Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/47

 charging the worker and fleecing the buyer: that is the real purpose for which capitalists form their unions.

It has now been made clear why the working class must first of all proceed to nationalise those branches of production which are syndicated. It is because such branches have already been organised by the capitalists, and such production, even when organised by capitalists, is easiest to deal with. It is, of course, necessary somewhat to modify the capitalist organisations, ridding them of the most obdurate enemies of the working class; we must strengthen the position of the workers in such a way that everything should be subjected to the workers; and, in the process, abolish certain things altogether. Even a child can understand why such companies are easiest to conquer. Here the same thing is repeated as in the case of Government railroads; being organised by a bourgeois Government, their management was, for that very reason, worked on a principle of centralisation, and it was easier for the Workers' Government to take them into its own hands.

In Western Europe (especially in Germany) and in the United States of America, practically the whole of production during the time of the war has fallen into the hands of the plundering bourgeois Government. The bourgeoisie decided that it would never attain a victory unless the war was conducted in accordance with the latest dictates of science. And modern warfare demands not only expenditure of money, but necessitates all production to be organised for the purpose of the war, a strict account being registered of everything, so that there be no waste and all things be correctly distributed. All this is possible when there is a central united management. It is needless to say that production is not organised for the benefit of the working class, but only for the purpose of conducting the war and of affording the bourgeoisie still more chances of enriching themselves. No wonder, then, that at the head of this system of penal servitude there stand generals, bankers, and the greatest exploiters. Nor is it surprising that the working class in those countries are oppressed and turned into white slaves or serfs. But, on the other hand, if the workers there succeed in shattering the machinery of the bourgeois State, it will be quite easy for them to take possession of the means of production and arrange it on a new plan; they will have to drive the generals and bankers out, and put their own men everywhere; but they will be able to use that apparatus for checking