Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/67

 It is a decree that he must fulfill. He defends himself against it. He seeks to escape the powers that he, but every step he takes to go away from it brings the catastrophe nearer, till the day of ruin, of destruction, of judgment comes. So it is with our bourgeoisie. They strain every nerve in order to escape fate, but every attempt to turn it aside simply brings the execution of the sentence nearer. They may do. what they will against us, they act for us; they may do what they will for themselves, they act for us; and we, we may do what we will, the conditions work into our hands all in state and society; persecutions, concessions, all the same. All incline to our advantage, we, the rising, victorious social democracy. Our opponents may seek what they will, they can only work for us.

I have stated before that industrial society is a society of expropriation; that capitalism is expropriation in perpetuity. The possessors of the instruments of production and labor expropriate those who possess nothing, and this process of expropriation—that is, the robbery of property—must continue as long as the present order of society remains. It calls itself, to be sure, the society of private property, but in reality it is that form of society which destroys personal property. The end of this process of expropriation can only be what Marx has said in his granitic words: "The expropriation of the expropriator." Then for the first time, when this society is destroyed, property in the sense of the equal claim of all to the enjoyment of the goods which have been created by the general organized labor of all will become a reality.

The most beautiful platform counts for nothing, however, if a true energetic spirit is not infused into it. Therefore I beg of you do not quarrel with the words. Do not expect it to be a perfect platform. That platform