still in a very undeveloped state and has but a
phantastic conception of its own position, correspond with the first
instinctive yearnings of that class for a general reconstruction of
society.

But these Socialist and Communist publications contain also a critical
element. They attack every principle of existing society. Hence they
are full of the most valuable materials for the enlightenment of the
working class. The practical measures proposed in them, such as the
abolition of the distinction between town and country, of the family,
of the carrying on of industries for the account of private
individuals, and of the wage system, the proclamation of social
harmony, the conversion of the functions of the State into a mere
superintendence of production, all these proposals point solely to the
disappearance of class antagonisms which were, at that time, only just
cropping up, and which, in these publications, are recognized under
their earliest, indistinct and undefined forms only. These proposals,
therefore, are of a purely Utopian character.

The significance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism bears an
inverse relation to historical development. In proportion as the
modern class struggle develops and takes definite shape, this
phantastic standing apart from the contest, these phantastic attacks on
it lose all practical value and all theoretical justification.
Therefore, although the originators of these systems were, in many
respects, revolutionary, their disciples have in every case formed mere
reactionary sects. They hold fast by the original views of their
masters, in opposition to the progressive historical development of the
proletariat. They, therefore, endeavor, and that consistently, to
deaden the class struggle and to reconcile the class antagonisms. They
still dream of experimental realization of their social Utopias, of
founding isolated "phalansteres," of establishing "Home Colonies," of
setting up a "Little Icaria"(c)--duodecimo editions of the New
Jerusalem, and to realize all these castles in the air, they are
compelled to appeal to the feelings and purses of the bourgeois. By
degrees they sink into the category of the reactionary conservative
Socialists depicted above, differing from these only by more systematic
pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the
miraculous effects of their social science.

They, therefore, violently oppose all political action on the p