al by another is put
an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put
an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the
nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an
end.

The charges against Communism made from a religious, a philosophical,
and, generally, from an ideological standpoint are not deserving of
serious examination.

Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, views,
and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness changes with every
change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social
relations and in his social life?

What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual
production changes its character in proportion as material production
is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of
its ruling class.

When people speak of ideas that revolutionize society they do but
express the fact that within the old society the elements of a new one
have been created, and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even
pace with the dissolution of the old conditions of existence.

When the ancient world was in its last throes the ancient religions
were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the
eighteenth century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its
death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of
religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to
the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge.

"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, moral, philosophical and
juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical
development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science,
and law, constantly survived this change.

"There are besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc.,
that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes
eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality, instead of
constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to
all past historical experience."

What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past
society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms,
antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.

But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past
ages, viz., they exploitation of one part of society by the other. No
wonder, then, tha