In point of fact, capitalism robs of individuality, not only the working class, but capitalists themselves. The action of any one of the lot compels action by all. Like a row of bricks, the dropping of one makes all the others drop successively. Capitalist society rolls the steam-roller of the capitalist class ruthlessly over the classes below, crushing them into one amorphous pulp, and annihilating the differences of individuality that flow from different capabilities. Like slavery, which was harmful to the slave-holder and the slave alike, competition injures him who practices it, and him upon whom it is practiced.
Capitalist law reflects the material substructure of capitalism.
The theory of that substructure is war, conflict, struggle. But even if this majority were to sweep the political field on a classconscious, that is, a bona fide labor or socialist ticket, they would find the capitalist able to throw the country into the chaos of a panic and to famine unless they, the workingmen, were so well organized in the shops that they could laugh at all shut-down orders, and carry on production. The mission of unionism is to organize and drill the working class for final victory - to take and hold the machinery of production, which means the administration of the country. The capitalist rules in the shop. He buzzes around them and accomplishes political results.