LONDON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Saturday marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, who helped shape much of Marxism and had a special attachment to the city of Manchester.
For Jonathan Schofield, a writer in Manchester, Engels' works and philosophy can still be felt around the streets of the northern English city and hold relevance to this day.
"I think if you've got any interest in politics, then you have to be aware of the 200th anniversary of Engels," Schofield told Xinhua in a recent interview.
In the autumn of 1842, Engels, who was born in Germany, moved to Manchester, then known as "Cottonopolis," and started working for his family's textile business. It was the tragic conditions of workers that prompted Engels to write his landmark work The Condition of the Working-Class in England.
In Engels' "second hometown," where he lived for more than 20 years, Engels and Karl Marx consolidated their friendship and started to develop groundbreaking theories that changed the course of history.
For Schofield, Engels played more than just a supporting role to Marx.
"Engels deemed that philosophy can be turned into a political change. And so you practically use philosophy rather than just economics or whatever is happening at the time you just react to it. So I think that their lesson is of absolute pertinence to where we are now," he said.
Schofield has been researching into the works and thoughts of Engels for a number of years, and in March he released a book that explores Engels' thought in relation to contemporary thought and life.
"My book on Engels is not just pure historical stuff I write. So I want them to see some form of equivalence between Engels and now," he said.
Schofield mentioned the Grenfell Tower fire which killed at least 80 people in one of the richest and most unequal districts in central London in 2017. Some British media described the tragedy as "social murder," an expression used by Engels.
In his landmark work The Condition of the Working-Class in England, Engels used the phrase "social murder," accusing the bourgeoisie, the class which held social and political control, of placing "hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death."
For Schofield, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted a greater inequality in the British society, which also in a way shows that Engels' books on how capital works is still relevant.
Schofield also noted that the British society has become more and more political due to the influence of social media allowing the sharing of new ideas.
"Definitely, there's been a heightened awareness of politics, which has led into more people wanting to be aware of Engels and Marx," he said. Enditem
