The world’s workers

In 1848 Marx and Engels famously announced in the Communist Manifesto that: “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to gain. Workers of the World, Unite!” They believed the continued development of capitalism would create the conditions necessary for workers within each country to unite, because capitalist development encouraged the growth of a proletariat better able to organise and mobilise as a result of being brought together in workplaces. By the same token, they believed the spreading of capitalism around the globe provided conditions for the workers of the whole world to unite across national borders and express their shared interests in challenging the capitalists who exploited workers everywhere.