"The middle class begins with a proletariat, which in its turn is
itself a remnant of the feudal proletariat. In the course of its
historical development the middle class necessarily develops its
contradictory character, which on its first appearance is more or less
veiled, existing only in a latent form. In proportion as the middle
class develops, there develops in its bosom a new proletariat, a
modern proletariat; and a struggle arises between the proletarian
class and the middle class, a struggle which, before being felt,
observed, estimated, understood, acknowledged, and finally openly
proclaimed on both sides, issues in the meanwhile only in partial and
transitory conflicts and acts of destruction."
In a special chapter Marx shows the necessity and the historical
significance of the Trade Unions, which in spite of all the
apprehensions and warnings of Utopians and Economists the workers have
gone on establishing and perfecting, in order to be able to withstand
the domination of capital. That means the gathering together of the
divided interests and activities of the workers in a vast class
movement, standing in opposition to the middle class; which, however,
does not exclude the possibility of conflicting interests within the
classes themselves, though these shall be put aside as soon as class
is brought against class:
"From day to day it becomes clearer then that the conditions of
production, among which the middle class moves, have not a simple,
uniform character but one which involves conflicting elements; that the
same conditions which produce wealth produce also poverty; that the same
conditions which tend to the development of productive power develop
also the power of repression; that these conditions only create
bourgeois wealth, i.e., the wealth of the middle class, at the cost of
the continued destruction of the wealth of individual members of this
class and the creation of an ever-increasing proletariat."--("Poverty of
Philosophy," 1885, pp. 116-118, 177 sq.)
This antithetical character of capitalist society has for its effect
that the political economists, who are the philosophers of the
existing order, lose their bearings, while the Socialists, who are the
philosophers of the proletariat, look round for means to relieve the
distress. They condemn class struggles,[4] build Utopias and plan
schemes of salvation, whereas the only real solution, because it is
the only one which arises from the actual conditions, must be to
further the organisation of the oppressed class and make it conscious
of the objects of its struggles. For out of these struggles the new
society will arise, and that, of course, can only happen when
productive power has reached a high stage of development. Or as Marx
himself proceeds:
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