Page:The Advancing Proletariat (1917).pdf/16

14 The ancient slave and serf classes were not essentially revolutionary, and if they had been their ignorance and isolation was sufficient to prevent any concerted action. Mere physical revolution against an irksome environment cannot be called a revolutionary spirit, and while the slaves and serfs indulged in rebellions, they were usually planless and contained no germ of a constructive nature. At the most some measure of participation in the benefits of the existing system was all they sought. There was no idea of the establishment of a new order of society, which should promote a greater diffusion of culture, and thereby create a better and nobler race. Success upon their part would have meant only social chaos and a recession in the scale of civilization.

Let us now examine the modern laborers and machine operatives in this connection and endeavor to arrive at an understanding of their characteristic psychology, as derived from the common experience of their class.

Unskilled laborer and non-specialized machine operatives are now usually denominated "Proletarians," and by "the proletariat" we mean A CLASS OF LABORERS, POSSESSING NEITHER PROPERTY NOR SPECIALIZED SKILL, WHO SELL THEIR LABOR-POWER IN THE OPEN MARKET TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER, AND ARE ABLE TO SELL THAT POWER ONLY SO LONG AS IT WILL PRODUCE A PROFIT FOR THE PURCHASER. The Proletariat is the subject class in modern society—the special human product of the capitalist system—and, to obtain its view of life, we must know how it obtains its living, for, as we have seen by the law of Economic Determinism, "the thoughts and actions of men are determined by the manner in which they make their