INTRODUCTION David Harvey
The Communist Manifesto of 1848 is an extraordinary document, full of insights, rich in meanings and bursting with political possibilities. Millions of people all around the world – peasants, workers, soldiers, intellectuals as well as professionals of all sorts – have, over the years, been touched and inspired by it. Not only did it render the dynamic political-economic world of capitalism more readily understandable, it moved millions from all walks of life to participate actively in the long, difficult and seemingly endless political struggle to alter the path of history, to make the world a better place through their collective endeavours. But why re-publish the Manifesto now? Does its rhetoric still work the old magic it once did? In what ways can this voice from the past speak to us now? Does its siren call to engage in class struggle still make sense? While we may not have the right, as Marx and Engels wrote in their Preface to the 1872 edition, to alter what had even by then become a key historical document, we do have both the right and the political obligation to reflect upon and if necessary re-interpret its meanings, 1
