A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of
communism. All the powers of old Europe have
entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this
spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot,
French Radicals and German police-spies.
Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in
power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism,
against the more advanced opposition parties, as
well as against its reactionary adversaries?
Two things result from this fact:
I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a
power.
II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world,
publish their views, their aims, their tendenc
ies, and meet this nursery tale of the
Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
To this end, Communists of various nationaliti
es have assembled in London and sketched the
following manifesto, to be published in the Englis
h, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish
languages.