In 1848, Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, (Das Kommunistische Manifest as originally published in German), one of the most important books in history.

At that time, the industrial revolution and the emergence of a proletarian class without rights provided a socio-historical context fro the emergence of Marx's ideas of emancipation for the working classes of the world. Thanks to Marxism and to its ideals, workers in the world were able to fight for and achieve better working conditions.

After more than a century of struggles, strikes and fights for their rights, their achievements began to recede from the 80's onwards with the wave of conservative neoliberalism, which little by litle has eroded the social progress made by the working classes for a century. After the fall of the communist bloc in the late 80's, neoliberalism accelerated its program of precarisation and attack on workers' rights. Margaret Thatcher was one of the politicians who did most to undermine UK unions and thus debilitate working class aspirations.

In a globalised world and thanks to neoliberal policies, multinationals are free from any responsibility to the local and they can outsource their production where production is cheaper, leaving workers jobless and at the mercy of unemployment benefits. Although one might agree that the working class has evolved and is certainly different from the working class of a 100 years ago, the truth is that the world is still divided between those who have power an those who don't. As the present Occupy movements spreading around the world reveal, it is possible to say that Marx was quite right in many senses. As he claimed, capitalism has aggavated poverty and inequality and distribution of wealth is now more unequal than ever.