An American filmmaker echoed a rallying cry from The Communist Manifesto during the 2020 Academy Awards, calling for the "workers of the world" to "unite."

Julia Reichert, director of the Oscar-winning documentary film American Factory, gave an acceptance speech after the production received the award for best documentary feature on Sunday night.

"Our film is from Ohio and China ... But it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life," Reichert prefaced her comments. "Working people have it harder and harder these days. And we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite."

The phrase "workers of the world unite" appears in The Communist Manifesto by philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In Marx and Engels's view, the phrase is used to proselytize worldwide class conflict. In the book, the "proletariat," or the working class, recognizes a struggle against the "bourgeoisie" or the middle class. According to them, once the working class wins the "struggle," the implementation of communism will mark the "The End of History."

American Factory was the first film produced by former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions.