On November 28, 1820, Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen, went to school in the adjacent Elberfeld (both are today part of the city of Wuppertal) and there also participated in the armed struggle. On occasion of his 200th birthday, a manifestation will take place upcoming Saturday, in which also Maoists from the FRG participate. Henceforth we document the call:
Friedrich Engels – Communist and vanguard of the proletariat lives on in our struggles!
On November 28, 1820, Friedrich Engels, one of the great pioneers of the proletariat was born in Wuppertal. Since 200 years his ideas are path breaking and his deeds an example for the communists in the world. As companion to Karl Marx, he co-authored fundamental contributions to Marxism and fought worldwide for its enforcement.
On occasion of his 200th birthday, the city of Wuppertal organizes a series of events souring Friedrich Engels. The aim of this action is, to depict him solely as a critical intellectual and social scientist. Of his world-toppling repercussion of his actions and works, the revolutionary sting shall be cut off. But Engels was a Marxist theoretician, communist and militant. In the turbulent times of Europe in the 1840er years, he participated in the mass struggles, was hunted by the governments of various countries and participated in the armed struggle, like in Baden or Elberfeld. Together with Marx, he, for the first time in history, elaborated the ideological fundament of our class, the proletariat, and his ideas became guideline and instruction for millions of revolutionaries throughout the world – and remain so until today. As revolutionaries, we will uphold and defend his ideology, Marxism, and apply it the praxis of class struggle.
As in Engels days, we today live in a class society. Exploitation and oppression also exist today. The imperialist power struggle against one another for the highest profits and world hegemony. All on the backs of the workers and the oppressed peoples of the world. In the imperialist FRG the attacks against our class invariably increase in the framework of the current economic crisis. Short-time work and job loss effects many of us. The down-cutting of the right of free assembly and the arming of the police apparatus are the tools of the bourgeoisie to keep our anger in check. Because the ruling class knows, that in the end it can only keep us down with violence. Convictions, raids, state of emergency – those are the answers of the state. Fascization is driven forward, while racism and antisemitism are spread, so that we fight one another instead of jointly putting an end to exploitation and oppression.
Friedrich Engels recognized that the struggle for the liberation of the working class is a worldwide mission and he was the cofounder of the First International. He and Marx together elaborated the “Manifesto of the Communist Party”, the program of the communists until the abolishment of all classes. Since its emergence, Marxism has transformed the world and continues to do so every time proletarians, communists and revolutionaries act under its banner in class struggle.
Friedrich Engels was neither a philosopher in an ivory tower nor a social scientist in a study room. Friedrich Engels was a communist and vanguard of the proletariat.
On November 28, 2020, come to the Friedrich Engels Commemoration Demonstration at 15:00, Barmen Train station in Wuppertal
