“[M]AMKIND always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, it will always be found that the task itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.” (Karl Marx in Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy).

At the turn of the nineteenth century humankind set itself, with full courage of conviction, the lofty task of ushering in a harmonious society freed of exploitation and oppression. By that time, the material abundance required for fulfilling the basic needs of the entire human race were rapidly developing in the womb of capitalism; the foundations or components of the theory required to guide this great transformation had started taking shape in the works of outstanding philosophers, economists and social scientists; and the historical agency – the social force capable of actually executing this revolutionary change i.e., the potential “grave-diggers” of capitalism – had already appeared on the stage of history, ideologically not yet fully prepared though to execute its mission. But the presence of these conditions did not mean that capitalism would collapse automatically. For that, what still remained to be done was to connect, and build on, these disparate ingredients so as to (a) arm that social force, the modern proletariat, with a holistic, consistently revolutionary worldview, (b) formulate a correct and widely acceptable strategic vision with an immediate action programme, and (c) build an ideologically consolidated communist party to lead the expanding movement. The Manifesto magnificently achieved the first two conditions and proceeded to fulfil the third, thereby flagging off the proletariat’s conscious march to conquer the world for the Wretched of the Earth.

The march has continued ever since through ups and downs along a tortuous hilly track.

Today, in the age of globalisation and the world-wide-web, no “spectre of communism is haunting Europe”, but the entire global order is visibly shaken by a terrible triple crisis: economic, environmental and socio-cultural – bringing in its trail large-scale social churnings and upheavals. Let all of us join the protracted war to reclaim the globe from the clutches of imperialism and its running dogs, to win the battles of democracy and socialism in the spirit of the Manifesto, which belongs as much to our age as it did to the past two centuries. The task humankind set itself in the nineteenth century can and must be accomplished in the twenty-first.