Engels’s Thought of the Self-Emancipation of the Working Class and Its Contemporary Value

ABSTRACT

Engels, departing from responding to the real problems of the time and adopting the research methods of field investigation, collecting official and non-official data and synthesizing theories from various disciplines, found the scientific path for exploring the important issues such as where the working class is heading for, where the mankind is heading for, and so on; advanced his thought of the self-emancipation of the working class; and established his theories on the objective reality which constituted an important part of Marxism. Engels pointed out that the issue of the emancipation of the working class was originated from the field of material production. The key to the solution of the issue was to understand the real production practice activities of the working class, and the fundamental way out for the working class lay in the realization of its self-emancipation. The condition of the working class in the contemporary era has been improved which is an achievement of its struggle. However, its historical subject status has not been changed and the working class is still the real transformative power for realizing socialism. Comprehensive understanding of Engels’s thought of the self-emancipation of the working class is of contemporary theoretical value and practical significance.

KEYWORDS:

• Engels’s thought
• self-emancipation of the working class
• the political party of the working class
• Marxist theory

Acknowledgements

This article is translated from Chinese by Dr Dongyun Han at the Academy of Marxism of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributors

Enfu Cheng is Distinguished Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center of Economic and Social Development and member of the Academic Division of Marxist Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, co-Editor-in-Chief of International Critical Thought and World Review of Political Economy.

Xiaofeng Lv is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Marxist Studies of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China. Her main research area includes Chinese and foreign Marxist theories.

Notes

1 Lenin wrote that “Contact with Engels was undoubtedly a factor in Marx’s decision to study political economy, the science in which his works have produced a veritable revolution” (Lenin [1896] 1972, 24).

2 Marx affirmed that Engels “arrived by another road (compare his Condition of the Working-Class in England) at the same result as I” (Marx [1859] 2010, 264).

3 See, https://frso.org/statements/covid-19-crisis-immediate-demands-of-the-labor-movement/.

4 The Communist Party of Great Britain set out the comparatively complete party program of “peaceful transition” the first time in 1951, and after three times of revision in 1957, 1968 and 1977, a relatively complete “peaceful transition” theory came into being (see Shang 2009, 117‒121).

5 From 2008 when Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal was founded to 2018, elections of prime minister were held 9 times, in which Nepalese communists served as the prime minister for 7 times. Lists of prime ministers of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal are as follows:

1. Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda), August 18, 2008‒May 23, 2009, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center)

2. Madhav Kumar Nepal, May 23, 2009‒February 3, 2011, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

3. Jhala Nath Khanal, February 3, 2011‒August 29, 2011, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

4. Baburam Bhattarai, August 29, 2011‒March 14, 2013, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center); Acting Prime Minister Khil Raj Regmi, March 14, 2013‒February 11, 2014, Independent

5. Sushil Koirala, February 11, 2014‒October 11, 2015, Nepali Congress

6. Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, October 11, 2015‒August 4, 2016, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

7. Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda), August 4, 2016‒June 7, 2017, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center)

8. Sher Bahadur Deuba, June 7, 2017‒February 15, 2018, Nepali Congress

9. Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, February 15, 2018‒Now, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

6 In this article, Cheng put forward six concrete plans for the international proletariat to realize effective unified actions.