VI. The Working Class and the Post-Bellum Period

34. The problem of capitalist reconstruction along the lines outlined above, essentially puts forward the question as to whether the working class is willing to bear any more heavy sacrifices in order to perpetuate its own slavery, which is going to be ever more heavy and more cruel than it has been prior to the war.

The industrial and economic reconstruction of Europe requires the setting up of new machinery to replace that destroyed during the war and the creation of new capital. This would be possible only if the proletariat were willing to work more and to accept a lower standard of living. The capitalists are insisting on this, and the treacherous leaders of the Yellow International urge the proletariat to assist in the reconstruction of capitalism in the first place, and then to proceed fighting for the betterment of their own conditions. But the European proletariat refuses the sacrifice. It demands a higher standard of living, which is utterly incompatible with the present state of the capitalist system. Hence the everlasting strikes and uprisings; hence the impossibility of the economic reconstruction of Europe.

To restore the value of paper money means for a number of European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Balkans etc.) first of all to throw off the burden of too heavy obligations, i.e., to declare themselves bankrupt; but this would mean a strong impulse to the struggle of all classes for a new distribution of the national income. To restore the value of paper money means further reduction of state expenditures to the detriment of the masses (to forego the regulation of wages and of articles of prime necessity); to prevent the import of cheaper foreign manufactures and increase the amount of exported articles by lowering the cost of production which can be achieved, above all by increasing the exploitation of Labour.

Every radical measure tending to restore capitalist equilibrium must by the very nature of the case tend to disturb class equilibrium to a still greater extent than heretofore, lending additional impetus to the class war. Thus the attempt at a revival of capitalism involves a contest of vital forces, of classes and parties. If one of the two contending classes, namely, the proletariat, should decide to refrain from the revolutionary struggle, the bourgeoisie would undoubtedly establish some sort of a new capitalist equilibrium, an equilibrium based upon material and spiritual deterioration, leading to new wars, to the progressive impoverishment of entire countries, and to the continuous dying out of these millions of toiling masses.

But the frame of mind of the world proletariat today furnishes no ground whatever for any such supposition.

35. The elements of stability, of conservatism, and of tradition have, to a considerable extent, lost their power over the minds of the labouring masses. It is true that social democracy and the trade unions still exercise an influence over a considerable part of the proletariat, thanks to the apparatus of organisation that has come down to them from former times. But the nature of this influence as well as that of the proletariat itself has undergone considerable changes in no way consistent with the “step by step” methods of the pre-war period.

The upper crust of the proletariat, the labour bureaucracy, being closely knit together, and resorting to certain methods of domination that have become habitual, still preserves its usual position and is bound up by numerous ties with the institutions and organizations of the capitalist state. Then come those of the skilled rank and file whose position is more favourable than that of the rest of the workers, who occupy or look forward to occupying some administrative post in the industry itself, and on whom the labour bureaucracy mainly relies for its support.

The older generation of social democrats and trade unionists, consisting in the main of skilled workers, have become attached to their organizations through decades of struggle, and cannot make up their minds to sever connections with them, disregarding the treacherous nature of their activity. But in many industries unskilled workers and female workers are entering the ranks in considerable numbers.

Millions of workers having gone through the experiences of the war, and having acquired the ability to use the rifle, are now prepared, in some countries, to turn these weapons against their class enemies, provided they are given the strong leadership and serious training which are essential for victory.

Millions of working men and particularly women have been newly recruited for industrial pursuits during the war. These new workers brought with themselves their petty-bourgeois prejudices. But they also brought along their impatient claims for better conditions of life.

There are also millions of young working men and women who have grown up in the storm and stress of war and revolution, who are more susceptible to the communist ideas and are anxious to act.

The ebb and flow of the gigantic army of unemployed, some of whom are unattached to any class, while others possess only partial class attachments, form a striking illustration of the disintegration of capitalist production, and represent a constant menace to the bourgeois order. All these proletarian elements, varying so much in origin and character, have been enlisting in the post-bellum revolutionary movement at various times and in varying degrees. This explains the vacillations, the ebbs and flows, the attacks and retreats, characterising the revolutionary war. But the shattering of old illusions, the terrible uncertainty of existence, the arbitrary domination of the trusts and the practical methods of the militarised state—all this is rapidly welding the overwhelming majority of the proletarian masses together. The great masses are searching for a determined and definite leadership and for the closely welded and centralising Communist Party to take the lead.

36. During the war, the condition of the working class became perceptibly worse. It is true some groups of workers improved their condition, and in those cases where several members of a working man’s family were in a position to hold their place near the loom, the workers succeeded in maintaining and even in raising their standard of life. But as a general rule wages did not keep up with the rise in prices.

The proletariat of Central Europe has been doomed to ever greater privations since the war began. The lowering of the standard of life was not so noticeable in the allied countries up till lately. In England the proletariat succeeded in stopping the process of lowering the standard of life by means of an energetic struggle carried on during the last period of the war. In the United States some of the workers succeeded in improving their conditions, others only retained their previous standard of living, while still others have had their standard of living lowered.

The economic crisis has come down upon the proletariat at a terrific rate. The falling of wages began to exceed the fall of prices. The number of unemployed and semi-employed has reached such dimensions as have never been equalled in capitalist history.

The ups and downs in the condition of existence not only have an unfavourable effect on productivity, but also prevent the restoration of class equilibrium in its most essential domain, that of production. The instability of the conditions of life reflecting the general instability of the economic conditions nationally and internationally, is today the most revolutionary factor of social development.