Communist Communications Committee, Brussels
Marx and Engels insisted from 1847 onwards that in order for the proletariat to achieve victory, it was necessary"to form a special party that is different from and opposed to all other parties, a conscious class party".
Marx and Engels believed that only by carrying out revolutionary criticism of various schools of utopian socialism and pseudo-socialism, and by integrating the theory of scientific socialism with the workers' movement, can the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat be led onto the road of conscious, organized, and victorious. The great merit of Marx and Engels lies in the fact that they not only founded the theory of scientific socialism, but also, through the criticism of various schools of utopian socialism and pseudo-socialism, united all truly revolutionary communists around a unified program of scientific socialism, built a communist political party, and began a great chapter in the history of the international communist movement.
In early 1846, Marx and Engels established the Communist Committee of Communications in Brussels, Belgium. This was the best form of organization at that time to promote the critique of the revolution against various schools of utopian socialism and pseudo-socialism, and to unite the revolutionary communists. At that time, the conditions for organizing a Communist Party in a country were not yet available, but only an international Communist Party could be established. This party, according to Marx and Engels, should absorb the advanced elements of all countries. The Brussels Communist Communications Committee was a concrete step taken by Marx and Engels to establish an international Communist Party. Thanks to the efforts of Marx and Engels, the Communist Communications Committee established regular contacts with communists and workers' organizations in Germany, France, Belgium, Britain, and many other countries, recruited a number of advanced workers to join the communist movement, and established an extensive communication network with Brussels as the center, exchanging information with each other, propagating the theory of scientific socialism, criticizing erroneous viewpoints, and laying an ideological foundation for the building of the party and training cadres.
Marx and Engels, when establishing contacts with workers' groups in various countries, paid special attention to the "League of the Righteous" in Germany. The group was founded in Paris in 1836 by wandering German craftsmen who had gone abroad to earn their livelihoods. In May 1839, members of the League of the Righteous took part in an uprising by the Blanquies in Paris. After the defeat of the uprising, the center of the League moved to London, and its branches soon spread to many countries, and it itself became increasingly international in character. At that time, the "League of the Righteous" was joined not only by Germans, but also by Swiss, Scandinavians, Dutch, Hungarians, Czechs, ** people and Yugoslavs. However, these workers have not yet been armed with the scientific theories of the revolution. In its founding manifesto, the "League of the Righteous" declared that its aim was to achieve an average communism, "to live the same life for everyone, neither better nor worse than others." Its slogan is "Everyone is a brother". The thinking within the League was very confused. The first to dominate was the Weitlingists. After 1844, petty-bourgeois "real socialism" was introduced, and Proudhon's class tone and ideas were also very influential among the German diaspora. Therefore, it is necessary to fight against these schools in order to lead the "League of the Just" onto the path of scientific socialism.
Wilhelm Weitling (181871) was a German tailor. In 1842 he published his major work, The Guarantee of Harmony and Liberty, in which he advocated the abolition of private property and the realization of communism. However, Weitling's communism was nothing more than average communism, and his strategy for achieving communism was that a few people plotted to riot, and he even declared himself a savior. Marx had patiently helped him, pointing out that if he did what he did, he would only lead the workers' movement to ruin. At a meeting of the Brussels Committee of Communications in March 1846, Marx made a serious criticism of him. Weitling did not listen to any criticism. He behaved like a "fairy", with a ready-made prescription for heaven on earth in his pocket, and thought that others were trying to steal it. Marx and Engels had to openly break with him and point out to the local correspondence committees the necessity of fighting against the Weitlingists. The call of Marx and Engels received an enthusiastic response. The leaders of the "League of the Righteous" in London, Paris and Germany expressed support for Marx and Engels. This was the first major victory of scientific socialism in the "League of the Righteous".
Marx and Engels then began a struggle against "real socialism". "True socialism" was initiated by the German bourgeois intellectuals in 1844, and later became an epidemic in Germany in 184511848, and spread to the German diaspora abroad. "True socialism" is a mixture of Feuerbach's humanism and Proudhon's utopian plans. In the name of socialism, it preached class peace, replaced the revolutionary class struggle with supra-class love and humanity, and sought to eradicate poverty and preserve the status of small producers without changing the capitalist system. Heilman Kleege, one of the representatives of this genre, propagandized in the United States that if 1.4 billion acres of land were set aside in North America and distributed to the poor free of charge, the first "villages and towns full of heavenly love" would be established on these lands, and "the dreams of Europeans since ancient times would come true."
In May 1846, a special meeting of the Brussels Committee of Communications discussed the question of Kleege, and adopted the Anti-Kleege Circular, drafted by Marx and Engels. Marx and Engels pointed out that Kleege had to oppose it because he had changed communism, the proletarian doctrine of the proletariat on the transformation of society by revolutionary means, into a gibberish about love, a dream that "if accepted by the workers would weaken their will". Marx and Engels also ruthlessly attacked Kleege's fallacy that it seemed that turning poor proletarians into petty proprietors would solve all social contradictions, and asked: Which Europeans think that Kleege's ideas can realize their "dreams"?The answer is: by no means communist workers!It's just petty bourgeoisie who want to get lucky in the United States. Thus began the struggle against "true socialism".
In August 1846, Engels was commissioned by the Brussels Committee to continue the struggle in Paris, where Karl Grün, the main exponent of this genre, was active. Grüne took Proudhon's work as a struggle against revolutionary communism. Proudhon had by this time openly appeared as an enemy of revolutionary communism, and in 1846 he wrote The Philosophy of Poverty, in which he fiercely opposed the methods of struggle of the revolution and declared war on revolutionary communism. Therefore, opposition to "true socialism" cannot be without opposition to Proudhonism. Engels took part in the activities of the "League of the Just" in Paris, where he lectured the workers on the principles of historical materialism and the history and current situation of Germany in order to raise their consciousness. Engels embraced the revolutionary enthusiasm of a proletarian revolutionary and struggled against "real socialism" and Proudhonism. Engels particularly stressed the need for a violent revolution that exposed the anti-proletarian character of "real socialism" and Proudhonism on this fundamental question. The struggle was fierce, and rallies were often held for several nights in a row, polemics were held. Engels pointed out to the workers that the positions of the communists are: (1) to safeguard the interests of the proletarians;(2) to abolish private property and replace it with public ownership of property, and (3) not to recognize the means of achieving these ends other than to carry out the revolution of Yili. Engels' speech was embraced by the workers. The "real socialists" were finally defeated.
In order to thoroughly criticize Proudhonism, Marx wrote "Philosophy, Poverty" in 1847 in response to Proudhon's "Philosophy of Poverty". Marx exposed Proudhon's metaphysics in The Poverty of Philosophy. In Proudhon's view, there is an eternal and unchanging justice in the world, which should be the basis of the future society. Marx used dialectics to fight against Proudhon. He proved that everything in the world is changing, that history is always moving forward, and that the so-called "eternal and unchanging justice" is just a metaphysical whisper. Marx also debunked Proudhon's fallacy that he wanted to reconcile contradictions, to replace the struggle of opposites with the reconciliation of opposites, and pointed out that the struggle of opposites forms a dialectical movement. Marx used his revolutionary dialectics to analyze the process of the development of capitalist society, proved the inevitability of the socialist revolution, and revealed the worldwide historical mission of the proletariat as the creator of the new society.