Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/43

 platform. It is not to be expected, of course, that at present I will explain all points of view; I must confine myself to setting forth fully only the general parts. The thought that guided us, and that gradually became evident to the congress, was to show clearly the cause out of which the present critical social conditions arise, to set forth the economic development which has divided the capitalist world and present society into two hostile camps, to explain the necessity of the class strife in a capitalistic society, and to show how it is an absolute necessity that, so long as industrial society remains, so long also the system of exploitation and oppression must remain.

As the cause for the separation of society into two hostile camps it must be stated that the means of production—that is, the land, the raw products, tools, machines, mines and the currency—have been changed from the possession of the whole, the general society, and have become the private property of individuals. If we think of a condition in which the necessary means of production are in the possession of every one, so that each can work independently, then it is evident there can be no production for exchange; each produces for himself. There is no dependence of one on another, no exploitation or slavery. It is the business of the commentator to amplify whether and how far such a condition has existed. It was possible and imaginable only in that form of society where the means of production, at least the most necessary of the same—the mother earth—was the possession of the real producers, the laborers.

From the moment that private possession in the means of production arose, exploitation and the division of society into two hostile classes, standing opposed to each other through their interest, also began. This