Karl Dannenberg

“ The tidal wave of the revolution, which had carried the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung," was gradually breaking upon the rocks of a luke-warm bourgeois liberalism. The fears of the capitalist class for the thorough measures and class-aspirations of the proletariat were quickly turning their course into the less dangerous avenue of a parliamentary struggle against feudal prerogatives, a struggle in which the workers as a class were destined to play a historical role, but which forever separated them from the contaminating influence of bourgeois liberalism. ”

“ The victory of the proletariat is the first victory in which the vanquished class will at the same time become part of the victor class, because this victory is the last phase of the class struggle and announces the victory of society over class rule. Different from all previous struggles in the evolution of mankind, the battle of the proletariat is not a battle for proletarian supremacy over capitalist supremacy—a supremacy which is to be asserted at the expense and subjugation of another economic class ”

“ The bourgeois class-interests dictated such an alliance with the limited feudal government, an alliance which was bound to end with the peaceful conquest of the government by the bourgeoisie and the permeation of the remaining remnants of feudalism with the principles and ideas of capitalist production. As an eye-opener, pathfinder and pioneer, the revolution had brought to the capitalists all they were able to demand under the existing conditions, always taking the fear-inspiring Communist workingmen as an ominous signpost into consideration. ”

“ It was Marx's contention that if the achievements of the revolution were not to be eradicated by a counter-force, if the waves of the revolution were not to break on the shores of Russian despotism, then, he maintained, it would be absolutely imperative to concentrate all the revolutionary forces on the constitutional or republican development of Germany. A revolutionized Germany—revolutionized in the fullest democratic conception—he deduced, was bound to be the most massive bulwark of Democracy in Europe. ”

“ The anticipation of a rich harvest of profits exterminated the last spark of rebellion in the bourgeoisie. As already dwelled upon above, henceforth the capitalist class was to be guided by only one precept in its political conduct, namely: to harmonize and compromise with feudality and absolutism, in order to jointly exploit the proletariat. The proletariat, however, was as yet weak in numbers, or, to be more exact, weak in organization, and practically entirely lacking in the conscious perception of its historic mission as a class. ”

“ In no paper was Feudalism or feudal prerogatives fought with more vigor and intelligence than in Marx's paper. Knowing and fully appreciating the importance of the bourgeois revolution, through a thorough conception of Feudalism, Marx and his followers saw in the complete vanquishment of Feudalism a quicker and more favorable development of Capitalism, which in turn implied a quicker and more favorable development of a class-conscious Socialist movement. Therefore, Feudalism and absolutism did not have a more bitter enemy than the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung." ”

“ He also was aware that the workers were only powerful against the exploiters when organized upon class lines—a form and spirit of organization which presupposed class-consciousness. In order to awaken and generate this class-consciousness in the international proletariat, the individual worker had first to recognize his economic status. i.e., to conceive that he was but a commodity under capitalism. Animated, yes whipped on by the compelling command of the hour, Marx set to work to provide the intellectual weapons for the working class in its struggle for emancipation. ”

“ During the Russian Revolution and after, particularly in the stormy years of 1905 to 1906, the German government viewed with open fear this gallant struggle of a people for constitutionalism, apprehending with anxiety the effect which a successful conclusion of this uprising would have upon the German people. It, therefore, sought to aid Russian despotism in every possible way to crush the revolt. In the capacity of henchman of the Czar this government, to the eternal shame of the German people, arrested thousands upon thousands of the flower of Russian Democracy in Germany ”

“ By the light of Historical Materialism, Marx explained the revolution as a normal and legitimate historical process, a process which was but the political reflex of an economic revolution that had but shortly preceded it. ”

“ In other words, he was forced to conclude that the social character of production was bound to be supplemented by a social system of distribution, and this change was only possible through the abolition of the cornerstone and bedrock of capitalist exploitation—private property in the means of production. ”

“ The negation or antithesis of private property Marx found in social property or—Socialism; and the negation or contradiction of the class struggle he located in the abolition of all classes and class prerogatives based on any form of property. To illustrate these philosophical deductions: Just as day implies the approach of night, and life portends death; just as truth is born by the lie, and virtue is but the creature of sin; just as morality is measured with the yardstick of immorality, and the law is but the product of an unlawful act ”

“ In all the leading cities, friends and disciples of Marx and members of the Communist League agitated and worked along the lines dictated by the "Communist Manifesto." The turbulent times with their various political issues, wage struggles and strikes were thus skilfully exploited and utilized to bring home the message of Socialism and independent class action to the workers. ”

“ Everywhere clubs and organizations of workingmen sprang up. After the memorable March days, a Central Committee of Workingmen with the Communist Born at the head was organized in Berlin. Through the untiring efforts of this committee, the Brotherhood of Workingmen, an organization that was to embrace and unite all the workers in Germany, was organized in August. Everywhere the workers were seen fighting in the hut ranks against the powers of absolutism; everywhere they solidly stood their ground, bravely repulsing the onslaughts of reaction ”

“ In the past the class struggle found its culmination in the victory and supremacy of various economic classes, however, these classes were always swept into power by virtue of certain economic might and holdings, and always asserted their victory to the detriment of a subject class. ”

“ As stated before, in the Rhineland the capitalist mode of production had revolutionized conditions more thoroughly than either in the East of Prussia or the southern part of Germany, consequently, the capitalist class was here more progressive and democratic, and more inclined to a vigorous struggle for a constitutional government. ”

“ What the force of arms was unable to accomplish in the stormy year of 1848–49, without also endangering the existence of capitalist society, economic evolution and its social and political creatures were bound to realize slowly step by step. Marx clearly foresaw these logical effects of an abortive revolution, and also saw therein a dictate to revise the tactics of the Communists. He fully appreciated that henceforth the workers would have to organize as a class ”

“ The collapse of Chartism in England, the June massacre in Paris, the fall of Vienna, the results of the revolutions and struggles in Germany, Hungary and Italy had so physically and morally weakened the workers that for the moment no revolutionary action was to be expected of them. ”

“ Aside from distinctly German and in the broader aspect local subjects, Engels wrote a treatise on the Peasant War, and Marx contributed his masterly work, so well known to all Marxian students, "The Class-Struggles in France 1848-1850." This study found its continuation in the profound and brilliant essay entitled "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon," published in 1852, and its completion in the Manifesto or Address of the Executive Committee of the International Workingmen's Association on the Paris Commune, and better known under the title of "The Civil War in France." ”

“ According to the Historical Materialism of Marx and Engels, in order to intelligently explain the social and political life of capitalist society, the economy or industrial structure of that society must be first investigated and its origin, motive forces, laws and course of development explained. ”

“ Marx significantly and with the aid of his dialectical method, a method which you will recollect he had taken over from Hegel, pointed out that a system which originally started with private individual property had rapidly developed into a system of private social property, and was bound—through the dynamic force of class-antagonisms—to culminate into a system of collective social property. ”

“ In the middle of April, 1849, Marx and his Communist friends laid down their offices in the provincial committee. The Workingmen's Club of Cologne severed its connection with the Democratic Union of the Rhineland, and advocated participation of all radical organizations in a general congress of workingmen which the Brotherhood of Workers, organized by the Communist Born in Berlin, was organizing. ”

“ I will, however, as a conclusion of this lecture, attempt to present to you a rough but in no form exhaustive resumé of this masterwork, embracing the fundamental or quintessential principles upon which the theoretical structure of "Capital" is predicated, and which to-day are acclaimed as axiomatic truths of the Socialist philosophy. ”

“ Marx very emphatically discouraged this adventurous and highly spectacular and purely sentimental movement, and advised the workers to return to Germany individually and unobserved, and to there begin a revolutionary agitation amongst their fellow-workers. ”

“ Marx, in his search for the basic and causal conditions underlying the production and exchange of wealth in capitalist society, continued the labors started by the classics of bourgeois political economy, of whom Wm. ”