the appropriation by society of all the means of production has often
been dreamed of, more or less vaguely, by individuals, as well as by
sects, as the ideal of the future. But it could become possible, could
become a historical necessity, only when the actual conditions for its
realization were there. Like every other social advance, it becomes
practicable, not by men understanding that the existence of classes is
in contradiction to justice, equality, etc., not by the mere
willingness to abolish these classes, but by virtue of certain new
economic conditions. The separation of society into an exploiting and
an exploited class, a ruling and an oppressed class, was the
necessary consequence of the deficient and restricted development of
production in former times. So long as the total social labor only
yields a produce which but slightly exceeds that barely necessary for
the existence of all; so long, therefore, as labor engages all or
almost all the time of the great majority of the members of
society--so long, of necessity, this society is divided into classes.
Side by side with the great majority, exclusively bond slaves to
labor, arises a class freed from directly productive labor, which
looks after the general affairs of society; the direction of labor,
State business, law, science, art, etc. It is, therefore, the law of
division of labor that lies at the basis of the division into classes.
But this does not prevent this division into classes from being
carried out by means of violence and robbery, trickery and fraud. It
does not prevent the ruling class, once having the upper hand, from
consolidating its power at the expense of the working-class, from
turning their social leadership into an intensified exploitation of
the masses.
But if, upon this showing, division into classes has a certain
historical justification, it has this only for a given period, only
under given social conditions. It was based upon the insufficiency of
production. It will be swept away by the complete development of
modern productive forces. And, in fact, the abolition of classes in
society presupposes a degree of historical evolution, at which the
existence, not simply of this or that particular ruling class, but of
any ruling class at all, and, therefore, the existence of class
distinction itself has become an obsolete anachronism. It presupposes,
therefore, the development of production carried out to a degree at
which appropriation of the means of production and of the products,
and, with this, of political domination, of the monopoly of culture,
and of intellectual leadership by a particular class of society, has
become not only superfluous, but economically, politically,
intellectually a hindrance to development.
This point is now reached. Their political and intellectual bankruptcy
is scarcely any longer a secret to the bourgeoisie themselves. Their
economic bankruptcy recurs regularly every ten years. In every crisis,
society is suffocated beneath the weight of its own productive forces
and products, which it cannot use, and stands helpless, face to face
with the absurd contradiction that the producers have nothing to
consume, because consumers are wanting. The expansive force of the
means of production bursts the bonds that the capitalist mode of
production had imposed upon them. Their deliverance from these bonds
is the one precondition for an unbroken, constantly-accelerated
development of the productive forces, and therewith for a practically
unlimited increase of production itself. Nor is this all. The
socialized appropriation of the means of production does away, not
only with the present artificial restrictions upon production, but
also with the positive waste and devastation of productive forces and
products that are at the present time the inevitable concomitants of
production, and that reach their height in the crises. Further, it
sets free for the community at large a mass of means of production and
of products, by doing away with the senseless extravagance of the
ruling classes of to-day, and their political representatives. The
possibility of securing for every member of society, by means of
socialized production, an existence not only fully sufficient
materially, and becoming day by day more full, but an existence
guaranteeing to all the free development and exercise of their
physical and mental faculties--this possibility is now for the first
time here, but _it is here_.[8]
With the seizing of the means of production by society, production of
commodities is done away with, and, simultaneously, the mastery of
the product over the producer. Anarchy in social production is
replaced by systematic, definite organization. The struggle for
individual existence disappears. Then for the first time, man, in a
certain sense, is finally marked off from the rest of the animal
kingdom, and emerges from mere animal conditions of existence into
really human ones. The whole sphere of the conditions of life which
environ man, and which have hitherto ruled man, now comes under the
dominion and control of man, who for the first time becomes the real,
conscious lord of Nature, because he has now become master of his own
social organization. The laws of his own social action, hitherto
standing face to face with man as laws of Nature foreign to, and
dominating, him, will then be used with full understanding, and so
mastered by him. Man's own social organization, hitherto confronting
him as a necessity imposed by Nature and history, now becomes the
result of his own free action. The extraneous objective forces that
have hitherto governed history, pass under the control of man
himself. Only from that time will man himself, more and more
consciously, make his own history--only from that time will the social
causes set in movement by him have, in the main and in a constantly
growing measure, the results intended by him. It is the ascent of man
from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.
Let us briefly sum up our sketch of historical evolution.
I. _Mediaeval Society._--Individual production on a small scale. Means
of production adapted for individual use; hence primitive, ungainly,
petty, dwarfed in action. Production for immediate consumption, either
of the producer himself or of his feudal lord. Only where an excess of
production over this consumption occurs is such excess offered for
sale, enters into exchange. Production of commodities, therefore, only
in its infancy. But already it contains within itself, in embryo,
_anarchy in the production of society at large_.
II. _Capitalist Revolution._--Transformation of industry, at first by
means of simple co-operation and manufacture. Concentration of the
means of production, hitherto scattered, into great workshops. As a
consequence, their transformation from individual to social means of
production--a transformation which does not, on the whole, affect the
form of exchange. The old forms of appropriation remain in force. The
capitalist appears. In his capacity as owner of the means of
production, he also appropriates the products and turns them into
commodities. Production has become a _social_ act. Exchange and
appropriation continue to be _individual_ acts, the acts of
individuals. _The social product is appropriated by the individual
capitalist._ Fundamental contradiction, whence arise all the
contradictions in which our present day society moves, and which
modern industry brings to light.
A. Severance of the producer from the means of production.
Condemnation of the worker to wage-labor for life. _Antagonism
between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie._
B. Growing predominance and increasing effectiveness of the laws
governing the production of commodities. Unbridled competition.
_Contradiction between socialized organization in the individual
factory and social anarchy in production as a whole._
C. On the one hand, perfecting of machinery, made by competition
compulsory for each individual manufacturer, and complemented by
a constantly growing displacement of laborers. _Industrial
reserve-army._ On the other hand, unlimited extension of
production, also compulsory under competition, for every
manufacturer. On both sides, unheard of development of productive
forces, excess of supply over demand, over-production, glutting
of the markets, crises every ten years, the vicious circle:
excess here, of means of production and products--excess there,
of laborers, without employment and without means of existence.
But these two levers of production and of social well-being are
unable to work together, because the capitalist form of
production prevents the productive forces from working and the
products from circulating, unless they are first turned into
capital--which their very superabundance prevents. The
contradiction has grown into an absurdity. _The mode of
production rises in rebellion against the form of exchange._ The
bourgeoisie are convicted of incapacity further to manage their
own social productive forces.
D. Partial recognition of the social character of the productive
forces forced upon the capitalists themselves. Taking over of the
great institutions for production and communication, first by
joint-stock companies, later on by trusts, then by the State. The
bourgeoisie demonstrated to be a superfluous class. All its
social functions are now performed by salaried employees.
III. _Proletarian Revolution._--Solution of the contradictions. The
proletariat seizes the public power, and by means of this transforms
the socialized means of production, slipping from the hands of the
bourgeoisie, into public property. By this act the proletariat frees
the means of production from the character of capital they have thus
far borne, and gives their socialized character complete freedom to
work itself out. Socialized production upon a predetermined plan
becomes henceforth possible. The development of production makes the
existence of different classes of society thenceforth an anachronism.
In proportion as anarchy in social production vanishes, the political
authority of the State dies out. Man, at last the master of his own
form of social organization, becomes at the same time the lord over
Nature, his own master--free.
To accomplish this act of universal emancipation is the historical
mission of the modern proletariat. To thoroughly comprehend the
historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart
to the now oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge of the
conditions and of the meaning of the momentous act it is called upon
to accomplish, this is the task of the theoretical expression of the
proletarian movement, scientific Socialism.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] It is hardly necessary in this connection to point out, that, even
if the form of appropriation remains the same, the _character_ of the
appropriation is just as much revolutionized as production is by the
changes described above. It is, of course, a very different matter
whether I appropriate to myself my own product or that of another.
Note in passing that wage-labor, which contains the whole capitalistic
mode of production in embryo, is very ancient; in a sporadic,
scattered form it existed for centuries alongside of slave-labor. But
the embryo could duly develop into the capitalistic mode of production
only when the necessary historical preconditions had been furnished.
[5] _See Appendix._
[6] "The Condition of the Working-Class in England" (Sonnenschein &
Co.), p. 84.
[7] I say "have to." For only when the means of production and
distribution have _actually_ outgrown the form of management by
joint-stock companies, and when, therefore, the taking them over by
the State has become _economically_ inevitable, only then--even if it
is the State of to-day that effects this--is there an economic
advance, the attainment of another step preliminary to the taking over
of all productive forces by society itself. But of late, since
Bismarck went in for State-ownership of industrial establishments, a
kind of spurious Socialism has arisen, degenerating, now and again,
into something of flunkeyism, that without more ado declares _all_
State-ownership, even of the Bismarckian sort, to be socialistic.
Certainly, if the taking over by the State of the tobacco industry is
socialistic, then Napoleon and Metternich must be numbered among the
founders of Socialism. If the Belgian State, for quite ordinary
political and financial reasons, itself constructed its chief railway
lines; if Bismarck, not under any economic compulsion, took over for
the State the chief Prussian lines, simply to be the better able to
have them in hand in case of war, to bring up the railway employees as
voting cattle for the Government, and especially to create for himself
a new source of income independent of parliamentary votes--this was,
in no sense, a socialistic measure, directly or indirectly,
consciously or unconsciously. Otherwise, the Royal Maritime Company,
the Royal porcelain manufacture, and even the regimental tailor of the
army would also be socialistic institutions, or even, as was seriously
proposed by a sly dog in Frederick William III.'s reign, the taking
over by the State of the brothels.
[8] A few figures may serve to give an approximate idea of the
enormous expansive force of the modern means of production, even under
capitalist pressure. According to Mr. Giffen, the total wealth of
Great Britain and Ireland amounted, in round numbers, in
1814 to L2,200,000,000.
1865 to L6,100,000,000.
1875 to L8,500,000,000.
As an instance of the squandering of means of production and of
products during a crisis, the total loss in the German iron industry
alone, in the crisis of 1873-78, was given at the second German
Industrial Congress (Berlin, February 21, 1878) as L22,750,000.
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