Here we have the doctrine of class-war in a nutshell. Believing
that the wealth of the world in every kind was destined to become
concentrated in the hands of the few, and that all the people
would of necessity be divided into two distinct classes, with
absolutely antagonistic interests, Marx assumed that a class-war must
result--the proletariat, or wage-earning class, waging war with the
property-owning class to compel the latter to give back the property it
had stolen and restore liberty to the “enslaved worker.”
As you can see, John, the doctrine of the class-war is necessarily one
of the foundation stones of the Socialist gospel. Ferri recognized its
importance as you may ascertain if you will turn to page 145 of his
“Socialism and Positive Science,” where he says:
“The other sociological theory by which Karl Marx has really dissipated
the clouds which obscured till now the heaven of Socialist aspirations,
and which has furnished to scientific Socialism the political compass
for steering itself with complete assurance in the contentions of the
life of every day, is the great historic law of the class struggle.”
The _Manifesto_ of the Socialist Party of Great Britain takes the same
stand when it says that “the Socialists say that the present form of
property-holding divides society into two great classes”; while the
Social Democratic party of England repeats Marx’s assertion that “the
history of human society is a history of class struggles arising from
the antagonism of class interests,” and appeals to the workers to make
themselves “masters of their own country and of all the resources,
political and material” (Quelch, “The Social Democratic Party”).
“There are in reality but two classes,” says the _Socialist Standard_
(December, 1907), “those who live by labor and those who live upon
those who labor--the two classes of exploiter and exploited.”
Here, then, is the crux of the whole question. The workers are told
that they are being robbed and exploited by the capitalists, and that
there can be nothing in common between the two classes. “The task
before us is not to appeal to the capitalist class to do something,
but to organize the workers for the overthrow of that class, so they
(the workers) may do something for themselves. The battle cry of the
workers’ party is not ‘the right to work,’ but ‘the right to the
product of our labor,’ and the right waits only upon their might”
(_Socialist Standard_, November 1, 1908).
“The Capitalist class, in its mad race for profits,” says the American
Socialist party platform (1908), “is bound to exploit the workers to
the very limit of their endurance, and to sacrifice their physical,
moral and mental welfare to its own insatiable greed.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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