The Communist Manifesto "Manifesto" and its authors experienced a revival in fortunes. Hobsbawm identifies three reasons for this. The first is the leadership role Marx played in the International Workingmen's Association (aka the First International). Secondly, Marx also came into much prominence among socialists—and equal notoriety among the authorities—for his support of the Paris Commune of 1871, elucidated in "The Civil War in France". Lastly, and perhaps most significantly in the popularisation of the "Manifesto", was the treason trial of German Social Democratic Party (SPD) leaders. During the trial prosecutors read the "Manifesto" out loud as evidence; this meant that the pamphlet could
The Communist Manifesto were Spanish editions in Latin America. This uneven geographical spread in the "Manifesto"s popularity reflected the development of socialist movements in a particular region as well as the popularity of Marxist variety of socialism there. There was not always a strong correlation between a social-democratic party's strength and the "Manifesto"s popularity in that country. For instance, the German SPD printed only a few thousand copies of the "Communist Manifesto" every year, but a few hundred thousand copies of the "Erfurt Programme". Further, the mass-based social-democratic parties of the Second International did not require their rank and file to be well-versed