Both halves of this line come from the closing paragraph of The Communist Manifesto (1848) — but not in this shape. The authorised English translation by Samuel Moore, prepared with Engels, ends “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!” — the capitals as the Project Gutenberg edition sets them (Project Gutenberg ↗), while the Marxists Internet Archive prints the same words as a title-case heading and its translator’s note states that the popular one-liner “is a popularisation of the last three sentences, and is not found in any official translation” (Marxists Internet Archive ↗).
“Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” is a popular condensation of the closing lines of The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The authorised 1888 English translation by Samuel Moore, prepared with Engels, ends: "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!" (capitals as set in the Project Gutenberg edition; the Marxists Internet Archive prints the same words in title case). The one-sentence version appears in no official translation. — Quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the world of Karl Marx — German philosopher and revolutionary socialist. Theme: "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The passage it comes from
Work
The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei)
First published
London, February 1848 — in German, without the authors’ names
Translation
Samuel Moore, in cooperation with Friedrich Engels, 1888 — the authorised English text
Passage
Closing paragraph, Section IV
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
Final paragraph
The German original reads: “Die Proletarier haben nichts in ihr zu verlieren als ihre Ketten. Sie haben eine Welt zu gewinnen. Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!” — literally “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” The familiar English slogan compresses these three sentences into one and reverses their order. The wording of the final cry is the same everywhere; only its setting varies. The capitals above are how the Project Gutenberg edition and Wikiquote print it — the Marxists Internet Archive gives the same words as a title-case heading, “Working Men of All Countries, Unite!”
The line’s two halves sit side by side in the last paragraph of Chapter IV of The Communist Manifesto, in the authorised English translation (Marxists Internet Archive ↗).
The same archive’s front matter records the translation as Samuel Moore’s, made in cooperation with Frederick Engels in 1888, of a text first published in February 1848 (marxists.org ↗).
Wikiquote records the closing passage as sourced and lists “Workers of the world, unite!” separately, as a variant translation rather than the text itself (Wikiquote ↗).
A third wording again — “Workers of all lands unite” — is what is actually carved on Marx’s tomb at Highgate Cemetery (Wikipedia ↗).
✓Public domain
The Communist Manifesto was first published in German in February 1848, and the standard English wording comes from Samuel Moore’s 1888 translation made with Engels — both far earlier than 1931, so the original and this translation are in the public domain in the United States. The full English text is freely available from Project Gutenberg ↗.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What gets lost in the quoting
This is not a fabrication — it is a real passage that has been compressed. Three things go missing on the way to the poster.
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Wording“Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” Popularisation
The Marxists Internet Archive’s note on Chapter IV states that this sentence “is a popularisation of the last three sentences, and is not found in any official translation”; the archive keeps Samuel Moore’s wording intact because Engels approved it (marxists.org ↗).
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Order and personThe call to unite, moved to the front Reversed
In the Manifesto the reason comes first and the cry last — “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!” — and it is written in the third person, not as “you” (Wikiquote ↗).
✕
AuthorshipKarl Marx, on his own Half the credit
Marx co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels, and it was Engels who worked with Samuel Moore on the 1888 English translation that fixed the closing words in English (Marxists Internet Archive ↗).
✓The chains and the call are both real, and both are in the last paragraph of the 1848 Manifesto — but the single sentence everyone quotes was assembled by later readers, not written by Marx or Engels (marxists.org ↗).
Context
Why the line mattered
The Manifesto was written to order. Engels had persuaded the Communist League — which he called the first international movement of the working class — to drop the League of the Just’s old motto, “All men are brothers,” for “Working men of all countries, unite!”, and the pamphlet Marx drafted in late 1847 ends on exactly that cry (Wikipedia ↗). It was published in London in February 1848, in German, without the authors’ names on it, weeks before revolution broke across Europe.
The sentence people quote is really a slogan built out of a peroration. The Manifesto’s own order is argument first, cry last: the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains, they have a world to win, and only then the shout in capitals. The popular version inverts that — command first, reason after — and swaps the third person for a direct “you.” That is what makes it a good banner and a bad citation.
The Manifesto puts the chains first and the shout last. The slogan does the opposite.
The other wordings in circulation
On his grave. The pedestal of the tomb of Karl Marx at Highgate Cemetery in London carries a third wording again — “Workers of all lands unite” — alongside the closing line of the Theses on Feuerbach (Wikipedia ↗).
As a state motto. The slogan became the motto of the Soviet Union (“Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!”), appeared on the State Emblem, and was rendered in the language of each Soviet republic; it was also used by the Industrial Workers of the World and remains on May Day banners (Wikipedia ↗).
An earlier echo. Wikipedia’s article on the slogan notes that a similar appeal appears five years before the Manifesto, in the 1843 book The Workers’ Union by the French-Peruvian socialist Flora Tristan — a claim it sources to a 1973 article in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, which we have not read directly.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1818–1883 · German philosopher and revolutionary socialist
Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, and revolutionary socialist who developed the theory of historical materialism and the critique of capitalism set out in Das Kapital. He did not write the Manifesto alone: he co-authored it with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), his lifelong collaborator, who later oversaw the authorised English translation in which the famous closing cry reached English readers. The one-sentence version quoted today is the work of Marx’s readers rather than of Marx’s pen — a compression of three sentences into one.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties,” in Manifesto of the Communist Party (London, February 1848), trans. Samuel Moore in cooperation with Friedrich Engels (1888), closing paragraph. The popular one-line form — “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” — appears in no official translation.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains’?” Last verified 9 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/workers-of-the-world-unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-but/