Friedrich
Engels, Philosopher, Political economist, activist and Revolutionary
Socialist, was born in Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, on
the 28th November 1820. He was the oldest of the six children of
Friedrich and Elisabeth Franziska
Mauritia Engels. The senior Engels, a successful industrialist, was a
Christian Pietist and religious fanatic. After attending elementary
school at Barmen, young Friedrich entered the gymnasium in nearby
Elberfeld at the age of 14, but he left it 3 years later. Although he
became one of the most learned men of his time, he had no further formal
schooling.
Under pressure from his
tyrannical father, Friedrich was sent to the city of Bremen to be
inducted into the family business by
learning about the industry as a clerk to a firm of linen exporters.To
assuage the deadly boredom, Engels wrote articles in newspapers that
were critiques of the conditions of workers and the social costs of
industrialisation. He had naturally not yet formulated any critique of
capitalism per se, His ire was directed at the stultifying effects of
Calvinism and the
social costs of the Protestant work ethic with the misery it imposed on
factory workers.
In 1841, bored with being deskbound in Bremen,
Engels returned home to a life that he found equally tedious. To escape
he, later that year, volunteered for one year’s service with
the Royal Prussian Guards Artillery, based in the capital Berlin.
In
Berlin, he came into contact with the radical Young Hegelian movement
who were inspired by the revolutionary essence of the German idealist
philosopher George Hegel, and attracted by his dialectical method which
espoused constant development and change through contradiction. Engel's
embraced these ideas.
They were bent on accelerating the process by
criticizing all that they considered irrational, outmoded, and
repressive. As their first assault was directed against the foundations
of Christianity they helped convert an agnostic Engels into a militant aetheest, a relatively easy task since by this time Engels’s revolutionary convictions made him ready to strike out in almost any direction.
Engels said of the Young Hegelians that some, including himself,
‘contended for the insufficiency of political change and declared their
opinion to be that a social revolution based upon common property, was
the only state of mankind agreeing with their abstract principles.’
After
some free-lance journalism, part of it under the
pseudonym of F. Oswald, in November 1842 Engels moved to Manchester,
England, to help manage his father's cotton-factory in Manchester.
Several months prior to Engels’ arrival, the Chartist movement reached
its peak. With 70,000 members, it was the first mass political movement
of the working class anywhere in the world. The Chartists collected 3.3
million signatures on a petition presented to the House of Commons
calling for universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21 to end the political monopoly of the capitalist class. However the rest of their programme went even further. As Engels stated of the Chartists programme had been put in to practice it would have amount to the end of the entire British establishment. The rejection of the petition by the House of
Commons triggered a series of strikes that were brutally suppressed.
Engels supported the cause and became friends with the left-wing
Chartist leader Julian Harney
and wrote for his newspaper, the Northern Star. He also had contact with the followers of Robert Owen’s utopian socialism.
Manchester in the 1840s was a crucible of the industrial revolution and
Engels found himself working and living in a community dominated by the
cotton manufacturers.
Here he came face to face with unbridled capitalist exploitation and the degradation of the working class.
He wrote later: ‘A few days in my old man’s factory have sufficed to
bring me face to face with its beastliness, which I had rather
overlooked.’
Although forced to work alongside the bourgeoisie, he made a point of
not socialising with them. He wrote: ‘I forsook the company and the
dinner parties, the port wine and champagne of the middle classes, and
devoted my leisure hours almost exclusively to the intercourse with
plain working men.’
Aged just 24, Engels, guided by Mary Burns a radical young working class
Irishwoman who became his lifelong companion, witnessed capitalist
industrialisation more extensive, repressive and exploitative than any
he had seen in Germany.
In his first major book, ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England
in 1844’, Engels reports in excruciating detail the miseries of child
labour, starvation wages and appalling working conditions, resulting in
crippling injuries or deformities even among the youngest workers.
He called living conditions in English industrial towns ‘the highest and most unconcealed pinnacle of social misery existing in our day’.
Accompanied by Mary, he witnessed and heard from their own mouths the conditions endured by workers and their families.
Engels wrote: ‘It is utterly indifferent to the English bourgeois
whether his working-men starve or not, if only he makes money. All the
conditions of life are measured by money, and what brings no money is
nonsense, unpractical, idealistic bosh.’
Engels observed the rapid rise of illegal trade unionism.
He wrote: ‘The incredible frequency of these strikes proves best of all
to what extent the social war has broken out all over England.
‘No week passes, scarcely a day, indeed, when there is not a strike in some direction.’
Many liberals had bemoaned the wretched inhuman conditions of the
working class but they saw it as a helpless class that deserved the
‘help’ of their liberal superiors.
But ‘Condition of the Working Class in England’ was much more than just an exposé of the inhumanity of capitalism.
Engels was the first to understand that this oppressed mass was not just
an exploited working class but the only class that could liberate
mankind from capitalism – capitalism for Engels had created in the
working class its own ‘gravedigger’.
The book created an immediate sensation in German radical circles (it
was at first only published in Germany). Karl Marx was particularly
enthusiastic about it.
In 1844 Engels began contributing to a radical journal called Franco-German Annals
that was being edited by Karl Marx in Paris. In the same year1844, Engels contributed an article, ‘Outline of a Critique of
Political Economy’. In this, Engels laid the foundational principles for
the critique of bourgeois political economy. Engels demonstrated that
all important phenomena in the bourgeois economic system arise
inevitably from the rules of private ownership of the means of
production and a society without poverty could only be a society without
this private ownership. This immensely fascinated Marx. He came to the
conclusion that through a critique of bourgeois political economy,
another thinker had come, independently, to the same conclusion that he
had come to with his critique of Hegelian philosophy. The pioneering
work by Engels, ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England’,
also greatly
influenced Marx’s line of thinking on the beginnings of the industrial
revolution that was taking place in England. During ten days of
exchanges in August 1844, Marx’s admiration for Engels grew enormously.
He admired Engels’ courage, dedication, single-mindedness and noted that
both were in agreement on all theoretical questions of the day. Later
that year Engels met
Marx and the two men became close friends. A lifelong intellectual
rapport and camararderie was established between
them. Finding they were of the same opinion about nearly everything,
Marx and Engels decided to collaborate on their writing. It was a good
partnership. Whereas Marx was at his best
when dealing with difficult abstract concepts, Engels had the ability to
write for a mass audience.
While working on their first article together, The Holy Family,
the Prussian authorities put pressure on the French government to expel
Karl Marx from the country. On 25th January 1845, Marx received an
order deporting him from France. Marx and Engels decided to move to
Belgium, a country that permitted greater freedom of expression than any
other European state. Friedrich Engels helped to financially support
Marx and his family. Engels gave Marx the royalties of his book, The Condition of the Working Class in England
and arranged for other sympathizers to make donations. This enabled
Marx to study and develop his economic and political theories.
In July 1845 Engels took Karl Marx to England. They spent most of the
time consulting books in Manchester Library. Engels and Marx returned
to Brussels and in January 1846 they set up a Communist Correspondence
Committee. Engels returned to England in December 1847 where he attended
a meeting of the Communist League's Central Committee in London. At the
meeting it was decided that the aims of the organisation was "the
overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the domination of the proletariat, the
abolition of the old bourgeois society based on class antagonisms, and
the establishment of a new society without classes and without private
property".
Engels and Marx began writing a pamphlet together. Based on a first draft produced by Engels called the Principles of Communism,
Marx finished the 12,000 word pamphlet in six weeks. Unlike most of
Marx's work, it was an accessible account of communist ideology. Written
for a mass audience, The Communist Manifesto summarised the forthcoming revolution and the nature of the communist society that would be established by the proletariat. The Communist Manifesto was published in February, t. The opening lines of the Manifesto - “a spectre is haunting Europe highlight the revolutionary events taking
place in Marx and Engels’ lifetime, which clearly had a profound impact
on the thinking of the two men. It goes on to declares proudly:
‘Of all the classes that stand
face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a
really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally
disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special
and essential product.’
It goes on: ‘What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its
own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are
equally inevitable.’
The Manifesto concludes: ‘Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist
revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They
have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!’
The French Revolution had given rise to a plethora of socialist
movements. But these were generally of a utopian character, seeing
socialism as simply a ‘great idea’ that had to be struggled for by
‘great men’.
In contrast to this idealism, Marx and Engels sought to establish a
materialist basis for the movement of the working class; hence their own
description of their ideas as ‘scientific socialism’.
They explained that socialism is not an a historical blueprint for
society, but a system of socio-economic relations. This system, in turn,
requires certain material conditions - the development of large-scale
industry and monopolies; a strong working class; the interconnectivity
of the world market - in order to arise and flourish.
Most importantly, Marx and Engels identified the agents for this
revolutionary change: the organised working class - the “gravediggers”
of capitalism. This radical potential of the working class could be seen
in the enormous movements shaking Europe at the time: from the
Chartists in Britain, to the revolutions that swept across the continent
in 1848
Three days after the manifesto was published, a revolutionary uprising in France overthrew the
monarchy. The revolution spread to Germany in March and rapidly expanded
across Europe. The feudal rulers of the German states were forced to
abdicate in droves or accept parliaments and constitutions. In May, the
National Assembly began meeting in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, where
it was to draft a constitution for a united Germany.
The founders of Marxism were not mere observers to such events.Marx and Engels did not hesitate for a moment to participate in the revolution. Drawing on the tradition of the Rheinische Zeitung, which was banned in 1843, Marx and Engels founded the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
(NRZ) in Cologne.The men hoped to use the newspaper to encourage the revolutionary
atmosphere that they had witnessed in Paris. Three hundred and one editions of the paper appeared
between June 1, 1848 and May 19, 1849, and the publication reached a
circulation of 6,000, a considerable number at the time. The newspaper
saw itself as the left wing of the democratic camp and its task as
pushing forward the bourgeois revolution, which, as the Communist Manifesto had declared, “will be but the prelude of an immediately following proletarian revolution.”
Engels helped form an
organisation called the Rhineland Democrats. On 25th September, 1848,
several of the leaders of the group were arrested. Engels managed to
escape but was forced to leave the country. Karl Marx continued to
publish the New Rhenish Gazette until he was expelled in May, 1849. Engels and Marx then moved to London.
In November 1850, unable to make a living as a writer in London and
anxious to help support the penniless Marx, Engels returned to his
father’s business in Manchester. All the time, the two men kept an almost daily correspondence,
exchanging ideas and opinions and collaborating in developing the theory
of scientific socialism. Friedrich Engels sent postal orders or £1 or £5 notes,
cut in half and sent in separate envelopes. In this way the Marx family
was able to survive.
At the same time, they took a leading role in the struggle of workers in Britain and across the world.
In 1864, Marx and Engels founded the International Working Men’s
Association retrospectively known as the First International,.which, in accordance with their idea of uniting workers of
all countries, was to have a tremendous significance in the development
of the international working class movement.
The International was a rich tapestry of working class organisations
and left-wing groups, containing utopian socialists, communists, and
anarchists. But despite the ideological confusion within the IWA, Marx
and Engels saw the International’s creation as an enormous step forward
for the working class. After all, as they would later comment in respect
to their criticisms of the Gotha Programme, the political document
adopted by the nascent Social Democratic Party of Germany: "Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes."
Nevertheless, Marx and Engels made it their goal to bring ideological
clarity to the International, putting the movement on a firm
theoretical foundation. This is why both Marx and Engels dedicated so
much of their time and energy to corresponding with other leading
political figures and - most importantly - producing vital works of
Marxist theory.
This process of political clarification did not come without fierce
battles and struggles, however - most notably with Bakunin and the
anarchists.
Following the defeat of the Paris Commune in 1871, Marx and Engels wound up the
First International to focus their attentions elsewhere. But their
efforts were not in vain. Rather, this aborted attempt to create an
international revolutionary organisation, in retrospect, can be seen as
the prelude to the creation of mass working class parties that were
founded on the basis of Marxist ideas.
In September 1870 Engels moved to London, settling near the home of
Marx, whom he saw daily. A generous
friend and gay host, the fun-loving Engels spent the remaining 25 years
of his life in London, enjoying good food, good wine, and good company.
He also worked hard, doing the things he loved: writing, maintaining
contact and a voluminous correspondence with radicals everywhere.
After Marx’s death, Engels continued alone as the counsellor and
leader of the European socialist movement, which had become a mass
force. His advice was eagerly sought after, and he drew on his vast
knowledge and experience in his old age.
Like
Marx, Engels knew
many foreign languages, he could converse freely in English, French,
Italian, and could read Spanish and almost all Slavic and Scandanavian
languages. He and Marx conducted a massive correspondence on a host
of questions. Incredibly, this covers 13 volumes of the Collected Works,
amounting to 3,957 letters. These reveal the fascinating close bond
between them and their joint work.
Marx died before he could put
the final touches to his vast work on political economy. Using the
drafts left by Marx, Engels put his own research aside and took on the
colossal task of completing Marx’s work, editing and publishing volumes
two and three of Capital. Only he could decipher Marx’s unintelligible handwriting.
Engels continued to write prefaces to the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and
other newer editions of their works on the basis of contemporary
developments enriching the international working class struggles and
urging its forward movement.
On Aug. 14, 1889, the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the
Second International was founded in Paris at Engels’ initiative. Around
300 parties and organisations from 20 countries were represented. Engels
was in particularly close contact with the leaders of the German Social
Democracy, who regularly sought his advice. He attended the Third Congress of the International in Zurich. In the
closing session, he addressed the delegates first in English, then in
French, then in German.
After Marx’s death (1883), Engels served as the foremost authority on
Marx and Marxism. Aside from occasional writings on a variety of
subjects and introductions to new editions of Marx’s works, Engels other
two late publications were the books Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats (1884; The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State) and Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie (1888; Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy).
All the while he corresponded extensively with German social democrats
and followers everywhere, so as to perpetuate the image of Marx and to
foster some degree of conformity among the “faithful.”
Engels died of cancer in London on Aug. 5, 1895 a revolutionary communist to the very core. His ashes were cast into the
sea off Beachy Head in Eastbourne.
Upon hearing of the death of Friedrich Engels 1895, Vladimir Lenin wrote:“The name and life of Engels should be known to every worker...Above
all, he taught the working class to know itself and be conscious of
itself, substituting science for dreams...”
“Let us always honour the memory of Frederick Engels - a great fighter and teacher of the proletariat!”
In the history books, Engels is often recorded as simply being Marx’s
philanthropic benefactor. It is true that Engels’ financial
contributions (obtained from his bourgeois family’s textile industry
wealth) were essential in allowing Marx to dedicate his time to writing.
But, as a result, Engels’ own important political contributions to the ideas of Marxism are often overlooked.
In truth, Engels was himself a theoretical giant. Engels’
masterful command of language, his ability to present complex
material in an understandable way, his encyclopedic knowledge, and his
humour, which shone through even in connection with the most serious
topics, make the reading of his works a pleasure to this day. He not
only had a profound knowledge of economics and history, but also a
burning interest in philosophy, science, literature, and even military
tactics.Without
him, Marx's work would have been impossible and would not have been
preserved. Marxism was originally an Engels-Marx-ism Whoever speaks of
socialism today must not forget Engels for the vital contribution that
he made to developing the ideas of Marxism, for which we owe him an
enormous debt of gratitude.
I will
acknowledge we should not forget those that twisted communism into
tyranny's that Marx and Engel's could not have anticipated. In none of
his writings did Engel's condone, mass murder, torture or show trials.
It is fashionable in some academic circles to try and emphasise
political differences between Marx and Engels. However the voluminous
correspondence between the two lifelong friends shows the inseparability
of their bond. Their multiple co-written titles, meanwhile, provides
further evidence of their close political connection.
During his lifetime, Engels experienced, in a milder form, the same
attacks and veneration that fell upon Marx. An urbane individual with
the demeanour of an English gentleman, Engels customarily was a witty associate with a great zest for living. He had a code of honour
that responded quickly to an insult, even to the point of violence. As
the hatchetman of the “partnership,” he could be most offensive and
ruthless, so much so that in 1848 various friends attempted
unsuccessfully to persuade Marx to disavow him.
Today
I remember a man who dedicated his life to the revolutionary struggle
of the proletariat to free itself from the chains of capitalism and
usher in a new era of history. Without
doubt his towering revolutionary
spirit lives on in the Marxist tendency, which continually defends his legacy, and
the struggle for world socialism
Mich can be learned from Engels work and many after his birth Britain
is still, sadly a country that murders it's poor, if we really want to
remember him we should continue to fight against poverty and the conditions
that creates it. And as long as capitalism exists, his teachings will remain relevant.
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