put an end to the division of
society into classes, and usher in the society of the future, the
Co-operative Commonwealth. As the State is in its very nature a class
instrument, as its existence is dependent upon the existence of distinct
classes, the State in the hands of the victorious proletariat will
commit suicide, by tearing down its own foundation.

Until a man perceives and is keenly conscious of this class conflict, a
conflict which admits of no truce or compromise, and ranges himself on
the side of the workers to remain there until the battle is fought and
the victory won, until the proletariat shall have conquered the public
powers, taken possession of that class instrument, the State (for so
long as the State exists it will be a class instrument) and made it in
the hands of the working class a tool to abolish private ownership in
the tools and the land, in the means of production and distribution, and
to abolish all classes by absorbing them all in the Brotherhood of Man;
until a man has thus shown himself clearly conscious of the Class
Struggle, with its necessary implications, his heart may be in the right
place, but laboring men can not trust him as a leader. The fact that
the hearts of many popular reformers, political candidates and so-called
"friends of labor," who ignore the class struggle, are on the right
side, but gives them added power to mislead and betray workingmen.
Workingmen, I beg you to follow no leader who has not a clear enough
head to see that there is a class struggle, and a large enough heart to
place himself on your side of that struggle. But remember that you are
not fighting the battle of a class alone. You are fighting for the
future welfare of the whole human race. But while this is true, it is
also true that your class must bear the brunt of this battle, for yours
is the only class that, in the language of the Manifesto, "has nothing
but its chains to lose, and a World to gain!" The rich have much to
lose, and this very real and tangible risk of loss not unnaturally
blinds the eyes of most of them to the more remote, though infinitely
greater compensations that Socialism has to offer them. The Middle
Class, even down to those who are just a round above the proletarians on
the social ladder, love to ape the very rich and the capitalist
magnates. It tickles their silly vanity to fancy that their interests
are capitalistic interests, and their mental horizon is too hopelessly
limite