p In the labour process people transform natural objects to satisfy their needs. To make a machine, for example, iron ore is mined, smelted, converted into steel and then treated accordingly.

p Material production is impossible without the objects and means of labour.

p Objects of labour are the things to which human labour is applied. Means of labour are the machines, equipment, tools, production buildings, transport and so on. The objects and means of labour constitute the means of production.

p Instruments of production, with which people act on objects of labour and transform them, are the most important means of labour. Production is inconceivable without instruments of labour as nature does not willingly part with its riches and they cannot be wrested by brawn alone. Man can only gain his means of livelihood with the aid of these instruments and the better they are, the greater means of livelihood he gets.

p Instruments of labour on their own, however, do not produce material wealth. They must not only be made, but also be put to use. The most perfect machine will eventually rum into a useless pile of metal if no human hand touches 197 it. Only man can set a tool in motion and organise material production. That is why he is an essential element of production.

p The productive forces are the means of production, and above all the instruments of labour created by society and the people who produce the material wealth. In our age of the great scientific and technical revolution, science, as we shall see further on, is increasingly turning into a direct productive force.

The productive forces determine the relations of man to nature and his power over it. The working people are the principal element of the productive forces. People’s constructive labour sets in motion the tools they have devised and makes these implements give mankind the immeasurable quantities of the things it needs.