“rights,” have practically no press of their own.
Such is the real character of the workers’ “freedom“ under bourgeois democracy. The freedom exists solely on paper. The workers have what is termed “formal” freedom. In substance, however, they have no freedom, because their formal freedom cannot be translated into the realm of fact. It is the same here as in all other departments of life. According to bourgeois theory, master and man are equals in capitalist society, since “free contract” exists: the employer offers work; the worker is free to accept or refuse. Thus it is upon paper! In actual fact, the master is rich and well fed; the worker is poor and hungry. He must work or starve. Is this equality? There can be no equality between rich and poor, whatever the written word declares. This is why, in the capitalist regime, “freedom” has a bourgeois complexion.
In the Soviet Republic, on the other hand, freedom really exists for the working class. It exists because it is a freedom which can be translated into the realm of fact. Let us quote from the constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (Part II, Chapter 5).