Page:Theses Presented to the Second World Congress of the Communist International (1920).pdf/45

 between the proletariat and the bourgeosie. The hesitations of this class in siding with one or the other force are inevitable, and in the beginning of the new epoch its preponderent tendency in the advanced capitalist countries will be to side with the bourgeoisie. The ideas and feelings of the possessing class are those prevailing in these countries. This leads to a direct interest in profit-hunting, in "free" trade and private property, and to an antagonistic attitude toward the hired workers. The victorious proletariat will immediately improve the position of this class by doing away with rent and by the abolition of mortgages. The proletarian power should by no means abolish at once private property in most of the capitalist countries, but it will at least not only secure to the small and the middle peasantry the ownership of their portions of land but enlarge these portions, giving the peasants the ownership of the whole area they used to rent (abolition of rent payment).

The combination of such measures with a relentless struggle against the bourgeoisie guarantees the full success of the neutralisation policy. The transition to collective agriculture must be managed with much circumspection and step by step, and the proletarian state power must proceed by the force of example without any violence toward the middle peasantry.

5. The landed peasants (Grossbauern) are capitalists in agriculture, managing their land usually