sion of labor is not an advance
which would not be possible except at the expense of the productivity
of labor, quite otherwise. It is a condition of production which has
come about spontaneously through the great industry. "The machine
industry does away with the necessity of constantly distributing
groups of workmen at the different machines by keeping the worker
constantly at the same task. Since the total product of the factory,
proceeds not from the worker but from the machine, a continual
changing about of individuals could not exist, without an interruption
of the labor-process. Finally the speed with which work at the machine
is learnt even by children does away with the necessity of training a
distinct class of workmen exclusively as machine laborers." But while
the capitalistic method of use of machinery does away with the old
limited particularity of labor, and, in spite of the fact, that
technique is rendered superfluous, machinery itself rebels against the
anachronism. The technical basis of the greater industry is
revolutionary. "Through machinery, chemical processes and other
methods, the functions of the working class and the social labor
process are revolutionized along with the technical basis of
production. The division of labor is also revolutionized and masses of
capital and labor are hurled incontinently from one branch of industry
to another. The nature of the greater industry demands mobility of
labor, a fluidity of functions and a complete adaptibility on the part
of the laborers. We have seen how this absolute contradiction shows
itself in the continual sacrifice of the working class, the most
complete waste of labor force, and the dominance of social anarchy.
But if the mobility of labor now appears to be a law of nature beyond
human control which realizes itself, in spite of all obstacles, it
also becomes a matter of life and death for the greater industry,
owing to its catastrophic character, to recognise the mobility of
labor and hence the greatest possible adaptibility of the working
class, as a universal law of social production, and to accommodate
circumstances to its normal development. It becomes a question of life
and death for the greater industry to keep an enormous number of
people on the edge of starvation always in reserve, in order that they
may be able to be placed at the disposal of the needs of capital as
these vary."

While the greater industry has taught us how to transfor