This Building Block article is one of a series which explains a basic concept of the revolutionary process, challenging readers to explore its meaning for political work in today's environment.

The state is a special apparatus for the systematic application of force and the subjugation of people by force. It arose with the division of society into classes in order to maintain the rule of one class over another.

As an instrument of the ruling class to protect private property, the state maintains the domination of the owning class over an exploited class. The ruling class benefits from the labor of the exploited class and uses force and political power to maintain these relations.

 

Stages of society and the state

 

During the longest part of their time on earth, human beings lived as hunter-gatherers in clans or tribes. Since all had to contribute to the survival of all, there was no basis for domination of one person over another, and thus no classes and no state. Under this 'primitive communism,' all members of society contributed to the hunting and gathering of food, which was shared by all.

When the development of agriculture and new tools created a surplus of food and a division of labor, some individuals were freed from subsistence labor. These individuals took control of the surplus and exploited others for their own gain, thus forming themselves into a dominant class. The state was the apparatus by which they compelled the greater part of society to work for them.

As one economic system developed out of another, the class that owned the land and means of production was dominant and always held state power, at all times using laws, force and intimidation  as well as propaganda to control thinking and beliefs  to maintain and enforce ruling class dominance.

This has been true throughout the stages of history. The forms of government have varied, but the state has always been defined by the owning class. The state of a slave-owning society, whether ruled by a monarchy or republic, as in ancient Rome , was always a slave-owners state. Similarly under feudalism, whether ruled by an aristocracy or monarchy, the state was always the state of the feudal landlord. And under capitalism, whether the form of state is bourgeois democratic or fascist, the state is the state of the capitalist class.

In its rise to power as the ruling class, the bourgeoisie forged the warring feudal fiefdoms into national markets and nation states. The ruling capitalist class protected its national interest with tariffs and trade barriers, and fought with other nation-states for dominance over world markets.

Bringing workers and peasantry into its battle against the feudal state, the bourgeoisie promulgated the ideals of ÒfreedomÓ and equality as inalienable rights under the rule of law.  "The state recognized the property rights of every merchant, industrialist and manufacturer." wrote V.I. Lenin in one of his many lectures on the state. "And this society, based on private property, on the power of capital, on the complete subjugation of the propertyless workers and laboring masses of the peasantry, proclaimed that its rule was based on liberty . . . and declared through its champions, preachers, scholars and philosophers that it was not a class state."

These ideas tie us to the capitalist class, even though 'bourgeois democracy' has never meant economic justice or freedom from want and exploitation. It has made us believe that capitalism works for everybody equally, and prevents us from fighting around our own interests as an exploited class.

As novelist and critic of the bourgeoisie, Anatole France, cuttingly remarked: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." Our freedoms are limited within the confines of the capitalist system's class relations.

 

The state in our era

 

With the electronics revolution and the introduction of labor-replacing technology into production, the very basis for the capitalist economic system is being destroyed. As capitalism is coming to an end, the state acts to ensure the continued dominance of the ruling class and private property. Playing an active role in the transformation from one economic base to another, the state itself is transformed. We are witnessing the emergence of the corporate state, the merger of the corporations and the state.

"The US state is undergoing a profound shift from nation-state, in the sense of protecting the market and the social relations in one country, to that of expanding the market and protecting the market sanctity of private property globally, while abandoning responsibility for society nationally. The economic imperatives of market and employment can no longer hold the economy and society together." (League of Revolutionaries for a New America , Political Resolution, 2008)

As the ground beneath the capitalist system disappears, the whole economic house of cards is beginning to fall. With the current bailout of the collapsing financial system, the naked hand of the corporate state can be seen in play: rescue for the owning class and its institutions, the further impoverishment of the working class. The ruling class is maneuvering to make sure that whatever is done in response to this epochal crisis will benefit their class and maintain the rule of private property.

Labor-replacing technology in production is creating a new class of dispossessed workers. These thrown-out workers, fighting for a better deal within the confines of capitalist relations, come directly up against the state as a special apparatus for the systematic application of force and its multi-faceted methods of control.

The more the ruling class steals from us to maintain their profits and privileged lifestyle, the more openly they must use violence to contain the inevitable social response in the US and around the globe. The state resorts to open terror to contain the developing spontaneous movement whose demands are objectively communist - that is, for distribution according to need.

The abundance that the laborless technology has already created, as well as the ability to distribute it where it is needed, sets the real material basis for a world without classes and class domination.

 

December.2008.Vol18.Ed6
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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