THE CLASS IN ITSELF AND THE CLASS FOR ITSELF
 In the coming development, this growth to the class front will come about. Or otherwise expressed : in the future the workers, driven by the conditions themselves, will truly find for the first time their cohesion, their coming to consciousness as a class. For if we have a mind to see things as they actually are, we must be clear on the point that at any rate the workers form a class as against Capital; there is no doubt that the owners treat the workers as a total class. The workers are in so far a class as such; they form a class "in itself". But they are not conscious of this; it has not yet sufficiently soaked in that as a class they have common interests and tasks. As yet they do not form a class for itself. To be sure, there is already a vague feeling of class solidarity, but it is still overshadowed by the group feeling; one feels himself more closely bound with the occupational group than with the class in general. The revolutionary workers are quite easily inclined to assume of the whole class that it is like the revolutionary part. In meetings, when they give expression to their own ideas, the matter comes off in a form like : The working class wants this or that, it takes this or that standpoint, it says this or that. But in reality the working class says nothing, it does nothing and takes no standpoint. It is neither "for" nor "against". As an active class, it does not exist. It exists like any lifeless thing, hence passively. It does not exist as a living, active being until it comes into motion and to the consciousness of itself. Naturally, there is no complete and unbridgeable opposition between the class "in itself" and the class "for itself". One will be right in pointing out that in the course of the past century the working class came forward several times as a class "for itself"; that the working class actually thought something and said something, that it undoubtedly adopted a standpoint. Thus in the parliamentary period, class consciousness expressed itself in the struggle for democratic rights and social amelioration's; it showed itself active in mass meetings, demonstrations and political strikes. (....) Looked at in this way, it might appear as if our class had developed backward and that a class consciousness is no longer present. Yet that is not the case. A class, too, can set its goals only in accordance with the tasks which are possible of accomplishment, tasks for which its forces are adequate. When great portions of the workers come into action, they do not begin this action with the aim of bringing down Capitalism and ushering in the communist form of economic life, because they know only too well that such a thing lies far beyond our present class forces. The working class does not act for the purpose of actualizing some theory or other, but in order to do away with these or those distressing conditions which have become unbearable. It can accordingly set for itself only limited goals which are within the scope of the class forces. (....) Greater forces make possible a more ambitious goal. The "goal" is not something fixed, no marked-out highway according to which the stream of events has to direct itself, but it grows with the forces available. The goal in the struggle is a function of the unfoldment of forces. And as regards the means which the masses apply in struggle, we find the same relation. The masses are not free in the choice of their means of combat; these vary with the strength of the class. The growth of forces among the workers has as its consequence an extension of the means to be employed. Strength, means and goal stand to each other in mutual dependence and are in this sense inseparably bound with each other. This mutual dependence between strength, means and goal must absolutely be borne in mind in dealing with all questions. As regards the present state of affairs, it explains the apparent retrogression of the working class, the apparent falling back into a state without class consciousness, and the backward development from a class "for itself" to a class "in itself". The falling back into passivity, the apparently endless patience with which all the suppression and exploitation are borne, can only be explained by way of the inadequacy of the means previously employed in the class struggle, together with the fact that the class forces are not yet great enough for other means. The solution of the burning question with which the working class is faced is not yet within the scope of its forces, and for this reason the workers now have no "goal". But this is not a falling back into a state without class consciousness; it is the preparation for a new building of forces on a new foundation, in order to bring the solution of the question within the scope of their forces. The hopeless confusion and disunity of the working class, the collapse of the old labor movement, is in reality only the preparation for a new leap in the development of the class forces. And in this way the working class will again become a class "for itself". In the coming period of development, the transition of the workers from a class "in itself" to a class "for itself" will be a growth. Not by way of propaganda of revolutionists, but through the hard practice of life. In future the owning class will make constantly more pronounced and more direct, and for the masses more visible, the power of the state as an instrument of exploitation. In view of this fact, the most innocent resistance on the part of the workers assumes directly the form of a struggle against the State, and that resistance will be met in the same manner as if they were real revolutionists, as if they were class conscious workers. (....) The essential point about the coming period is that any real resistance on the part of the workers must be suppressed in blood by the ruling classes. Martial law, abolition of freedom of assembly, prohibition of newspapers and writings; tanks, machine guns, gas bombs and hand grenades become the ordinary means for maintaining "order" or re-establishing it. The cause, however, of the violent offensive of the ruling classes, who call off the deception formerly practiced by way of democratic pseudo-rights, lies in the critical situation itself. The bourgeoisie has a very good feeling for the fact that the workers have reason enough for becoming insurrectionary. It fears the revolution more than the workers think. Thus the slightest resistance gives rise at once to the fear that it may assume greater scope. For the bourgeoisie there is then only the one possibility : to suppress in the germ even the smallest beginning. The consciousness of its own innerly worm-eaten position makes it distrustful of any resistance, however insignificant. And it helps in the beginning. The sharpened power of the bourgeoisie creates in the workers a feeling of impotence. To the mighty military machine of the bourgeoisie they have nothing of their own to oppose; they merely feel the inadequacy of the means hitherto employed. For this reason they feel weak and powerless. It is only individuals who then take stock of the new conditions and thus arrive at the conviction that new means and conceptions are necessary. In vague form a like consciousness then arises within the masses. But it is only until the occurrence of spontaneous revolutionary outbreaks, brought about through great pressure and unbearable misery, that the masses become aware of their own strength, and confidence in this strength begins to grow anew. The bourgeoisie makes of each resistance a political struggle for power. But in this way the bourgeoisie itself brings the struggle onto a much broader front. For while at first the matter concerned the interests of this or that group of workers, now other groups are drawn into the conflict through the political and military measures of the bourgeoisie itself. The bourgeoisie extends the struggle from the occupational front to the class front. From being a class "in itself", the workers are welded into a class "for itself". This offensive on the part of the owning class does not by any means take place out of free will. The thing by which the bourgeoisie is moved is the state of capitalism itself. Capitalist production, and hence also the social life, can function only in case it yields enough profit. If the necessary profits are lacking, a greater or lesser part of production drops off. The provision of a new profit basis is therefore the first demand of the owning class. In this connection it is practically in the interests of big capital which are considered in the first instance, because they affect the most important part of social life. For this reason the leadership, too, of the social life is turned over to big capital. Or otherwise stated : The concentration of the economic life finds its political reflection in the concentration of political power in the hands of individuals. And by the side of the concentration of the political power in the hands of individuals, powerful capitalist groups which control the State, there appears the necessity of worsening the situation of the workers in order to re-establish the profitability of capital. This development is a development to Fascism and National Socialism; it is unavoidable in the wake of monopoly capital. It is synonymous with the end of the democratic development of society. The "democratic rights" -- right to vote, right to organize, freedom of assembly, etc. -- can no longer be tolerated. They are rights accorded only to organizations, groups or persons that subject themselves unconditionally to the policy of monopoly capital. |