“True, t is only individuals who starve, but what security has the working-man that it may not be his turn tomorrow? Who assures him employment, who vouches for it that, if for any reason or no reason his lord and master discharges him tomorrow, he can struggle along with those dependant upon him, until he may find some one else 'to give him bread'? Who guarantees that willingness to work shall suffice to obtain work, that uprightness, industry, thrift, and the rest of the virtues recommended by the bourgeoisie, are really his road to happiness? No one. He knows that every breeze that blows, every whim of his employer, every bad turn of trade may hurl him back into the fierce whirlpool from which he has temporarily saved himself, and in which it is hard and often impossible to keep his head above water. He knows that, though he may have the means of living today, it is very uncertain whether he shall tomorrow.” SurvivalWorkersFree MarketProletariatBourgeoisie Author:Friedrich Engels
“Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does not force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them..'If you don't like to be frizzled in my frying- pan, you can take a walk into the fire.” IfsDoeForceWalksFireMaterialsWorkersCardsFryingFrying Pans Author:Friedrich Engels
“The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state. But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.” MeanEndsStatesWholeMomentsWould BePoliticalEconomicRevolutionVictoryMassOrganizationWorkersDefeatParisAnarchyCapitalistOrganismsAdversariesAnarchismAnarchistSlaughterUpside DownProletariatCommunesThings Upside Down Author:Friedrich Engels
“Ireland still remains the Holy Isle whose aspirations must on no account be mixed with the profane class-struggles of the rest of the sinful world ... the Irish peasant must not on any account know that the Socialist workers are his sole allies in Europe.” KnowsWorldStillsClassStruggleHolyEuropeAccountsRemainsWorkersAspirationAlliesIrelandSoleSocialistPeasantsClass StruggleProfaneIsleSinful World Book:Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: selected correspondence, 1846-1895: with explanatory notes Source: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: selected correspondence, 1846-1895: with explanatory notes
“Competition permits the capitalist to deduct from the price of labour power that which the family earns from its own little garden or field; the workers are compelled to accept any piece wages offered to them, because otherwise they would get nothing at all, and they could not live from the products of their small-scale agriculture alone, and because, on the other hand, it is just this agriculture and landownership which chains them to the spot and prevents them from looking around for other employment.” LittlesHandsAcceptingPiecesFieldsProductsGardenCompetitionWorkersScalesEmploymentSpotsChainsLabourPermitCapitalistAgricultureWagesCompelled Author:Friedrich Engels
