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PARTISAN REVIEW
distribution, just as much determined by other nations as they
themselves determine the rest of the world. Aside from this, the
continuation of class rule in the "new order" precludes
social
production.
Production is determined by the need of the ruling
group to remain on top, just as previously it was determined by
the need of the capitalists to increase their capital in order to
remain capitalists. But, it is argued, just as the totalitarian state
eliminates competition within the territory it controls; it does
away with political competition by the creation of the one-party
state. However, we have seen already that the "end of national
competition" was no more than a necessary prerequisite for a
sharpened international competition. The elimination of democ–
racy is the prerequisite for a greater "democratic" participation
in the international scramble for power positions. After all, Ger–
many, Russia, Italy, do play a greater part in jnternational poli–
tics than they did twenty years ago. Besides, as Stolper has re–
marked, "the class struggle which the party (controlling the
nation) went out to suppress was only shifted into the party.m
5
The struggle of all against all has not been ended in the
"new order." Private incentives are only detoured; they are now
directed toward political and social positions which determine the
degree to which one may participate in the enjoyment of surplus
value. There are rich and poor people in the "new order" ;
28
exploited and exploiters, employed and unemployed, the latter
being dressed in uniform and sent to their own destruction. Pro–
duction for the sake of production that benefited minorities and
kept majorities in misery is, in the "new order," still production
for the sake of production-but only more so, because the results
of human labor are destroyed faster than they are created.
If
formerly the products of labor-capital-only served to increase
the exploitation of labor, they now serve to put the workers to
death on the battlefields of the world. There is no sense in hoping
that the privileged groups will on their own part change the situa–
tion in which the products of society destroy their producers. The
more the privileged positions disappear, the fiercer the struggle
for the remaining positions. Whoever has or believes he has an
,.German Economy;
p.
234.
'"German income tax figures for 1938 disclosed an increase in the number and
income of taxpayers in the highest brackets, and sharp proportional decreases among
those at the lowest levels.
