The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-14
By moIssAYE oLGN


On March 9Th, 1852, in letter to
his friend Weydemeyer, Marx made
a statement subsequently broadcasted
by Lenin and at present known to
every Communist. Marx said:
las far as am concerned, the
honor does not belong to me for
having discovered the existence
either of classes in modern society
OF of the struggle between the
classes.
Bourgeois historians long time
before me expounded the historical
development of this class struggle
and bourgeois economists, the eco
nomic anatomy of classes. What
was new on my. part, was TO prove
the following: ID that the exist
ence of the classes is connected
only with certain historical Strug-
giles which arise out of the develop
ment Of production; 90 that class
struggle necessarily leads to the
dictatorship of the proletariat; 81
that the dictatorship is itself only
a transition to the abolition of all
classes and to a CLASHES society"
MAIN DIFFERENCE
In these words, says Lenin, Marx
succeeded in expressing with striking
clearneSS" the main difference be-
tween his teachings and those of the
bourgeois thinkers, and the essence
Of his teachings concerning the state.
While the theoreticians of the
bourgeoisie were heaping one pro
fundity'' upon the other to prove that
the state was representative Of the
people as whole" and that the
legislative Institutions were express
ing the Common will" thus ir1-reality
obscuring the essence of the state
and ultimately reducing it to meta
physical origin, Marx came with his
clear, decisive and convincing state
nlent to the effect that
Political power, properly, SO
called, is merely the organized
power of one class for depressing
another class"
And further:
I'VE traced the more or less
yelled civil var raging within ex-
isting society. up to the point where
war breaks out into open
revolution, and where the violent
overthrow Of the bourgeoisie lays
the foundation for the sway Of the
proletariat.
Marx gave the proletartat weapon
and q goal The weapon is class war
and revolution; the goal is proletarian
dictatorship. the proletariat organ
ICED as class" The ultimate aim
Is a classics society. And not this
o7o,o s.rrzl7a -,,l,eYa.o,n If fna IN ,S1o =
irgs of Marx about the state" says
Ienin, 'is as5tmilated only by one
who understands that the Dictator
ship Of single class is necessary not
only for any class society generally
not only for the prOletariat which has
overthrovn the bourgeoisie, but for
the entire historic period which sepe-
rates capitalism from Classics So
ciety,' from Communism
Marx conbatted both the reaction
ary-utcpian ideas Of a Bakunin who
tried to persuade the workers that
a transition period between capital
ism and Communism is not necessary
and that Communism can be intro
duced immediately after the victory
of the revolution while the barricades
have not yet been removed from the
streets, and against the reactionary-
reformist ideas Of a Louis Blanc,
forerunner Of the opportunists Of the
Second International who preached
the possibility of Transforming cap
italisrn into socialism by pacific means.
NEW LEADER" DISTORTIONS
The central organ of the Socialist
Party of America, the New Leader,
came out with Marx anniversary
issue. Conscious Of the fact that the