The Origins In February 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto, on behalf of a group of idealistic workers. Originally drafted as a programme for an international "Communist League" which had its roots in the 19th-century tradition of workers' mutual improvement societies, it became one of the most important political documents of all time. It has been as influential as the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of Rights (1789).
