The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-02-03

farms is the same thing as the class struggle
outside of them? By no means. 1t is one of
the mistakes of our cleft" phrasemongers that
they do not perceive this difference What
does the class struggle outside of the collective
farms mean, before the latter have been set
up? It means fight against the kuak who
owns tools and means of production with the
aid of which he subordnates the village poor.
This struggle is life and death struggle.
What however, is the meaning of the class
struggle on the basis of the collective farms?
It means, in the first place, that the kulak is
crushed, that he no longer possesses tools and
the instruments of production.
That means, in the second place, that the
poor and middle peasants are united in colec-
tive undertakings on the basis of the socializa-
ton of the most important tools and means of
production. It means, finally, that it is now
question of fight between members of col
lective farms, many of whom have not yet
discarded the individualistic and big peasant
traditions and are endeavoring to use to their
own advantage the inequality which still exists
to certain extent on the collective farms,
while the rest desire to eliminate this inequal-
ity from the collective farms. Is it not clear
then that only the blind fail to see the differ
ence between the class struggle on the basis
of the collective farms and the class struggle
outside of the collective farms?
It would be mistake to believe that once
collective farm exists there exists all that is
necessary for the building up of socialism. 1t
would be an even greater error to believe that
the members Of the collective farms have al
ready become socialists. No, it will still re-
quire considerable work in order to convert
them into collectivist peasants, to liberate them
from their individualstic psychology and to
reshap them into real producers in socialist
society. This will be done the more quickly,
the more rapidly the collective farms are
equipped with machinery and the more rapidly
they are supplied with tractors.
That does not, however, in any way reduce
the tremendous Importance Of the collective
farms as an instrument for the socialist trans
formation of the village. The great Importance
Of the collective farms lies precisely in the fact
that they represent the chief basis for the en-
ployment Of machinery and tractors in agricul-
ture, the chief basis for the transformation of
the peasant, for the reshaping Of his psychol-
ogy in the spirit Of proletarian socialism. Lenin
was quite right whe he sad
1.-THE reshaping Of the small farmer, the
reshaping Of his whole psychology requires
generations. Only the material basis, tech
nique, the employment of tractors and ma
chimes in agriculture on large scale, electri-
fication on large scale can solve this ques-
ton with the small farmer, heal his whole
psychology, so to speak"
Who can question that the collective farms
constitute that form Of socialist economy by
which alone the millions Of the small peasantry
can connect themselves with machines and
tractors as with the lever of economic progress
and Of socialist development Of agriculture
Our s7eft" phrasemongers, and also oui
speaker, have forgotten all this.
ITO Be Conti7lusd)