Ariadne’s Reviews > The class struggle (Erfurt program) > Status Update

“The modern working proletarians support the whole structure of our society. At first, to be sure, they do not perceive this, but sooner or later they discover that instead of receiving their bread from the capitalist, they furnish him his.”

“The time when, in a given country, the syndicate can ripen into a trust may be hastened through the protection of its domestic market against foreign competitors by a high tariff. In such a case the # of competitors is diminished & the domestic producers can more easily come together, establishing a monopoly,& thanks to ‘Protection of home industry,’ fleece the national consumer to their hearts’ content.”

“The capitalist system is by no means the product of political rights/laws. Instead it is the needs of the system that have brought forth the laws that are now in force. These laws do not create the exploitation of the proletariat; they only provide for the smooth running of the exploitative system..As this friction grows gradually worse, the greater becomes the need for a strong state power to enforce the law.”

The educated “have ceased to be the leaders of the capitalist class and have become rather their defenders. Place-hunting takes more and more of their energies. Their first care is, not the development of their intellect, but the sale of it.”