By political equality Social-Democrats mean equal rights , and by economic equality, as we have already said, they mean the abolition of classes. This demand was first advanced, not by the socialists, not by the proletariat, but by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie put forward the demand for equal rights for all citizens in the struggle against medieval, feudal, serf-owner and caste privileges. But in rights , all nobles are equal , just as all the peasants are equal in their lack of rights. In the United States of America, as in other advanced countries, there are no medieval privileges.
All citizens are equal in political rights.
No, Mr. Tugan, they are not. In the United States of America there is no aristocracy, and the bourgeoisie and the proletariat enjoy equal political rights. The abolition of classes means placing all citizens on an equal footing with regard to the means of production belonging to society as a whole. But the social status of professors in bourgeois society is such that only those are allowed to hold such posts who sell science to serve the interests of capital, and agree to utter the most fatuous nonsense, the most unscrupulous drivel and twaddle against the socialists.