Pagina 33 de 88

Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have

already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed

classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must

be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its

slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised

himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty

bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to

develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary,

instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and

deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He

becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than

population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the

bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in

society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society

as an over-riding law.