p On what did Marx and Engels base their forecast of the historic role of the working class?

p In the first place, being the most exploited class in bourgeois society, the working class—owing to the very conditions of its life—becomes the most consistent and irreconcilable opponent of the capitalist order. The vital class interests of the workers impel them to an implacable struggle against capitalism. Marx and Engels emphasised that "of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class". ^^152^^

p Secondly, Marx and Engels based their conception on the fact that the workers by their vjry position in production are connected not 297 with its past but with its future and, consequently, with the future of the whole of society.

p What does this mean?

p It means, in the first place, that the development of the material basis of capitalism—large-scale industry—does not threaten the existence of the proletariat as a class, does not undermine its position in society, but, on the contrary, leads to an increase in the numbers of workers and enhances their role in the life of society.

p It means, furthermore, that the interests and aspirations of the working class coincide with the main trend in the development of the productive forces. The level of development of these forces attained under capitalism requires the abolition of private ownership of the means of production. And it is the working class that is destined to carry out this task. As Marx and Engels put it, the proletariat executes the sentence which private ownership passes on itself by engendering the proletariat. As a matter of fact, the working class is the only class that has no part in the ownership of the means of production and therefore does not need to attach any value to it. Moreover, since private ownership of the means of production forms the basis for exploitation of the worker by the capitalist, its abolition and replacement by social ownership, i.e., by socialism, is the only way to liberate the working class. Lastly, in concluding that it was the working class that was destined to destroy capitalism and build socialism, Marx and Engels also based themselves on the fact that it was the only class possessing the fighting qualities needed to accomplish so great an historical objective.

p First of all, the working class has the advantage of mass. It is one of the most numerous and rapidly growing classes in capitalist society.

p But this is not the only thing. By virtue of the very conditions of its life and labour the working class is capable of the highest degree of organisation. The work at a large enterprise daily instils in the workers such qualities as the spirit of collectivism, capacity for strict discipline, united action, and mutual aid and support. These qualities are invaluable not only in labour but also in struggle. By gathering thousands of workers under the roofs of plants and factories which are, as a rule, located in large cities, the capitalists themselves help the workers to overcome the disunion and isolation that was the curse of the other mass movements of the working people, especially the peasant movement. That is why the workers lend themselves to organisation and union more readily than any other class.

p Of all the oppressed classes the working class is also the most capable of realising its special position in society and its class interests, and of adopting an advanced, scientific world outlook. Largescale industry requires more highly educated workers than do the other forms of economy, while the conditions of the class struggle 298 in the capitalist epoch require much higher political consciousness, which is acquired not only and not so much from books as from experience in labour and in struggle. In addition, the best minds of the intelligentsia come over to the side of the working class and help it to evolve a scientific, revolutionary world outlook which, by becoming the property of millions of workers, grows into a prodigious force.

p Its high degree of class consciousness, as well as its more highly developed organisation, make the working class the most militant and revolutionary class of society.

p That is why the working class is capable of fulfilling the mission of abolishing capitalism and replacing it by socialism.

p It is no mere chance that this mission of the working class is called an historic mission.

p In the course of history various classes—slave-owners, feudal lords, capitalists—found themselves at the head of society. By reshaping society according to their own needs and interests, eacli of these classes helped to establish a more advanced mode of production. But social injustice and inequality were invariably retained. Each time society was headed by a handful of oppressors and each new step along the path of progress was made at the price of incredible suffering of the working masses, who always constituted the vast majority of society.

p When the working class comes to head society, it puts an end to this greatest injustice forever. By liberating itself it simultaneously liberates all of humanity. By reshaping society according to its own needs and interests it creates a new society in which all people will find true happiness. It is the mission of the working class once and for all to abolish the prime basis of social injustice, the private ownership of the means of production which caused the division of society into rich and poor, exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed. Fulfilment of this task is the only way to free society from poverty and from a situation in which the masses are deprived of their rights, and to put an end to political and national oppression, militarism and wars.

p In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels wrote: "All previous historical movements were movements of minorities or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.” ^^153^^

p The doctrine of the historic mission of the working class constitutes a highly important part of the Marxist world outlook. It was the first to show a feasible way of liberating the oppressed and exploited masses. Many outstanding people and social movements landed in an impasse only because they did not see the social force that could give the peoples freedom, well-being and happiness. Some appealed to the wisdom of monarchs, others hoped society would be saved by the creative genius of scientists and engineers, still others 299 expected a feat from "critically thinking personalities”, and others again set their hopes on a revival of the patriarchal peasant ways of life and the order of things that had prevailed in the medieval handicraft guilds. But all these hopes and expectations only entailed a useless waste of effort and not infrequently the loss of human lives. Socialism, humanity’s splendid age-old dream, ceased to be an insubstantial Utopia only from the moment that the social force capable of carrying this dream into life appeared and was scientifically established, that the historic mission of the working class became manifest to the workers themselves and to the progressive representatives of the other oppressed classes in capitalist society.

This is why, in appraising the historical services rendered by the founders of Marxism, Lenin wrote: "The main thing in the doctrine of Marx is that it brings out the historic role of the proletariat as the builder of a socialist society.”^^151^^