In this struggle between the capitalist class and the proletariat, what is the role of the Communist Party? The Party, said Marx, was to be the vanguard of the proletariat. Most workers are stupid, uneducated in Marxism, and duped by capitalists. They could never start a revolution by themselves. They need guidance, the job of the Communist Party. Communists are wide awake, intelligent, and, most important of all, “learned” in Marxism. They know the “laws” of revolution, the “mysteries” of the development of society. Their task: to be the “general staff” of the revolution. What about force and violence? Must they be used? Marx emphasized that capitalist society, most naturally, would not voluntarily turn over its factories, banks, and money to the workers. Moreover, it would probably organize a “counter-revolution”—which means defending itself. Hence, under the leadership of the Communist Party, the workers must, if necessary, be prepared to use force, that is, violent revolution. If the capitalists submit peacefully, good; if they resist, slaughter them. But this is not all. After power is seized, opposition will remain which must be stamped out, utterly, completely, mercilessly. Again, this is a job that cannot be left to an untrained, untaught proletariat. It is a job, according to Marxist thought, for the _dictatorship of the proletariat_, conceived as a transitional stage between actual revolution and the arrival of the highest and final form of communism. Who would direct the dictatorship? The Communist Party, of course. And what would it do? It would serve as a steam-roller, liquidating through sheer force all “capitalist” elements. Then, and only then, could new “socialist” construction begin. The dictatorships in Russia and the satellite countries with their secret police, slave labor camps, and mass regimentation are living examples of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” in action. These were, and are, vicious principles, destined to shake civilization to its roots. In 1848, Marx, in collaboration with Engels, prepared the platform of the Communist League, a revolutionary organization which included a large number of German exiles. This was the famous _Communist Manifesto_, the first sweeping blueprint of communist aims. The language is violent, the threats dire. “A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism,” it starts off, and ends by calling for a violent overthrow of existing society. “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims.... Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!”