Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/23

 associations). Do anarchists reason rightly? Any worker acquainted with the present system of factory machine production will see that this is not right. Let us explain why.

The future order is meant to save the working class from two evils. In the first place from the subjection of man by man, from exploitation from the evil of one man oppressing another. This is attained by casting off the yoke of capital and depriving the capitalists of all their wealth. But there is yet another problem, that of shaking off the yoke of Nature, of mastering Nature, of organising production in the best, most perfect way. Only then will it be possible for each man to spend but a little time in the manufacture of food products, boots, clothes, houses, etc.. and to spend the rest of his time for developing his mind, for studying science, tor art, for all that which makes human life beautiful. Prehistoric man lived in groups in which all were equal. But they led a brutal existence, because they did not subject Nature to themselves, but allowed Nature entirely to subject them. Although with the capitalist production on a large scale humanity has learned to control Nature, the working class still live like beasts of burden, because the capitalist holds them in his clutches, owing to the existence of economic inequality. What follows? That economic equality should be united with production on a large scale. It is not enough to do away with capitalists. It is indispensable that production should be organised, as we have already said, on a large scale. All small, inefficient enterprises must disappear. The whole work must be concentrated in the largest factories, works and estates. And not in such a way that Tom should not know what John is doing, nor John know what Tom is doing; this kind of management is all wrong. What we want is a united 'plan of work. The more localities such a plan embraces the better. The world must ultimately become one labour enterprise, where the whole of humanity, in accordance with a strictly worked out, estimated and measured plan, would work for its own needs, on the best machines, at the biggest works, without either employers or capitalists. In order to advance production, we must on no account sub-divide the big production which capitalism has left us as a heritage. It should, on the contrary, be still more widened. The wider and larger the general plan, the bigger the scale on which production will be organised, the more will it be guided by the estimates and accounts of the statistical centres. In other words, the more centralised in-