1006 KARLMARX
MARX: Such a thing as the whole people, in the present meaning of the word, is an
illusion—
BAKUNIN: “To elect its representatives and “rulers of state”—that is the last word
of the Marxists and also of the democratic school—is a lie which conceals the
despotism of the ruling minority,a lie that is all the more dangerous as it appears as the
expression of the so-called will of the people.”
MARX: With collective ownership the so-called will of the people disappears and
makes way for the genuine will of the cooperative.
BAKUNIN: “So the result is the control of the vast majority of the people by a
privileged minority. But this minority, the Marxists say,”
MARX: Where?
BAKUNIN: “will consist of workers. Yes, quite possibly of former workers, but, as
soon as they have become the representatives or rulers of the people,they cease to be
workers”—
MARX: No more than a factory owner today ceases to be a capitalist when he
becomes a municipal councilor—
BAKUNIN: “And will gaze down upon the whole world of the common workers
from the eminence of “statehood”; they will no longer represent the people, but only
themselves and their “claims” to govern the people. Anyone who can doubt this knows
nothing of human nature”
MARX: If Mr. Bakunin were familiar even with the position of a manager in a
workers’ co-operative factory, all his fantasies about domination would go to the devil.
He should have asked himself: what forms could management functions assume within
such a workers’ state, if he wants to call it that?