simply strengthened the socio-economic system which plunders
them. For, in the words of Marx, ‘the more a ruling class is able to
assimilate the most prominent men of the dominated classes, the
more stable and dangerous its rule’.?!

But then of course trade unionism within the capitalist system is
basically bourgeois; it concerns itself with the ‘economic struggle’
which, in Lenin's words, ‘is a collective struggle of the workers
against their employers for better terms in the sale of their labour
power . . ’?* Furthermore, and because of this, ‘to assist in the
economic struggle of the proletariat is the job of the bourgeois
politician. The task of the socialist is to make the economic
struggle of the workers assist the socialist movement and con-
tribute to the success of the revolutionary socialist party’. %

The strength and stability of the capitalist system has developed
in turn the ideological web which promulgates such ideas as those
of ‘welfare state’, ‘the theory of convergence’, the ‘managerial
revolution’, etc. Basically, this ideological propaganda sees fun-
.damental changes occuring in capitalism so that there no longer
exists antagonistic class contradictions, so that — in other words
— there is no more relevance in speaking of a proletariat with a
revolutionary mission. The facts, however, do not tally with this
point of view.

For in every significant sense, the term ‘wage-slave’ has lost
none of its meaning in the whole of Western Europe — however
considerable the improvement in living standards might have
been. For slavery is not synonymous with poverty, but expresses a
relationship between people, in which one is subordinated to
another. Domination may have found polite descriptions but if
anything the gap between controllers and controlled has widened
rather than closed. ?* The salvation for the mass of workers is not,

‘participation’. As Fidel Castro said in an interview, ‘the real way
to benefit the exploited is precisely the expropriation of their for-
mer exploiters. That is to say, the concept of democracy cannot
trully function in a class society. In order for a democracy to func-
tion, equality must be established.’**

C. Workers’ Participation Under Socialism

Summing up the experience of the October Revolution, Lenin
said that ‘the first step that every socialist workers’ government
has to take is workers’ control’.26 Thus he underlined the