phrase “revolutionary measures” on the preceding page.

On page 57 the 1888 Preface is referred to in a reply to a correspondent. This was written by Engels, Marx having died five years earlier.

For further enlightenment, readers are advised to try to get hold of a copy of our 1948 publication (now, unfortunately, out of print) The Communist Manifesto and the Last Hundred Years, in which the full text is given with a long introduction by us.

No comments: