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As a revolutionary he disapproved of conspiratorial methods, which he thought obsolete and ineffective, and liable to irritate public opinion without altering its foundations; instead he set himself to create an open political party dominated by the new view of society. His later years are occupied almost exclusively with the task of gathering evidence for, and disseminating, the truths which he had discovered, until they filled the entire ­horizon of his followers, and became consciously woven into the texture of their every thought and word and act.

He neither offered nor invited concessions at any time, and did not enter into any dubious political alliances, since he declined all forms of compromise. 1 The war must be fought on every front, and, since contemporary society is politically organised, a political party must be formed out of those elements which, in accordance with the laws of historical development, are destined to emerge as the conquering class. They must ceaselessly be taught that what seems so secure in existing society is, in reality, doomed to swift extinction, a fact which men may find it difficult to believe because of the immense protective facade of moral, religious, political and economic assumptions and beliefs, which the moribund class consciously or unconsciously creates, blinding itself and others to its own approaching fate.

3 above) in ‘Karl Marx: Persönliche Erinnerungen’, Die neue Zeit, year 9 (1890–1), i 10–17, 37–42, at 15. 1 14 • Karl Marx in some previous or contemporary writer. Thus the doctrine of communal ownership founded upon the abolition of private property has probably, in one or other form, possessed adherents at most periods during the last two thousand years. Consequently the often debated question whether Marx derived it directly from Morelly or Mably, or Babeuf and his followers, or from some German account of French communism, is too purely academic to be of great importance.