Second, we observe a tendency towards a steady depression of wages and a
growing misery of the wage-earning class, which keeps revolutionary
ardor alive. And lastly, the inevitable and frequent economic crises
under capitalism disorganize it and hasten it on towards destruction.
The last and gravest capitalistic industrial crisis will coincide with
the social revolution which will bring capitalism to an end. The
wage-earning class must under no condition permit itself to be diverted
from its revolutionary program into futile attempts to "patch-up"
capitalism. The labor struggle must be for the abolition of capitalism.
American wage earners have steadily disappointed several generations of
Marxians by their refusal to accept the Marxian theory of social
development and the Marxian revolutionary goal. In fact, in their
thinking, most American wage earners do not start with any general
theory of industrial society, but approach the subject as bargainers,
desiring to strike the best wage bargain possible. They also have a
conception of what the bargain ought to yield them by way of real
income, measured in terms of their customary standard of living, in
terms of security for the future, and in terms of freedom in the shop or
"self-determination.
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