COMMUNISM AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT

The capitalist Bourgeoisie. The interest of this class is to secure the greatest possible profits out of the developing “national industry,” that is to say out of surplus value extracted from the working class. Manifestly this interest does not fully coincide with that of the landowners. When capital makes its influence felt in village life, the old conditions are disturbed. The peasants are attracted into the towns; capital creates a vast proletariat, and it arouses new needs in the villages; the peasants, hitherto docile and quiet, grow “unruly.” The landowners, the backwoodsmen, find these innovations unpleasing. On the other hand, the capitalist bourgeoisie regards them as full of promise. The more the workers are lured from the villages to the towns, the more wage labour, consequently, is available for the service of the capitalist, and the cheaper can the capitalist hire it. The more completely village life is ruined and the greater the extent to which the petty producers cease to produce various articles for themselves, the more essential do they find it to buy these products from the large-scale manufacturers. The more rapid, therefore, the disappearance of the old conditions in which the village produced everything for itself,