The Origins of Communism (Part One): Marx, Engels and the Communist Manifesto

'To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss.' That was one of the sayings of Angkar, recited by Khmer Rouge cadre to prisoners across Democratic Kampuchea. The ideology underneath it took shape more than a century earlier, in the factory towns of industrial England.

Time Period Covered: 1842 – 1900

Who are the proletariat? Who wrote the Communist Manifesto? What was the context in which it was written?

This episode is an introduction to the ideas of Marx and Engels, and more broadly to 'communism'. We begin with some common phrases used by the Communist Party of Kampuchea and their cadre that highlight the ideology of the movement. We then depart Southeast Asia for Europe in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and look at the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as they form a new view of history based on economics and class, and forecast revolution.

Sources
Friedrich Engels The Condition of the Working Class in England
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels The Communist Manifesto
Henri Locard Pol Pot's Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar