The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-02
On the Second 5-Year Plan

also the schematc ideas lead TO great confusion
and mistakes
Therefore we have to deal with the question
Of the abolition of the classes somewhat in
detail.
I begin with the question of the working class.
To Marxists it should be clear that since the
working class captured power and took over con-
troll of all means OF production, big industry,
transportation etc. 1t is no longer proletariat
in the direct sense of the word it was under
capitalism. In capitalist society the proletariat
is deprived of the instruments Of production and
is therefore fettered with the chains of bourgeois
exploitation The position Of the proletariat
under capitalism is the position of an enslayed
and exploited social class. Simultaneously with
the overthrow Of the power of the bourgeoisie and
the taking over from it Of the means of produc-
ton, the working-claSs becomes the dominating
power in the State. From this moment there
begins the Liquidation Of the capitalist class and
the ground is prepared for the abolition of classes
in general
Since the Working-class of our country, in Oc-
tober 1917, achieved the biggest victory over the
bourgeoisie in the history of the whole world
since then-we have in the meantime already
entered on the second decade-tle working class
of the Soviet Union has not only freed itself from
capitalist slavery, but has also become the ruling
class which is building up the new socialist So
ciety. The historical role of the pro1etariat
sists not only in its being the grave-digger of
bourgeois society, but also in that it is the builder
of the new socialist society. Thereby the State
which the working class creates after its victory
is used by it in order to 1iquidate the capitalist
elements and at the same time to abolish classes
IN general. To the extent to which the capitalist
elements are abolished the roots of all class diff
Jer and INV
there is prepared the abolition of all classes and
thereby also of the working class itself. The
working class Of our country has already made
great headway in liquidsting the capitalist ee-
ments. The following five years will be that
period In which the question of nouidating the
capitalist elements and classes in general will
arise in its whole magnitude
In fulfilling the task of Ioudating classes the
Working-class plays a special role. As the ruling
class, the working class guides the whole work
OF socialist construction including the liquidation
of the capitalist elements and the transformation
OF small peasant economy on socialist basis
Nay more, in the process Of this fight for socialist
production the working -class itself is re-edu-
Gated IN That 1t produces from its own ranks
increasingly active and conscious builders of
Socialism. and is steeled in the fight against the
capitalist elements and in the fight to overcome
petty bourgeois sentiments both in its own
ranks and in the whole mass of the working
population
we Will now deal with our peasantry or more
correctly said the working masses of the pea
santry as the question of the capitalist elements
in the village has already been put.
Since the October revolution, fundamental
changes which must be overlooked have taken
place among the peasantry This applies espe-
clally and before all to the masses of collective
peasants.
Although the totlng pessantry adopted the
path OF complete collectivisa Con only about 10
years ago t is clear to uss that it has fnallv
entered on path of Socialism In the fight against
the kulaks the collective peasants and there are
already millions OF them have, under the leader
ship of the working-class and in their over
vhelning mass, firmly entered the ranks of the
builders of Socialism.
They, Of course fully realize what they were