Role Of Violence In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

Violence is inescapable when considering political agenda. In the words of Fanon, “National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the nation to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event” (1). According to Fanon, violence is the fundamental factor that defines the meaning and practice of colonisation. In Fanon’s chapter “On Violence”, he writes predominately about the centrality of violence in resisting colonial rule. However, violence is not limited to playing a significant role in just colonisation. Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto encompasses ideas of violence in social revolution and communism. In Marx’s theory, Marx writes about a Communist
Fanon claims that the “government’s agent uses a language of pure violence. The agent does not alleviate oppression or mask domination. He displays and demonstrates them with the clear conscience of the law enforcer, and brings violence into the homes and minds of the colonized subject” (4). If violent and aggressive language from colonist authorities were scarce, the passivity of voice would not provoke the desired outcome of fear from the colonised people. Therefore, as a law enforcer, enforcing a method of communication that fails to “alleviate oppression” is one that is absolutely necessary. Due to the fact that the native population became dehumanised as a result of this colonisation, violent revolution became not only an appropriate recourse in terms of fairness and reciprocal behaviour but also the only possible recourse in the situation. The sectors are extremely different in economic status. Having no common ground for negotiation, violence is what seems to be the only form of communication possible between the colonised and the colonisers. Should the colonised people wish to act rather than to sit passively and accept, the colonised people have no option but to act through violence. The communication of ideas presented in Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto is violent in nature. The portrayal of violence comes from Marx’s description
In the two works presented, both Fanon and Marx and Engels demonstrate the significance of violence in politics, that violence is an absolutely inescapable element in both decolonisation and social revolution. Aside from the exploration of context and meanings from both writers, exploration of details in language also provides justification and explanations to the importance that violence plays in political exchanges. As the nature of violence in itself is so forceful, perhaps it is this forceful nature that provokes the writings themselves. Although violence brings about extremely negative connotations, Fanon and Marx and Engels prove to readers that violence is not only necessary in a society of oppression, but also necessary to discuss in the society we inhabit currently. The presence of violence, unfortunately, will never dwindle. The bluntness of the statement perhaps serves as a “wake-up call” to readers to avoid turning a blind-eye to these works of history and the significance that violence has on modern society, in a society still bogged in