The dictatorship of the proletariat as the leadership of the toiling masses (and of the entire society) on the part of the proletariat.

Two basic tasks (and, correspondingly, two new forms) of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat:

(1) the suppression of the resistance of exploiters (and of any recurrence, return to capitalism and to capitalist traditions).

(2) systematic leading action (likewise = struggle, but of a special kind, the overcoming of a known, though admittedly quite different resistance and overcoming of quite a different kind) upon all toilers except the proletarians.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is the transformation of it into the ruling class. The domination of one class excludes freedom and equality.

N.B.:

* Uncritical. — Ed.

** Genuinely petty-bourgeois. — Ed.

*** In abstract form. — Ed.

And the revolutionary proletariat needs (both in general and especially now) a concrete definition of its transitional tasks, of the gradual steps from the old to the new.

Real steps toward "freedom and equality," that is (sonst Phrase, lauter Phrase![40]) toward the abolition of classes.

By one method, along one line, one can and must abolish the class (and classes) of exploiters.

They can be "overthrown."

One cannot "overthrow" non-exploiting or indirectly exploiting classes (bourgeois intellectuals; petty bourgeoisie, which qua Eigentümerin der Produktionsmittel[41] is to that extent an exploiting class in potentia et partialiter in praxi[42]).