The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-15

again, during the TRANSITION lrOm capitalism
TO Communism, suppression is still necessary; but
in this it is the suppression of the minority Of
exploiters by the majority of exploited. A special
instrument, a special machine for suppresson-that
Is, the state-is necessary, but this is now ransb
tonal state, longer state in the ordinary sense
of the term. For the suppression of the minority
by those who were BUT YESTERDAY wage slaves
is matter comparatively so easy simple and
tural that 1T WILL COST FAR LESS BLOODSHED
THAN THE SUPPRESSION OF THE RISINGS OF
THE SLAVES, SERFS OR WAGE LABORERS,
AND WILL COST THE HUMAN RACE FAR LESS.
And it is compatible with THE DIFFUSION OF
DEMOCRACY OVER SUCH AN OVERWHELMING
MAJORITY OF THE NATION that the need for any
SPECIAL MACHINERY viii gradually cease ia
exist"
One has only to, read the biased stories carried
by the capitalist press about conditions in the Soviet
Union to understand that there is less need for
SPECIAL MACHINERY to suppress the capitalist
class and its agents in Russia today, for instance
chan there was when the workers, led by the Bob
sheviks, took power in 1917. Arthur Darling, Yale
University professor writing in Current History fos
January the economic report of the Soviet Union,
says for instance that the burden of proof that pro
gress is not being made in the Soviet Union will
be upon its enemies.
Multitudes of similar utterances could be given,
but it is necessary only to point to the abolition Of
"war munism'-compulsory labor-to prove that
than there was during the critical days Of the
working class Dictatorship
The meaning of the relaxation of restrictions is
NOT that the proletarian power is weakening but
that it is growing stronger day by day-that it has
broader base of mass support and that sections
of the population which neutral hostile
during the earlier period now support the proletarian
power without qualification. The general tendency
in the Soviet Union is towards broader democracy
which will in turn "wither away" Only in periods
of emergency, such armed attack by the inn
perialst nations, will there be temporary halt in
this direction Socialism is being built in the Soviet
Union not only in the narrow sense Of the sociaza-
ton of industry but in the cultural field well and
together with the extension of the administrative
machinery of the proletarian power is creating the
finest sense of social responsibility that the world
has ever SEEN
What the tendency towards the extension of de-
mocracy the widest possible of the popula-
ton, beginning with the workers, portends, was
planned by Lenin:
Finally, only under Communism will the state
become quite unnecessary for there viii be NO ONE
to suppress-'no one in the sense of a CLASS, in
the sense of a systematic struggle with definite
section OF the population -. We know that the
fundamental social of excesses which violate
the rules of social life is the exploitation of the
masses, their want and poverty. With the removal
of this chief cause, excuses will inevitably begin
and in what stages but know that they will be
whitening away. With their whitening away, the
state will also wfther away"
And how will this come about? Not by miracle
but by working class free to carve out its destiny
in making a whole world:
"Ony in Communist society, when the resistance
of the capitalists has finally been broken when the
capitalists have disappeared, when there
longer any classes chat is when there Is differ
ence between the members OF society in respect Of
their social means of production), ONLY THEN
does the state disappear AND ONE CAN SPEAK
OF FREEDOM freed from capitalist slavery,
from the innumerable horrors savagery absurdities
and infamies of capitalist exploitation people will
gradually BECOME ACCUSTOMED to the elementary
rules OF social life, known for centuries repeated
for thousands OF years in sermons -. without
the SPECIAL APPARATUS for compulsion which
Is called the state"
The above passage, which read in its entirety Is
of the most beautiful expressions in any Ian.
guage, should be memorized by every class con-
scous worker. 1t gives the goal, the final goal OF
the Communist revolution.
Far from seeing weakening of the revolution in