A.B.C. OF ANARCHISM . Your common sense will tell you that it is a vain and foolish hope. Government ·and capital will fight to retain power. They do it even to-d;ty at the least menace to their privile~s. . They wiJI fight to the death for their existence. That is why it is no prophecy to foresee that some day it must come to a ·decisi\.'e·l\tr,ugglebetween the masters of life and the dispossessed classes. , As a matter of fact, that struggle is going on all the time. There is a continuous warfare between capital and labour. That warfare generally proceeds within so-called legal forms. But even these erupt now and then in violence, as during strikes and lockouts, because the armed fist of government is always at the service of the masters, and that fist gets into action the moment capital feels its profits threatened : then it drops the mask of "mutual interests" and " partnership " with Jabour and resorts to the final argument of every master, to coercion and force. It is therefore certain that government and capital wil\,not allow themselves to be quietly abolished if. they can help it; nor wiJI they miraculously " disappear " of themselves, as some people pretend to believe. It will require a revolution to get rid of them. There are those who smile incredulously at the mention of revolution. "Impossible! " they say confidently. So did Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France think only a few weeks before they lost their throne together with their heads. So did t~e nobility at the court of Tsar Nicholas II believe on the very eve of the upheaval that swept them away. " It doesn't look like revolution," the superficial observer argues. But revolutions have a way of breaking out when it "doesn't look like it." The more far-seeing modern capitalists, however, do not seem willing to take any chances. They know that uprisings and revolutions are possible at any time. That is why the great corporations and big employers of Jabour, particu• larly in America, are beginning to introduce new methods calculated to serve as lightning rods against popular disaffection and revolt. They initiate bonuses for their employees, profit sharing, and similar methods designed to make the worker more satisfied and financially interested in the prosperity of his industry. These means may temporarily blind the proletarian to his true interests, but do not believe that the worker will forever remain content with his wage slavery even if his cage be slightly gilded from time to time. Improv• ing material conditions is no insurance against revolution. On the contrary, the satisfaction of our wants creates new needs, gives birth to new desires and aspirations. That is human nature, and that's what ma}tesimprovement and progress possible. Labour's discontent 44 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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