The existence of class rule throughout history has been responsible
not only for the methodical manipulation of laboring billions but also
for most societal difficulties involving man's relationship to man.
As society advanced from one private property system to another, those
problems which refused to fade could be increasingly attributed to the
continued existence of private property. In those modern-day societies,
such as the United States, where the productive forces are extremely powerful,
the knowledge of mankind tremendously advanced, and ample resources are
present for the utilization of both, the source of almost every major dilemma
is the continued existence of private ownership of the means of production.
The masses, however, have been led to believe that problems are the
result of people--misguided people, greedy people, insane people, neurotic
people, radical people, stupid people, maladjusted people, power-hungry
people, lazy people, dishonest people, sick people--failing to live up
to their responsibilities and not the system. They have been given
the impression that unemployment arises from laziness, racial hatreds arise
from inherent differences, juvenile delinquency arises from incompetent
and irresponsible parents, automobile deaths spring from careless driving,
crime emerges from lazy, greedy and/or unintelligent people, and recidivism
springs from the timidity of law enforcement officials, etc. Consequently,
their conception of society's ills is superficial and devoid of any consideration
of the material (usually, directly economic) factors by which events are
directed.
What, then, would be a dialectical materialist (Marxist) explanation
for the previously-mentioned problems? "Materialism" is the key word
since ultimately everything is dependent upon the material conditions.
The first problem mentioned--unemployment--exists for several reasons.
First, the capitalist needs a reserve army of unemployed to be able
to point to when arguing with laborers. "Do you want to join them?"
138
Second, to hire the unemployed without a corresponding increase in demand
would increase employer expenses without a corresponding increase in profits.
The latter would not rise sufficiently to warrant the added wage cost.
If laziness were the real reason for unemployment, then is it to be assumed
that there are proportionately five times as many lazy people in the United
States as Japan, when the unemployment of the former is five per cent and
the latter one per cent? Unemployment is determined far more by capitalist
market conditions and profit margins than the workers' psychological proclivities.
Third, if there were no unemployed what would an employer do if there
were a sudden sharp increase in demand for his product. Unless additional
workers are available, a golden opportunity could be lost.
139Paying overtime often costs too much or is impractical.
138 (a) "It becomes impossible for the
worker to fight against the employer by himself. If the worker demands
good wages or tries not to consent to a wage cut, the employer tells him
to get out, that there are plenty of hungry people at the gates who would
be glad to work for low wages. When the people are ruined to such
an extent that there is always a large number of unemployed...the individual
worker becomes absolutely powerless in the face of the capitalist."
(b) "These superseded 'hands' form a real industrial army of reserve for
the use of Capital (the capitalists--Ed.). If trade is bad they may
starve, beg, steal or go to the workhouse; if trade is good they are ready
at hand to expand production; and until the very last man, woman, or child
of this army of reserve shall have found work--which happens in times of
frantic overproduction alone--until then will its competition keep down
wages, and by its existence alone strengthen the power of capital in its
struggle with Labour. In the race with Capital, Labour is not only
handicapped, it has to drag a cannon-ball riveted to its foot."
(c) "The overwork of the employed part of the working-class swells the
ranks of the reserve, whilst conversely the greater pressure that the latter
by its competition exerts on the former, forces these to submit to over-work
and to subjugation under the dictates of capital."
(d) "...the formation of a complete industrial reserve army, as I called
it in 1845, available at the times when the industry is working at high
pressure... a constant dead weight upon the limbs of the working-class
in its struggle for existence with capital."
139 (a) "The greater the development of capitalism
and large-scale industry, the greater, in general, are the fluctuations
in the demand for workers not only in agriculture, but also in industry.
Therefore, if we presuppose the maximum development of capitalism...we
must presuppose the formation of a general reserve army from which labour-power
is drawn by all sorts of employers."
(b) "The formation of a vast reserve army of unemployed, ready to undertake
any kind of work, becomes a condition for the existence and development
of large-scale machine industry."
(c) "...the surplus population, being a necessary concomitant of surplus
production, is an indispensable attribute to the capitalist economy, which
could neither exist nor develop without it.... the degree of fluctuation
in this demand determines the dimensions of the surplus population needed
by capitalism."
(d) "...this surplus-population...forms a disposable industrial reserve
army, that belongs to capital.... it creates, for the changing needs of
the self-expansion of capital, a mass of human material always ready for
exploitation."
(e) "The whole form of the movement of modern industry depends, therefore,
upon the constant transformation of a part of the laboring population into
unemployed or half-employed hands."
(f) "Capitalist production can by no means content itself with the quantity
of disposable labour-power which the natural increase of population yields.
It requires for its free play an industrial reserve army independent of
these natural limits."
Lastly, full employment contributes to rising prices or inflation because
capitalists are compelled by competition to maximize profits. But
if employment is steadily reduced, a point will be attained at which prices
cease to increase. In essence, workers must be sacrificed because
of the competitive nature of capitalism.
Another major problem attributable to the existence of private property
is race hatred (racism). By generating racial animosities and dividing
the workers, the ruling class has been able to weaken its opposition, reduce
the latter's demands and increase profits. Because of obvious physical
differences, racism is easy to create and difficult to eliminate.
It generates poor blacks, whites not much better off, weak unity of the
producers and rich capitalists. Hatred is instigated between blacks
and Puerto Ricans, whites and Puerto Ricans, Gentiles and Jews,140whites
and orientals (gooks, slants, etc.), whites and Hispanics, and other racial
groups for the same reasons. The slogan "Divide and Rule" succeeded
for Roman imperialists and is equally effective for today's capitalists.141
The ruling minority knows that, "Only in unity is there strength."
If the workers fail to present a united front, their bargaining power will
be diminished considerably.
(b) (Add) "We are all of us out to fight extant society, because it oppresses
us and allows us to rot in poverty and wretchedness. Instead of realizing
this and uniting our ranks, we are prone, alas, to squabble among ourselves,
to fight with one another--much to the delight of our oppressors."
(c) (Add) "...competition of the workers among themselves is the worst
side of the present state of things in its effect upon the worker, the
sharpest weapon against the proletariat in the hands of the bourgeoisie.
Hence the effort of the workers to nullify this competition by associations;
hence the hatred of the bourgeoisie toward these associations, and its
triumph in every defeat which befalls them."
(d) (Add) "The only social power of the workmen is their number.
The force of numbers, however, is broken by disunion. The disunion
of the workmen is created and perpetuated by their unavoidable competition
amongst themselves."
Race hatred also exists as an inevitable by-product of a competitive
and dehumanizing economic system in which the watchwords are "Every man
for himself" and "The Devil take the hindmost."142
Under such an arrangement it is absurd to think that people will be socially
conscious and concerned about the welfare of their fellow man. Instead,
they will be defensive and tend to trust no one. Everybody will be
competing against everyone else in what will be nothing more than a human
jungle.143 People will distrust and
fear any person, especially those with whom they are not acquainted, feeling
that he or she is another competitor out to grab as much as possible.
Anything different will be suspect and the greater the variation the greater
will be the suspicion.
(b) "Competition is the completest expression of the battle of all against
all which rules in modern civil society. This battle, a battle for
life, for existence, for everything, in case of need a battle of life and
death, is fought not between the different classes of society only, but
also between the individual members of these classes. Each is in
the way of the other, and each seeks to crowd out all who are in his way,
and to put himself in their place. The workers are in constant competition
among themselves...."
(c) "This war of each against all, of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat,
need cause us no surprise, for it is only the logical sequel of the principle
involved in free competition.
143 (a) (Add) "The possibility of purely human
sentiments in our intercourse with other human beings has nowadays been
sufficiently curtailed by the society in which we must live...."
(d) (Add) "Everything, not merely the land, but human labour, the human
being himself, conscience, love, science--everything must inevitably be
for sale as long as the power of capital lasts."
The greater the difference in language, religion, nationality
144or color, for example, the greater will be the distrust and
the more easily the ruling class will be able to generate divisions and
animosities. 145
Racism is a strong ally of all private property systems; of this there
can be little doubt. Capitalism, especially, would be difficult to
visualize without racial divisions. Any major capitalist country
in the world today is a nation riddled with race hatred. Moreover,
generally speaking, the richer the country, the stronger the racism.
Australia discriminates against all non-caucasians; France opposes North
Africans; England discriminates against immigrants; Germans still exhibit
hatred of non-Germanic peoples, and the United States continues to surreptitiously
degrade most of its black citizens.146
Certainly some members of suppressed groups (Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B.
Dubois, George Washington Carver, Luther Burbank, black sports figures,
entertainers, etc.) have succeeded in varying degrees; few deny this.
But for every success thousands have failed. Even more importantly,
those who failed either never had a chance to compete or they played the
game by rules written to their detriment. In either instance, the
result was a foregone conclusion.
144 (a) "By talking most of all about
'national culture' and emphasizing what separates one nation from the other,
bourgeois nationalists divide the workers of the various nations and fool
them with 'nationalist slogans'."
(b) "The bourgeoisie (the capitalist ruling class--ed.) incites the workers
of one nation against those of another in an endeavor to keep them disunited."
(c) "Against the workers the capitalists of all nations and religions are
united, but they strive to divide and weaken the workers by national strife."
145 (Add) "But the working class needs unity,
not division. It has no more bitter enemy than the savage prejudices
and superstitions which its enemies sow among the ignorant masses."
146 "...everyone knows that the position of
the Negroes in America in general is one unworthy of a civilised country--capitalism
cannot give either complete emancipation or even complete equality....
Shame on America for the plight of the Negroes."
Criminal activities are also a result of private property. Those
who doubt as much need only visit a prison or jail and attempt to find
an imprisoned rich man. The scarcity of the latter is attributable
to the fact that criminal activities by the wealthy are not necessary,
since the ownership of private property allows one to steal legally.
How this is performed in a capitalist system will be shown later.
Property owners receive mountains of wealth and that which they desire
without ever worrying about the police. In fact, the essential function
of all law enforcement agencies is to maintain their ascendancy.
Criminals, on the other hand, are the exploited, the unemployed, the victims
of racism, the poor, those misled by deceptive advertising and interest
charges, those who have stolen to make payments on what few items they
have and, above all, those who have been crushed, as many must be, in any
private property system. 147 Nobody
is born a criminal. The juvenile delinquency of a well-to-do adolescent
or the corruption of political figures are only the logical concomitants
of a dehumanizing, stultifying, all-against-all system .148
Only by the improvement of conditions through the elimination of poverty,
boredom, competitiveness and other adverse material aspects can progress
be made toward the elimination or crime and criminals.
149
147 (Add) "It reminds one of the American
saying: 'If you steal a loaf of bread you'll surely go to jail, but if
you steal a railroad you'll be made a senator."
(b) "In his (Fourier--Ed.) opinion, man is not born corrupt; he is corrupted
by circumstances. The rudiments of all the passions inherent in the
grown-up are present in the child. These beginnings should not be
crushed but should be given the right guidance, in which case the passions
will become a source of everything that is wholesome, great, useful and
generous. Under the present social order, Fourier said, they cannot
be given the proper guidance. The contradictions in that order stultify
all the teacher's efforts, so that at present education is simply a hollow
word."
149 "If man draws all his knowledge, sensation,
etc., from the world of the senses and the experience gained in it, the
empirical world must be arranged so that in it man experiences and gets
used to what is really human.... If man is unfree in the materialist
sense (i.e., is free not through the negative power to avoid this or that,
but through the positive power to assert his true individuality), crime
must not be punished in the individual, but the anti-social source of crime
must be destroyed, and each man must be given social scope for the vital
manifestation of his being. If man is shaped by his surroundings,
his surroundings must be made human."
As long as poverty exists, for example, no amount of police terror will
ever destroy crime.150 It never has
and it never will. This is borne out in today's society where the
crime rate continues to rise in depressed areas, 151despite
all attempts of police officials to the contrary. Greater repression152is
not the answer and all who so believe are only being misguided. Rule
by domination is rule by terror153and no
amount of fear will ever force the lower class to obey laws when the latter
are written so as to compel the downtrodden to accept an environment which
is tearing people apart.154
(b) "The offences, as in all civilised countries, are, in the great majority
of cases, against property, and have, therefore, arisen from want in some
form; for what a man has, he does not steal."
151 (Add) "Even as it is, the workers have
during the past few years reached the final stage of the old civilization,
the rapid increase in crimes, robberies, and murders is their protest against
the old social organization."
153 (Add) "...the police (like the standing
army) is the chief instrument of oppression of the masses.... The
police beat up the 'common people' in the police stations of New York,
Geneva, and Paris.... the police everywhere, in every republic, however
democratic, where the bourgeoisie is in power, always remain the unfailing
weapon, the chief support and protection of the bourgeoisie."
154 (a) "It is noteworthy that the Saint-Simonists
rejected not only the 'hangman' but violence as a means of improving human
morals in general, and in this socialists of all other schools were again
in full agreement with them. Even communist revolutionaries recognized
violence only as a means of removing the obstacles to the refashioning
of society. With the same energy as the Saint-Simonists thy denied
that the 'hangman' could be an 'instructor' of public morals....
Crime is prevented not by punishment but only by the elimination of the
social causes that induce evil action in man."
(b) (Add) "When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another, such
injury that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant
knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder.
But when society places hundreds of proletarians (workers--Ed.) in such
a position that they inevitably meet a too early and unnatural death, one
which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet;
when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under
conditions in which they cannot live--forces them through the strong arm
of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which
is the inevitable consequence--...and yet permits these conditions to remain,
its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual;
disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself,
which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murder, because
the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more
one of omission than of commission."
The highest crime rates are in the poorest areas and the crime rate
is highest nationally during depressions and recessions. Capitalists
seek to avoid statistics such as these because, again, the problem is shown
to lie with the system (material conditions) and not people.
The 1960's revolts in Watts, Newark, and Detroit and the recent rebellion
in South Central Los Angeles were the result of deplorable living conditions
and not individual speakers inciting the masses to violence
155as many Americans are led to believe. Poverty-stricken
people do not need to be told their environment is terrible and deprivation
has them by the throat. They are well aware of their predicament.
Poverty is not synonymous with lack of intelligence. Having received
this treatment over a number of years, many were quite willing to take
action when an inflammatory incident occurred. Any attempt to exonerate
the system by alleging that thousands of people suddenly went berserk,
became contemptuous of the law and greedy would be equally futile and misleading.
Any rational, informed person knows this explanation is erroneous.
156 If one were to visit the areas of upheaval and view
the environment, the reasons for the rebellions157would
become all too obvious. For many down-and-outers the question became
one of rebellion or continued subhuman existence. 158
155 (a) As Lenin once said in regard to
the cause of strikes, "...all the ministers...finally came to the conclusion
that strikes do not break out because socialist agitators come on the scene,
but socialist agitators come on the scene because strikes break out...."
(b) (Add) "...the most violent attacks of the workers upon the bourgeoisie
and its servants are only the open, undisguised expression of that which
the bourgeoisie perpetuates secretly, treacherously against the workers."
158 (a) "Either he seeks to keep his head
above water in this whirlpool, to rescue his manhood, and this he can do
solely in rebellion against the class which plunders him so mercilessly
and then abandons him to his fate, which strives to hold him in this position
so demoralizing to a human being; or he gives up the struggle against his
fate as hopeless, and strives to profit, so far as he can, by the most
favorable moment."
(b) They (the workers--Ed.) are men so long only as they burn with wrath
against the reigning class. They become brutes the moment they bend
in patience under the yoke, and merely strive to make life endurable while
abandoning the effort to break the yoke."
(c) As one writer advised the downtrodden, "Either place yourself at the
mercy of capital, linger in misery as of old and sink lower and lower,
or adopt a new weapon."
(d) "This rage, this passion, is rather proof that the workers feel the
inhumanity of their position, that they refuse to be degraded to the level
of brutes, and that they will one day free themselves from servitude to
the bourgeoisie. ...those who do not share this wrath; they either
bow humbly before the fate that overtakes them, live in respectful private
life as well as they can, do not concern themselves as to the course of
public affairs, help the bourgeoisie to forge the chains of the workers
yet more securely...or they are tossed about by fate, lose their moral
hold upon themselves as they have already lost their economic hold, live
along from day to day, and drink and fall into licentiousness; in both
cases they are brutes."
(e) (Add) "He is a hundred times a hero who prefers to die fighting in
open struggle against the defenders and protectors of this infamous system
rather than die the lingering death of a crushed, broken down, and submissive
nag."
The decision to act was made for them by the worsening conditions of
surrounding reality.159Many
other problems are inseparable from private ownership and can not be attributed
to individual psychology. Capitalists pollute the air and water160because
factory-wide installation of filtration devices weakens their competitive
position by reducing profits.
159 "He is poor, life offers him no charm,
almost every enjoyment is denied him, the penalties of the law have no
further terror for him; why should he restrain his desires, why leave to
the rich the enjoyment of his birthright, why not seize a part of it for
himself? What inducement has the proletarian (the worker--Ed.) not
to steal! It is all very pretty and very agreeable to the ear of
the bourgeoisie to hear the 'sacredness of property' asserted; but for
him who has none, the sacredness of property dies out of itself.
Money is the god of this world; the bourgeois takes the proletarian's money
from him and so makes a practical atheist of him. No wonder then,
if the proletarian retains his atheism and no longer respects the sacredness
and power of the earthly God. And when the poverty of the proletarian
is intensified to the point of the actual lack of the barest necessaries
of life, to want and hunger, the temptation to disregard all social order
does but gain power. This the bourgeoisie of the most part recognises.
Symons (the author of Arts and Artisans--Ed.) observes that poverty exercises
the same ruinous influence upon the mind which drunkenness exercises upon
the body; and Dr. Alison explains to property-holding readers, with greatest
exactness, what the consequences of social oppression must be for the working-class.
Want leaves the working-man the choice between starving slowly, killing
himself speedily, or taking what he needs where he finds it--in plain English,
stealing. And there is no cause of surprise that most of them prefer
stealing to starvation and suicide."
160 "But just take a look at modern capitalist
society, at the big cities, at the railways, coal and iron mines and factories.
You will see how the wealthy have seized the air and the water and the
land. You will see how tens and hundreds of thousands of workers
are condemned to deprivation of fresh air, to work underground, to life
in cellars and to the use of water, polluted by the neighboring factory.
You will see how fantastically the price of land goes up in the cities,
and how the worker is exploited, not only by the factory owners, but also
by house owners who, as everybody knows, get much more out of apartments,
rooms, corners of rooms and slums inhabited by workers than out of apartments
for the wealthy."
Movies and radio and television programs are dull, repetitive, and intellectually
vacuous and liberal arts courses which could become critical of present
conditions are uninspiring, non-controversial, and often irrelevant to
everyday life because those who think seriously often begin to question
the status quo, especially in adverse times. The media are structured
in such a manner as to smoothly integrate people into a dehumanizing economic
system which is in opposition to their basic interests.
When the prices of food, gasoline, automobiles, appliances and many
other items should be going down because of increased production and improved
technology, they are rising. Their upward drift is strictly a product
of the system. 161 The unpredictable
rate of economic advancement, the divorce rate, the poor state of mass
culture, which is replete with sex. crime, violence and ridiculous advertisements
and the large number of Americans (10% of the population) who are presently
receiving mental health treatment are also attributable to private ownership.
Capitalist communications media teach a philosophy of life that is so out
of touch with reality that many people will unavoidably develop psychological
problems. A listing of this nature is virtually endless and need
not be extended as the point has been made.
161 (a) "The high cost of living today
is nothing but the present day (capitalist) form of impoverishment, ruin
and plunder of the working people alongside the unprecedented enrichment
of a handful of capitalists."
(b) "The cost of living is rising higher and higher. Associations
of capitalists are steadily raising prices, raking in millions and tens
of millions, while the mass of the...workers' families find it ever more
difficult to make both ends meet, and have to go hungry and deny themselves
the barest necessities."
