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THE NEWEST ANARCHISM 273
For masses in the time of revolution to grab whatever
they desire is, after all, to constitute what Jaures calls
a fictitious ownership. Some legality is needed to establish
posesssion and a sense of security, and, up to the
present, only the political institutions of society have
been able to do that. For this precise reason every
social struggle and class struggle of the past has been
a political struggle.
There remains but one other fundamental question,
which must be briefly examined. The syndicalists do not
go back to Owen as the founder of their philosophy.
They constantly reiterate the claim that they alone today
are Marxists and that it is given to them to keep
"pure and undefiled" the theories of that giant mind.
They base their claim on the ground of Marx's economic
interpretation of history and especially upon his oftrepeated
doctrine that upon
the economic structure of
society rises the juridical and political superstructure.
They maintain that the political institutions are merely
the reflex of economic conditions. Alter the economic
basis of society, and the political structure must adjust
itself to the new conditions. As a result of this truly
Marxian reasoning, they assert that the revolutionary
movement must pursue solely economic aims and disregard
totally the existing and, to their minds, superfluous
political relations. They accuse the socialists of a
contradiction. Claiming to be Marxists and basing their
program upon the economic interpretation of history, the
socialists waste their energies in trying to modify the
results instead of obliterating the causes. Political institutions
are parasitical. Why, therefore, ignore economic
foundations and waste effort remodeling the
parasitical superstructure There is a contradiction
here, but not on the part of the socialists. Proudhon was