28 - 11 - 2023
We send our militant greetings to the comrades all over the world.
Today the world proletariat celebrates the 203rd birthday of the brilliant thinker and revolutionary, Friedrich Engels, the second classic of Marxism-Leninism. Together with Kal Marx, Friedrich Engels was the founder of the science of the liberation of the world proletariat and all oppressed, the co-founder of the science of the establishment of the communist world society.
Long live the 203rd Birthday of Frederick Engels !
Let us always honour the memory of Frederick Engels, a great fighter and teacher of the proletariat! (LENIN)
Frederick Engels
28. 11. 1820
The decision to celebrate the birthdays and death anniversaries of the 5 classics of Marxism-Leninism every year was taken in the 2011 Annual Plan of the Comintern (SH).
For the past 12 years, we have been addressing greetings to all comrades around the world and publishing their works in different languages of the world.
On occasion of the 165th Deathday of Robert Owen, on 17 November 1858, we will take the opportunity to focus our historical review to Marx and Engels and their critique to the Utopian Socialists.
In the first half of the 19th century, Marx and Engels had already clearly positioned themselves in relation to the so-called "early socialists" and not only distanced themselves from utopian socialism, but also made further progress on their own path to scientific communism. The Communist Manifesto is the first document of scientific communism.
The naming of the "Communist Manifesto" alone proves this. Marx and Engels deliberately did not call it the "Socialist Manifesto", among other things to distinguish it from utopian socialism. This was also a class issue: the supporters of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois socialism ["middle-classes"] called themselves socialists and the revolutionary movement of the emerging working class called itself communist movement: The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.
The ideas of utopian socialism formed one of the starting points for Marxism. In this respect, Marx and Engels distanced themselves from the utopian socialists in principle, but never questioned their historical significance. Engels said of the three utopians Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen,
"that these three men, for all their fantasies and utopianism, are among the most important minds of all time and anticipated countless things with genius, the correctness of which we now prove scientifically." (Preliminary remarks on the "Peasants' War")
It is important to mention that Marx and Engels did not lump all early socialists together, but differentiated their ideas very precisely. This can already be seen in the "Communist Manifesto". Chapter III first criticises (1) reactionary socialism ("a") - feudal socialism, ("b") - petty-bourgeois socialism, ("c") German or "true" socialism. Then follows (2) conservative or bourgeois socialism and finally (3) critical-utopian socialism and communism.
And it is here that we find the first clear statement on the utopian socialists, to whom Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen belong above all. It is impossible to deal with the subject of "utopian socialism" without this statement in the "Communist Manifesto". It is therefore permissible to quote this section:
"Communist Manifesto"
3. Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism
We do not here refer to that literature which, in every great modern revolution, has always given voice to the demands of the proletariat, such as the writings of Babeuf and others.
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Messages, appeals and statements of Comintern (SH)
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