§ 17 The development of capitalism and of class. The intensification of the class struggle

We have seen that capitalist society is affected by two fundamental contradictions, two fundamental ills. In the first place, it is 'anarchistic'; it lacks organization. In the second place, it is in fact composed of two mutually hostile societies (classes). We have also seen that, as capitalism develops, the anarchy of production, finding expression in competition, leads to everincreasing strife, disorder, and ruin. The disintegration of society, far from diminishing, is actually increasing. Now all this arises from the splitting-up of society into two portions, into classes. As capitalism develops, this severance, this cleavage between classes, likewise continues to increase. On one side, that of the capitalists, all the riches of the world are heaped up; on the other side, that of the oppressed classes, is an accumulation of misery, bitterness, and tears. The industrial reserve army gives birth to a stratum of debased and brutalized individuals, crushed to the earth by extreme poverty. But even those who remain at work are sharply distinguished from the capitalists by their manner of life. The differentiation of the proletariat from the bourgeoisie continually increases. Formerly there was quite a number of lesser capitalists, many of whom had close relationships with the workers and lived little better than these. Things are very different today. The lords of capital live in a manner of which no one dreamed in earlier days. It is true that the workers' standard of life has improved in the course of capitalist development. Down to the beginning of the twentieth century, there occurred a general rise in wages. But during this same period, capitalist profits increased still more rapidly. Today there is a great gulf fixed between the toiling masses and the capitalist class. The capitalist now leads an entirely different sort of life; he himself produces nothing. The more capitalism develops, the more exalted becomes the position of the small group of extremely wealthy capitalists, and the wider grows the chasm between these uncrowned kings and the millions upon millions of enslaved proletarians.

We have said that the wages of the workers have risen on the whole, but that profit has increased still more rapidly, and that for this reason the chasm between the two classes has widened. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, however, wages have not risen but fallen; whereas during the same period profits have increased as never before. Hence there has during recent years been an exceptionally rapid increase in social inequality.

It is perfectly clear that this social inequality, in its continued growth, must sooner or later lead to a clash between the workers and the capitalists. If the contrast between the two classes were diminishing, if the life conditions of the workers were becoming approximated to those of the capitalists, then, of course, we might look for a 'time of peace on earth and goodwill towards men'. What actually occurs, however, is that in capitalist society the worker is day by day farther removed from the capitalist instead of drawing nearer to him. The inevitable result of this is a continuous accentuation of the class war between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

Bourgeois theorists put forward many objections to such a view. They would like to show that in capitalist society the condition of the working class undergoes continuous improvement. The socialists of the right wing sing the same tune. Writers of both these schools contend that the workers grow gradually richer, and can look forward to becoming petty capitalists themselves. Such expectations have been falsified. In actual fact the condition of the workers as compared with' that of the capitalists has persistently grown worse. Here is an example drawn from the United States, the land of most advanced capitalist development. If we consider the purchasing power of labour (that is to say, the quantity of necessaries which the workers can buy), taking the years from 1890-99 as a standard at 100, the purchasing power in various years was as follows: 1890, 98.6; 1895, 100.6; 1900, 103.0; 1905, 101.4; 1907, 101.5. This means that the workers' standard of life has undergone practically no improvement. The quantities of food, clothing, etc., bought by the average worker in 1890 was increased by no more than 3 per cent in subsequent years; this was the utmost rise in the purchasing power of his wages. But during the same period the American millionaires, the industrial magnates, were making enormous profits, and the quantity of surplus value they were receiving was increasing to an immeasurable extent. As far as the capitalist standard of life, capitalist luxuries, and capitalist incomes, are concerned, it is obvious that these were increased many times over.

The class war arises out of the conflict of interests between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. These interests are as essentially irreconcilable as are the respective interests of wolves and sheep.

It is plain that the capitalist will find it advantageous to make the workers work as long as possible and to pay them as little as possible; on the other hand, the workers will find it advantageous to work for the minimum hours and for the maximum wages. Obviously, therefore, since the time when the working class first began to exist, there must have been a struggle for higher wages and shorter hours.

This struggle has never been interrupted, and has never been stilled. It has not, however, been restricted to a struggle for a trifling advance in wages. Wherever the capitalist system has developed, the toiling masses have become convinced that they must make an end of capitalism itself. The workers began to consider how this detested system could be replaced by a just and comradely system based upon work. Such was the origin of the communist movement of the working class.

In their struggle, the workers have experienced numerous defeats. But the capitalist system bears within its womb the final victory of the proletariat. Why? For this reason, because the development of capitalism entails the proletarianization of the broad masses of the people. The victory of large-scale capital effects the ruin of independent artisans, small traders, and peasants; it swells the ranks of the wage workers. At each step in capitalist development, the proletariat grows more numerous. It is like the Hydra, the many-headed monster of fable; if you cut off one of its heads, ten new ones grow. When the bourgeoisie suppressed a working class rising, it thereby strengthened the capitalist system. But the development of this capitalist system ruined petty proprietors and peasants by the million, throwing them under the feet of the capitalists. By this very process it increased the number of proletarians, the enemies of the capitalist class. But the increase in strength of the working class was not numerical merely. In addition, the working class became more strongly integrated. Why did this happen? Because, as capitalism developed, there was an increase in the number of great factories. Each great factory assembles within its walls a thousand workers, sometimes as many as ten thousand. These workers labour shoulder to shoulder. They recognize how their capitalist employer is exploiting them. They perceive that to each worker his fellow-workers are friends and comrades. In the course of their work the proletarians, united in the factory, learn how to unite forces. They more readily come to an agreement one with another. That is why, as capitalism develops, there is not merely an increase in the number of the workers, but an increase in working class solidarity.

The more rapidly huge factories extend, the more rapidly does capitalism develop, and the more speedy is the ruin of independent artisans, home workers, and peasants. The faster, likewise is the growth of gigantic cities with millions of inhabitants. Finally, in large towns, there is gathered together upon a comparatively restricted area an immense mass of persons, and the great majority of them belong to the factory proletariat. These masses are housed in foul and smoky quarters of the town, whilst the small group of the master class, the owners of all things, lives in luxurious mansions. The numbers of those constituting this small group are continually diminishing. The workers incessantly increase in numbers and their solidarity grows ever greater.

Under such conditions, the inevitable increase in the intensity of the struggle cannot fail in the long run to lead to the victory of the working class. Sooner or later, notwithstanding all the wiles of the bourgeoisie, the workers will come into violent collision with the master class, will dethrone it, will destroy its robber government, and will create for themselves a new order, a communist order based on labour. In this manner, capitalism, by its own development, inevitably leads to the communist revolution of the proletariat.

The class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie has assumed various forms. Three leading types of working class organization have arisen in the course of this struggle. First of all we have the trade unions, grouping the workers according to occupation. Next come the cooperatives, which are mainly concerned with distribution, for it is their aim to free the workers from the grip of middlemen and traders. Last of all we have the political parties of the working class (socialist, socialdemocrat, and communist) whose programme it is to guide the working class in its struggle for political power. The fiercer the struggle between the two classes became, the more essential was it that all sections of the working class movement should concentrate upon a single aim - the overthrow of the bourgeois State. Those leaders of the working class movement who have most perfectly realized the situation have always insisted upon the necessity for a close collaboration between all working class organizations. They pointed out, for example, the essential need for unity of action between the trade unions and the political parties of the proletariat; and they declared that the trade unions could not remain neutral' (that is to say, indifferent in political matters). The unions, they said, must march shoulder to shoulder with the political parties of the working class.

Quite recently, the workers' movement has assumed yet newer forms. The most important of these is the constitution of councils of workers' delegates (soviets). We shall have to speak of these again and again in the course of the book.

Thus from our study of the development of the capitalist system we can confidently deduce the following conclusions: THE NUMBER OF THE CAPITALISTS GROWS SMALLER, BUT THESE FEW CAPITALISTS GROW RICHER AND STRONGER; THE NUMBER OF THE WORKERS CONTINUALLY INCREASES, AND WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY LIKEWISE INCREASES, THOUGH NOT TO THE SAME EXTENT; THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE WORKERS AND THE CAPITALISTS GROWS EVER GREATER. INEVITABLY, THEREFORE, THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM LEADS TO A CLASH BETWEEN THE TWO CLASSES, THAT IS, IT LEADS TO THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.