to disappear, the class character of
the State would disappear also. "The State is not abolished. _It dies
out_"; to repeat Engels' notable words. "As soon as there is no longer
any social class to be held in subjection, ... nothing more remains to
be repressed, and a special repressive force, a State, is no longer
necessary."[27]

The syndicalists are, of course, quite right when they say that State
socialism is an attempt to allay popular discontent, but they are quite
wrong when they accept this as proof that it must inevitably sidetrack
socialism. They overlook the fact that it is always a concession granted
grudgingly to the growing power of democracy. It is a point yielded in
order to prevent if possible the necessity of making further
concessions. Yet history shows that each concession necessitates
another, and that State socialism is growing with great rapidity in all
countries where the workers have developed powerful political
organizations. Even now both friends and opponents see in the growth of
State socialism the gradual formation of that transitional stage that
leads from capitalism to socialism. The syndicalist and anarchist alone
fail to see here any drift toward socialism; they see only a growing
tyranny creating a class of favored civil servants, who are divorced
from the actual working class. At the same time, they point out that the
condition of the toilers for the State has not improved, and that they
are exploited as mercilessly by the State as they were formerly
exploited by the capitalist. To dispute this would be time ill spent. If
it be indeed true, it defeats the argument of the syndicalist. If the
State in its capitalism outrageously exploits its servants, tries to
prevent them from organizing, and penalizes them for striking, it will
only add to the intensity of the working-class revolt. It will aid more
and more toward creating a common understanding between the workers for
the State and the workers for the private capitalist. In any case, it
will accelerate the tendency toward the democratization of the State
and, therefore, toward socialism.

As an alternative to this actual evolution toward socialism, the
syndicalists propose to force society to put the means of production
into the hands of the trade unions. It is perhaps worth pointing out
that Owen, Proudhon, Blanc, Lassalle, and Bakounin all advocated what
may be called "group socialism."[28] This conception of future society
cont