Date: 10 Sep 96 02:57:23 EDT
From: neil <74742.1651-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: the state


dear friends,

In reply to Justin S's view that we must still keep what must be   the POLITICAL
state under communism.
This is NOT so in the main as Marx and Engels point out .
Antagonistic classes and class struggle will not exist under communism. neither
will
exploitation of persons by persons. There will be no ruling class. Scarcity and
privativation and parasitism will be no more. Abundance prevails ! no waged
labor -- FREE ACCESS!

 Marx/engels  thought that through the transition period the material basis for
the state would "wither away' and/or 'die out". They thought is was possible
that the "government over people will be replaced by the administration of
things" ( So we will  still have administration, but shorn of its coercive and
repressive 
integuments). See Engels: Socialsim-from utopia to science

We will have gotten rid of cops, courts, prisons, (and maybe lawyers too! Ah ,
how sweet is this liberation!)
armies, secret police, insurance salesmen, etc. All these, the mainstay of the
political state because the material basisis for this will have been overcome in
the advent of communism.

The real workers communist administration of things is benign and
non-repressive. There are no political parties or rulers over people. We want a
classless and stateless society--with planned production for human need- no more
profits either.

And yes, it will take monumental struggle in this contest , and the working
class has tremendous struggles and self-sacrifice ahead of it. The potential
for success is a long-shot, but there  the proletariat  still rates a fighting
chance!

Neil



     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---