The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-24
Why Not Read Lenin?

To cover number of questions recently sent
us. about socialism, the dictatorship Of the
proletariat, and to explain that Staliu's speech
is not any backward step" as the capitalist
papers say, we quote the following few para
graphs from Lenins book, THE State and
Revolution:
Marx, not only with the greatest care takes
into account the inevitable inequalities Of
men; he also takes cognizance of the. fact
that the mere conversion of the means of pro-
duction into the common property of the
whole of society-Socialisrn' in the generally
accepted sense of the word-does not remove
the shortcomings of distribution and the in
equality of bourgeois Justice which continue
to exist as long as the products are divided
according to the quantity of work performed
But these defects 0enin here quotes Marx
are unavoidable in the first phase of Co1nr1u-
mist society, in the form in which IL comes
forth, after the prolonged travail of birth,
from capitalist society. Justice can never be
in advance of its stage of economic develop
ment, and CT the cultural development Of
society conditioned by the latter" =
And so, in the first phase of Communist So
ciety, generally called Socialism, bourgeois
justice is not abolished in its entirety, but only
in part, only in proportion to the economic
transformation so far attained; that is, only
in respect of the means of production. 'Bour.
geois law recognizes them as the private
property of separate individuals Socialism
converts them into common property, and to
that extent and only to that extent does 'bour-
geois law die out But it continues to live
as far as Is other part is concerned, in the
capacity of regulator or adjuster dividing
labor and alloting the products among the
members of society
who not uorl neither shzT -
eat'-this Socialist principle is already real-
lied For an equal quantity Of labor an
equal quantity of products-this Socialist
principle is also already realized. Neverthe-
less, this is not yet Communism, and this
does not abolish bourgeois law which gives
to unequal individuals, in return for an un-
equal-in reaty-amount of work. an equal
quantity of products.
This is defect says Marx, but 1t Is un-
avoidabe during the first phase Of Commu-
nism; for if we are not to land in Utopia We
cannot imagine that having overthrown capi-
talism, people will at once learn to work for
society without any regulations by law; in-
deed, the abolition Of capitalism does not linz
mediately lay the economic foundations for
such change.
I'm the highest phase Of Communist So
ciety Lenin again quotes Marx-Jorge), after
caused by his subsection to the principle Of
division of labor when, together with this,
the opposition between brain and manual
work will have disappeared; when labor viii
have ceased to be mere means of support.
ing life and will itself have become one OF tn,
first necessities of life; when, with the ale
around development of the individual, the pro.
ductive forces, too, will have grown to ma
turity, and all the forces Of social wealth
will be pouring an uninterrupted torrent-only
then will 1t be possible wholly to pass beyond
the narrov horizon Of bourgeois laws, and
only then will society be able to inscribe on
its banner From each according to his abil-
ity; to each according to his needs"
1t seems necessary to repeat Lenn at thi
length, because too many folks simply will no,
read; yet they are always ready to pop up with
what the lawyers call fixed opinion; or 1.
some cases. they have read Lenin but haven't
learned anything particular, and get troubled il
their insides every time some pig Of a bour.
geois journalist solemnly declares that the soy1a
Union Ia going back to capitalism ...,