pessimistic: If the bourgeoisie is so strong, can we overcome its influence? What are the methods for that conquest, and how do we visualize the further existence of the trade unions and all other labor organizations?
For those who are active politically—and you know that the Communists are such—for revolutionary fighters, pessimism has no place in the analysis of historical events.
We have given a real analysis of the relation of forces and we see our strength and our weakness. We see the power of resistance of our enemies, We see the fact of existing footholds in our ranks of the bourgeoisie, and we have to work out methods of future struggle.
No one can tell how long it will take until we will win over this numerically gigantic mass, and will bring it to consciousness of its own interests. The only thing that we Marxians may reply to is the question: Does the labor movement really proceed on the line of eliminating from its body all that now clogs it?
We can, on account of the experience of the last few years, say that we made a colossal step ahead. If we would compare the labor movement at the time of the great French revolution with the present day movement, we can frankly state that during the six years, from October 1917 to 1923, the labor movement had greater successes, than during the period from 1789 to 1917, that is, during the 130 years from the Great French revolution until our October revolution in Russia.
Thus, from the historical point of view, events are proceeding with lightning rapidity. We think that this movement should bring about a fundamental change in all existing labor organizations, co-operative, political, trade union, etc.
What does a political party represent? What causes a political party? It is an organ of class struggle. It exists as long as the class struggle. But when classes will disappear, when a developed form of Communism will spread all over the world—will the Communist Party exist then? No. Thus, within a certain epoch of time (we cannot define it in exact figures) political parties will disappear, because all that which created them will also disappear—the classes and the class struggle.
And what will happen with the unions? They will also disappear, but along an entirely different line than the parties. Where do the tendencies in the labor movement lead? They lead to a first stage of development of the working class, when the working class conquers and organizes a dictatorship, which is a temporary dictatorship.
When we speak about a temporary dictatorship, we do not mean that the dictatorship will last five or ten years, but we mean a whole historical epoch. The dictatorship will end when there will be no more classes. The end of the dictatorship means the disappearance of all
