Question

How does Friedrich engles's confession explicitly link communist ideology to industrialization? what place did revolution have in this ideology?

Answer 1

Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, communist, social scientist, and journalist. Engels collaborated with Karl Marx to found Marxist theory, and co-authored many works such as The Communist Manifesto.

• In his Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith, Engels explicitly links communist ideology to industrialization. He argues that industrialization brought with it the replacement of workers by machines, and these machines could only be purchased by rich people. This led to the development of factories and mass production, in which the workers only have small, simple jobs and own nothing that they produce. This exacerbates inequality and deprives workers of their independence.

• Engels rejects the idea of revolution as necessary to achieve communism. He argues that all conspiracies are harmful. However, he also says that he sees the whole world as trying to repress the proletariat and in doing so, forcibly causing a revolution. If that were the case, then Engels argues that the proletariat would fight for its cause.