Albert Einstein: Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Albert Einstein: Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willingto work will always be in a position to find employment; an “army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before. This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Lenin: But a slave who becomes conscious of his servitude and rises to struggle for his emancipation has already half ceased to be a slave. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: In socialist society each worker receives material wealth according to the quantity and quality of his labour . The distribution of the national income serves to raise the welfare of the working people, extend socialist production in town and country and increase the social wealth. Under capitalism, distribution of the national income takes place for the purpose of enriching the exploiting classes and their numerous parasitic menials. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Lenin: When power passes to the Soviets the capitalists will come out against us. Japan, France, Britain the governments of all countries will be against us. The capitalists will be against, but the workers will be for us. That will be the end of the war which the capitalists started. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: The conditions of the struggle against the Soviet power dictated a union of the two anti-Soviet forces, foreign and domestic. And this union was effected in the first half of 1918. This was how the foreign military intervention against the Soviet power supported by counter-revolutionary revolts of its foes at home originated. This was the end of the respite in Russia and the beginning of the Civil War, which was a war of the workers and peasants of the nations of Russia against the foreign and domestic enemies of the Soviet power. The imperialists of Great Britain, France, Japan and America started their military intervention without any declaration of war, although the intervention was a war, a war against Russia, and the worst kind of war at that. These "civilized" marauders secretly and stealthily made their way to Russian shores and landed their troops on Russia's territory. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: Under socialism, social ownership is completely predominant in all spheres of the national economy. In 1950 in the U.S.S.R., socialist property embraced 99.4 percent of all the means of production in use in the country. With the consolidation of the undivided predominance of social property, the false theory of bourgeois ideologists about the eternity and immutability of private capitalist property has been completely discredited. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: The conversion of the means of production into social property, and the emancipation of the workers from all forms of exploitation, signified the consolidation of the new socialist system of national economy. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: In the socialist system of national economy the means of production are social property, that is, they belong to the working people in the person of either the socialist State or of the collective farms and other cooperative unions. Consequently, the products of labour also belong to the working people. In the capitalist economic system the means of production are the private property of the capitalists and landowners and consequently the products of labour also belong to the capitalists and landowners. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: The socialist system of national economy means that the exploitation of man by man has been abolished, and that the purpose of production is the maximum satisfaction of the growing material and cultural needs of the whole of society. Capitalist production is for the purpose of securing the maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and enslavement of the working people. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
K. V. Ostrovityanov: Socialist production develops in a planned way and without interruption. The steady rise in the living standards and purchasing power of the working people are a stimulus to increased production and a secure guarantee of freedom from crises of overproduction and unemployment. Capitalist production develops without plan. The growth of production runs up against the proletarian condition of the working people and the relative reduction of their purchasing power. This inevitably brings crises of overproduction, growing unemployment and impoverishment of the masses. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: The theoretical basis of scientific socialism is the materialist theory of Marx and Engels. From the standpoint of this theory the development of social life is wholly determined by the development of the productive forces. If the feudal-landlord system was superseded by the bourgeois system, the "blame" for this rests upon the development of the productive forces, which made the rise of the bourgeois system inevitable. Or again: if the present bourgeois system will inevitably be superseded by the socialist system, it is because this is called for by the development of the modern productive forces. Hence the historical necessity of the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. Hence the Marxist proposition that we must seek our ideals in the history, of the development of the productive forces and not in the minds of men. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Malcolm X: President Kennedy did not send troops to Alabama when dogs were biting black babies. He waited three weeks until the situation exploded. He then sent troops after the Negroes had demonstrated their ability to defend themselves. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Henry A. Wallace: The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Henry A. Wallace: They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
James Connolly: If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst! wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Thomas Sankara: You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Fidel Castro: While Irish patriots continue to fight for independence, we have a moral duty to support their most righteous cause... the English call them 'criminals', the Yankees call them 'terrorists', we call them freedom fighters! wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Voltaire: Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Fidel Castro: The Revolution is the work of everyone, the Revolution is the sacrifice of everyone, the revolution is the ideal of everyone and the revolution shall be the fruit of everyone. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: But we can and should expect of the Marxists-Leninists of our day that they do not confine themselves to learning by rote a few general tenets of Marxism; that they delve deeply into the essence of Marxism; that they learn to take account of the experience gained in the twenty years of existence of the Socialist state in our country; that, lastly, they learn, with the use of this experience and with knowledge of the essence of Marxism, to apply the various general theses of Marxism concretely, to lend them greater precision and improve them. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: Clearly, everybody who wants to know what the dictatorship of the proletariat is as conceived of by Marxists must study the Paris Commune. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: To ascertain how Marx and Engels conceived of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to ascertain to what extent they regarded this dictatorship as possible, for all this it is very interesting to know their attitude towards the Paris Commune. The point is that the dictatorship of the proletariat is denounced not only by the Anarchists but also by the urban petty bourgeoisie, including all kinds of butchers and tavern-keepers—by all those whom Marx and Engels called philistines. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Stalin: The tactical basis of scientific socialism is the doctrine of uncompromising class struggle, for this is the best weapon the proletariat possesses. The proletarian class struggle is the weapon by means of which the proletariat will capture political power and then expropriate the bourgeoisie in order to establish socialism. Such is the tactical basis of scientific socialism as expounded in the Manifesto of Marx and Engels. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Lenin: Bourgeois reformists and pacifists are people who, as a general rule, are paid, in one form or another, to strengthen the rule of capitalism by patching it up, to lull the masses and divert them from the revolutionary struggle. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Malcolm X: I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
