صفحة 38 من 88

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in

the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing

the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a

man's own labour, which property is alleged to be the groundwork

of all personal freedom, activity and independence.

Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the

property of the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of

property that preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to

abolish that; the development of industry has to a great extent

already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily.

Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property?