for accumulation. In aneffort to increase surplus value,capitalists step up exploitation. If the wages ofthe working people are below the value oftheir labour power, part of the workers'consumption fund is turned into thecapital accumulation fund: hence the constantdesire of capitalists to lower the livingstandard of the working people.Accumulation is also promoted by the growingproductivity of social labour. Theconsequent drop in the cost of consumer goodsmakes labour power cheaper and allowscapitalists to hire more workers with thesame volume of variable capital. Thelower cost of the means of productionallows them to buy more machines, rawmaterials and implements of labour out ofthe part of surplus value which turnsinto additional constant capital. Thedifference between the capital used and consumed, which grows alongside technicalprogress, also affects the size ofaccumulation. Machines, equipment and otherimplements of labour are used fully in theproduction process, but are consumed onlypartially, since only part of their value istransferred to the finished product. Theythus provide gratuitous services as donatural forces. Accumulation also depends onthe amount of capital advanced. Giventhe same degree of exploitation, the mass ofsurplus value depends on the number ofworkers simultaneously exploited, and thenumber of workers, above all, on the sizeof the functioning capital. Accumulation,therefore, increases as capital grows. Inthe final analysis, all the factors facilitatingaccumulation lead to an intensification ofthe exploitation of the working people andmounting contradictions in the capitalistsystem. Capital is accumulated in twoforms: concentration of capital and centralisation of capital. Historically, thedevelopment of these two forms of capitalaccumulation led to the appearance of monopolies(see Monopolies, Capitalist) and, at acertain stage,, to the dominance of monopolycapital, i. e., to imperialism. The expandingscope of production in the course ofcapitalist accumulation is accompanied bytechnical progress. The growth of theorganic composition of capital and theconstant upheavals in technology andproduction techniques are in line withdeveloped capitalism with a correspondingtechnical basis---large-scale machine in'dustry. Under conditions of a growingorganic composition of capital it isaccumulated with a relative decrease in themass of living labour used by capitalcompared to the mass of the means ofproduction. This intensifies the exploitation ofthe workers engaged in production andincreases relative surplus population andthe growing army of the unemployed (seeUnemployment). The class antagonisms ofthe capitalist society grow in intensity. Onthe basis of his research into the waysurplus value is turned into capital, andhis analysis of the factors influencing thisprocess, Marx formulated the general lawof capitalist accumulation and showed theinevitability of a relative deterioration ofthe condition of the proletariat and anabsolute deterioration of the condition ofthe proletariat linked with it. Undercontemporary conditions, capital accumulationhas a number of specific features. Theprogressive development of science andtechnology and also the intensification ofthe competitive struggle lead to an increasein the necessary minimum increment inaccumulated capital. The number ofcapitalists capable of accumulating capitalindependently, therefore, decreases. Today,only the top echelons of the monopolybourgeoisie, enjoying the economic supportof the state, can accumulate capital. Themiddle bourgeoisie becomes more andmore dependent on the monopolies, whilethe petty bourgeoisie is ruined. Thepopulation is being rapidly proletarianised. On theother hand, the big bourgeoisie cansystematically increase its accumulations out ofmonopoly profits. The basic contradictionof capitalism is intensified. Capitalismincreasingly manifests itself as a societywithout a future.