To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself. Communism is already acknowledged by all Europe's powers to be itself a Power. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Also Marx and Engels revised their ideas following the publication of the manifesto due to the uprising of 1848 and especially the 1871 Paris Commune, the prefaces to the manifesto they published later reflect this, but are often ignored.Ī spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism. While we do not agree with all of the manifesto, we reproduce it for reference, and readers should bear in mind that it was commissioned propaganda for the League.

Karl marx and the communist manifesto