Engels, Frederick, socialist, born in Barmen on Nov. 28, 1820, the son of a well-to-do manufacturer. Took up commerce, but already at an early age began propagating radical and socialist ideas in newspaper articles and speeches. After working for some time as a clerk in Bremen and serving for one year as an army volunteer in Berlin in 1842, he went for two years to Manchester, where his father was co-owner of a cotton mill.
In 1844 he worked for the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher published by Arnold Ruge and Karl Marx in Paris. In 1844 he returned to Barmen and in 1845 addressed communist meetings organised by Moses Hess and Gustav K?ttgen in Elberfeld. Then, until 1848, he lived alternately in Brussels and Paris; in 1846 he joined, with Marx, the secret Communist League, a predecessor of the International, and represented the Paris communities at the two League congresses in London in 1847. On the League's instructions, he wrote, jointly with Marx, the Communist Manifesto addressed to the "working men of all countries", which was published shortly before the February revolution [1848] (a new edition appeared in Leipzig in 1872).
In 1848 and 1849 E. worked in Cologne for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung edited by Marx, and after its suppression he contributed, in 1850, to the Politisch-oekonomische Revue. He witnessed the uprisings in Elberfeld, the Palatinate and Baden and took part in the Baden-Palatinate campaign as aide-de-camp in Willich's volunteer corps. After the suppression of the Baden uprising E. returned as a refugee to England and re-entered his father's firm in Manchester in 1850.
He retired from business in 1869 and has lived in London since 1870. He assisted his friend Marx in providing support for the international labour movement, which arose in 1864, and in carrying on social-democratic propaganda. E. was Secretary for Italy, Spain and Portugal on the General Council of the International. He advocates Marxian communism in opposition to both "petty bourgeois" Proudhonist and nihilistic Bakuninist anarchism. His main work is The Condition of the Working-Class in England (Leipzig, 1845; new edition, Stuttgart, 1892), which, although one-sided, possesses undeniable scientific value. His Anti-Dühring is a polemic of considerable size (2nd ed. Zurich, 1886). E.'s other published works include Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (Stuttgart, 1888), The Origin of the Family Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (4th ed., Berlin, 1891). E. also published Vols 2 and 3 of Karl Marx's Capital and the 3rd and 4th editions of Vol. I, and contributed many articles to the Neue Zeit.
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OPEN CALL FOR BOOK RECS
I got offered a 2 dollar raise to fill in for a different position at my job for the next month, and the only thing I'm expected to do is be physically present in the building. I can do whatever I want for the entire 12 hour shift, so I'm looking for books to fill at least some of that time.
I've been finding it difficult to adequately explain what socialism/a socialist state would look like in practice when I discuss politics with other people. I can identify and explain the problems with capitalism, their causes, and ways to fight back against them, but the "what comes after?" question is one I have trouble putting in concrete terms, and as a result I tend to come off as unconvincing and a bit idealistic. Books dealing with this in some way (explanations of the electoral structures of various socialist states, workplace organization, education systems, housing programs, etc.) would be a big help!
if you are in the US, the PSL actually wrote a book that's exactly that! It's called Socialist Reconstruction (https://store.pslweb.org/Socialist-Reconstruction-A-Better-Future-for-the-United-States_p_90.html). It is basically the program of the party immediately after taking power and short term future.
Though I usually warn against focusing too much on the details of "future socialist states" because of the idealism. Socialist Reconstruction tries to stay balanced, but because of that its a bit vague and contradictory in places. So keep that in mind.
Thanks!! I'm not from the US but close enough that a lot of the same stuff might apply, so I'll give it a go
I have not read it but Towards a New Socialism by Cockshott and Cottrell is a book written by a computer scientist and an economist on how a planned economy could work via cybernetics.
See also The People's Republic of Walmart
Not quite, what you're looking for, but might be interesting: I'm reading Nancy Fraser's "Cannibal Capitalism" in a book club right now. It's about how four moments of crisis, which Fraser identifies as: racism, reproductive labor, nature and democracy, are actually all just aspects of the capitalist system in crisis. I'm the only ML in the group, but the others warm up more and more towards Marxism. So I guess it's convincing in that way, but I also do a lot of explaining. I like it so far. It might be more innovative in its terminology than in its theory, but the value of bringing different existing ideas together and finding good words for them shouldn't be underestimated. One flaw is it's western centric perspective. In the chapter about racism, imperialism is not treated in enough depth and I think it would end with a stronger conclusion if it were.
I think there is one last chapter about the future and what to do, but I haven't gotten to that yet, so I can't promise anything.