Thread by @HistoryNed

For #marx200 let's take a look at the actual demands of the Communist Party in 1848 as written by Marx, Engels and others. marxists.org/archive/marx/w… It's fascinating how many of these demands are now considered bog standard parts of a modern advanced state.

1. United Germany, check. 2. Universal franchise except for criminals, check 3. Paid elected representatives, check 4. Universal arming of the people, only in the US I guess 5. Free access to justice, semi-check 6. Abolition of feudal fees, check.

7. Mines nationalized and large scale scientific agriculture, no and yes 8. & 9. Nationalization of peasant debt and rent, not really relevant anymore 10. No private banks, this one is still radical.

But the point of nationalizing banks was to shift from gold/silver to paper money, partial check 11. Nationalize transportation network and make free, partial check 12. Civil service remuneration, (not sure context) 13. Separation of church and state, not in Germany but elsewhere

14. Inheritance tax, check. 15. Progressive income tax and no consumption tax, split decision, yes and no.

16. National workshops, still radical, but social welfare for those unable to work, check. 17. Universal free education, check.

The vast majority of the demands of the mid-19th century far-left are now seen as basic aspects of a modern liberal democratic state and society. Once these demands were won, they became self-evident parts of modernity and their radical characters gets erased from public memory.

Although Communism is usually seen as radically anti-bourgeois and anti-capitalist, in 1848, many of the Communist Party's demands were framed around advancing bourgeois capitalism as a force of progress over feudal autocracy.

If you are blaming Marx for Stalin, Mao, the Gulag and the Berlin Wall, you also have to give credit to Marxists for demanding the reforms and institutions that are central to liberal capitalist modernity as well. Marx and his legacy contain multitudes.