432 THE CLASS STRUGGLE EDITORIALS 433 cialism as officers of the firm. The political form of the dominion of capital was reformed, given a new base.
But the political revolution was at the same time the point of departure of the conflict between Capital and Labor which swept over Germany in a series of violent strike waves and armed uprisings and the result of which can be only the overthrow of a capitalist rule. The industrial proletariat introduced the rebellion of wage labor against capital. In its steps followed the employes of commercial and financial capital.
It is obvious that the conflict between capital and labor cannot be restricted to the cities. More severely than upon the urban proletariat, the domination of Capital weighs down the proletariat of the country.
Its collapse threatens also the petite bourgeoisie with destruction.
The rural proletariat and the small farmers are hindered in their fight against Capital by territorial division and rural isolation. These obstacles can be overcome only by the closest co operation with the proletariat of the cities.
II.
In agriculture on a large scale socialistic production is prepared for by Capital itself. All that is needed is to break the restrictions of private ownership, to appropriate the land and the means of labor for society, and to establish a close co oper with socialized industry and commerce, so that here, too, the socialistic mode of labor may develop. The class of small farmers and the tenant farmers on the large estates suffer no less than the agricultural proletariat under the pressure of the capitalistic mode of labor. But its system of management is not yet developed to the point where it could pass over into a socialistic system. The latter cannot be put through by force.
Bourgeois management has undermined bourgeois petty ownership by applying for centuries a violent process of economic uprooting and of fraud which simply hurls the small farmer down into the proletariat or causes him to lead a hybrid existence between the industrial proletarian and the agricultural proletarian, separating him from the soil and from his implements of labor, and placing him under the domination of the landlord or the industrial employer. Very frequently, he has been converted into an agricultural day laborer or an industrial wage worker. Else his farm has been so dwarfed or mortgaged as to become a drag upon him, forcing him down into the position of a bondsman of landlordism and industrial capital. On the other hand, the attitude of the working class in power toward the small farmer can be only that of assistance and education, so that he may find the way to Socialism. The idea is to lighten the economic burden of the small farmer in his position as a small farmer by means of every possible support from socialized industry and commerce. It is our purpose to free the small farmer from the bureaucratic clerical gang that has been running his affairs, and to open to him the way to the independent management of his own business; it is our purpose finally to extend the beginnings of the small farmer co operatives so that he may step by step attain to co operative production on a large scale. In order to accomplish the end of freeing the small farmer from capitalistic exploitation and to establish the socialistic mode of production in agriculture, the Communistic Party sets up the following demands: Large scale agricultural enterprises are such as constantly employ outside labor for wages, for the purpose of obtaining capitalistic profits. Small scale enterprises are farms which do not employ outside labor at all, or else under such conditions that these workers form an integral part of the farm household like the owner and his family.
Management of Large Estates.
All large estates worked on a large scale, together with all live stock and equipment, as well as all the auxiliary industrial plants and their working capital, shall be confiscated without compensation by the Socialist State. They shall become the common property of socialistic society.
Landlord rights and titles (landlord hunting and fishing rights, tax exemptions, police rights, etc. as well as all rights of entailed property, shall be cut off without compensation.
On every large estate, the steadily employed farm hands, mechanics, employees, and domestics form an Estate Council.
The Estate Council shall take over the co operative management of the estate under the central administrative organization, which shall be uniform for all the large agricultural enterprises.
The Estate Council, within the bounds of the regulations of the central organization, shall take over: Employment and discharge of workers. Determination of working hours and wages. Cultivation and use of the fields and the supervision of the industrial plants connected with the estate. The distribution of the agricultural products in excess of the needs of the estate itself. The determination of the needs of the estate in the way of agricultural accessories which it does not itself produce (seeds, cattle for slaughter, dairy cattle, breeding stock, agricultural machines and implements, fertilizers, feeds, chemicals, building materials, etc. The determination and distribution of the necessary industrial products, articles for individual use (food, furniture and domestic equipment, clothing) and of the products of literature and art. The determination of the necessary working capital.
The amount of the agricultural and industrial products of the estate that are necessary for home use shall be determined by the central organization, the excess shall be delivered to local centers, likewise the needs of the estates in the way of agricultural, industrial.
and commercial articles shall be referrred to the local assembling and distributing centers.
The excess products of the estate shall be credited to the cooperative of the estate as delivered.
The financing of the estate shall be vested in central banks.