Engels’s Thought of the Self-Emancipation of the Working Class and Its Contemporary Value

Abstract

ABSTRACT Engels, departing from responding to the real problems of the time and adopting the research methods of field investigation, collecting official and non-official data and synthesizing theories from various disciplines, found the scientific path for exploring the important issues such as where the working class is heading for, where the mankind is heading for, and so on; advanced his thought of the self-emancipation of the working class; and established his theories on the objective reality which constituted an important part of Marxism. Engels pointed out that the issue of the emancipation of the working class was originated from the field of material production. The key to the solution of the issue was to understand the real production practice activities of the working class, and the fundamental way out for the working class lay in the realization of its self-emancipation. The condition of the working class in the contemporary era has been improved which is an achievement of its struggle. However, its historical subject status has not been changed and the working class is still the real transformative power for realizing socialism. Comprehensive understanding of Engels’s thought of the self-emancipation of the working class is of contemporary theoretical value and practical significance.