Communist Merchant

Introduction to The Communist Manifesto

Tariq Ali | Verso | 21st February 2023

To mark the 175th anniversary of Marx and Engels' work, Ali looks again at it. History vindicates "very few" of its predictions about the future of capitalism, and it contains no blueprint for the communist society that might follow a successful revolution. Its "strength lay in its broad sweep, a call to transform the world," and after the Russian Revolution, everybody wanted to read it (2,976 words)

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The Merchant, the Marriage, and the Treaty Port

Jessa Dahl | Not Even Past | 17th February 2023

Reassessing Ōura Kei, a prominent 19C Japanese businesswoman, one of Nagasaki’s most famous residents, and an early exporter of green tea. But recently discovered documents show she also helped to arrange marriages between very young Japanese girls and much older Chinese men, showing that she was "not only a victim, but also an enabler of unequal power relations" (3,066 words)