Futurism fuelled Italian Fascism, aesthetically; its Russian variant inspired a worker’s revolution and then ameliorated the early years of communism for an erstwhile bourgeois class that then had to behave itself in keeping with proletarian principles.

In addition to the analysis, there is the Manifesto related in full, the preface to a Russian volume of prose and poetry, A Slap in the Face of Public Taste, which stands as something of a manifesto for the Russian Futurists. Then there is the Italian Fascist Co-authored by the writer of the Futurist Manifesto, F T Marinetti.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

it could be argued that prior to 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was a failed writer, and that the Futurist Manifesto was something of a publicity stunt. He had had little success with a drama for the stage performed in Paris the same year the Manifesto appeared, and similarly disappointed with an attempt at writing a novel a year later.

He later enjoyed considerably more success with Zang Tumb Tumb, as a self-promoting Futurist. This is a sound poem based on his experience of reporting on the Italo-Turkish war for the French newspaper, Figaro. The onomatopoeic and alliterative elements of this work is somewhat evident in the way his driving into a ditch in described in the manifesto.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Futurism fuelled Italian Fascism, aesthetically; its Russian variant inspired a worker’s revolution and then ameliorated the early years of communism for an erstwhile bourgeois class that then had to behave itself in keeping with proletarian principles.

Today, Futurism has become part of the consumerist landscape.

Modern smartphone cameras have all manner of devices to recreate the iconography of movement established by Futurist artists like Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni. Moreover, the concept-based multimedia nature of art in the 21st century is evident in art installations rather than room on room hangings of traditional painterly works of art. While this remains part of the movement’s legacy in promotional terms, it acknowledges little of Futurism’s attachment to man and machine in Italy or the folkloric tradition in Russia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The claim that Capitalism is subject to periodic crises, with each in turn making life worse for the proletariat, has been central to Marxist thought since 1848, when the manifesto was published more or less at the same time in French, German and English.

The document, itself, reads like a work of Victorian fiction. In English, the modern reader is reminded stylistically of the great European romantic writers, Hugo and Dumas, in original translation, which tends to somewhat obscure the authors’ intentions. This irony, no doubt, would be lost on communist radicals today, when we remember that Marx if not Engels despised both these 19th century French writers.

The analysis looks at the communist position in connection with the recent democratic elections in Germany; excerpts have been taken from the first three chapters of Marx and Engel’s Communist Manifesto. The very short fourth chapter is a call to arms based on what was posited in the second.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here, Marx and Engels, discuss three kinds of socialism: Feudal Socialism, Petty-Bourgeois Socialism, and German or "True," Socialism. They talk about each as a stepping-stone to Communism. Each a penultimate stage in the march of history. The literature and no less the readership relating to each is critiqued with contempt. Especially the German ‘philistine’ petty-bourgeoisie:

“To the absolute governments, with their following of parsons, professors, country squires and officials, it served as a welcome scarecrow against the threatening bourgeoisie.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.