SCIENCE AND THE WORKING CLASS 



tion to a group of German workingmen, led to 

 the organization, on May 23, 1863, at Leipsic, 

 of the " Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverein" 

 (General Association of German Workingmen), 

 the nucleus of the International Socialist Party, 

 which is destined to fulfill the mission of the 

 modern proletariat. 



When the first proletarian revolts had ended in 

 the supremacy of the capitalist class, and the his- 

 torical course of capitalist development was fully 

 understood by the proletarian thinkers, they set- 

 tled down to a careful elaboration of the in- 

 tellectual weapons of the proletarian advance. 

 The crowning outcome of these labors was that 

 series of writings by Marx and Engels, which 

 became the scientific fundament of the inter- 

 national party of the working class. The fore- 

 most of these works is Marx's " Capital," which 

 revolutionized political economy through his the- 

 ory of surplus-value, bridged the chasm between 

 economics and politics, gave an outline of the 

 past, present and future development of capitalist 

 production, and thus opened an impassable chasm 

 between bourgeois and proletarian science. Its 

 first volume appeared in July, 1867. 



It awakened a loud echo in the breast of a 

 German tanner, who had found the way out of 



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