Chapter I: Class Society and the State
State arose from the class antagonisms, and used as an apparatus by the oppressing class in order to exploit the oppressed class. The state will exists as long as the antagonisms remain. (p. 7)
A violent revolution is inevitable since the state consists of coercive armed force which does not represent the whole picture of the society, with the class antagonisms remain unresolved. The creation of a self-acting arming organisation will certainly be the opposite of the state’s interest. (p. 8-9)
State becomes stronger as the class antagonisms deepen and the adjacent states grow larger. (p. 9)
State is an organ for exploitation, as ancient state with slavery, feudal state with serfdom and capitalist state with wage labour. (p. 10)
Universal suffrage (or in my opinion any reform) within the bourgeois democracy, while could be a measurement for the working class maturity, is merely the extension of the state which serves only the ruling class interests. (p. 11)
As the state seized by the proletariat, it is finally able to represent the whole society while renders itself as unnecessary since the class antagonisms have been resolved. It will, as Engels wrote, withering away afterwards. (p. 12-13)
Chapter II: The Experience of 1848-51
The proletariat needs state power, a centralized organization of force, an organization of violence, both to crush the resistance of the exploiters and to lead the enormous mass of the population — the peasants, the petty bourgeoisie, and semi-proletarians - in the work of organizing a socialist economy. (q, p. 17)
The proletariat must organise as the ruling class, overthrow the oppressing class, and bring the state machine to its complete destruction. (p. 18-21)
As a Marxist, recognising the existence of class struggle is not enough. They need to recognise that classes is bound to the development of the mode of production, that class struggle is inevitably leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and then transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society. (p. 21-22)
… during this period (q. transition from capitalism to communism) the state must inevitably be a state that is democratic in a new way (for the proletariat and the propertyless in general) and dictatorial in a new way (against the bourgeoisie). (q, p. 22)
Chapter III: Experience of the Paris Commune of 1871. Marx’s Analysis
A capitalist country with a militarist clique and bureaucracy is the precondition for people’s revolution. (p. 24)
The alliance between the peasants and the proletarians is necessary in securing a stable democracy and socialist transformation. (p. 25)
Instead of the special institutions of a privileged minority (privileged officialdom, the chiefs of the standing army), the majority itself can directly fulfil all these functions, and the more the functions of state power are performed by the people as a whole, the less need there is for the existence of this power. (q, p. 26-27)
The delegates to the proletariat state in its representative institution must be working instead of just debating. They should execute their own laws, have themselves to test the results in reality and to held accountable directly by their constituents. (p. 28-30)
The state machine will become simpler and simpler as the mode of production advanced where everyone in the society could take their turn to work with. As everyone gets used to it, it will become a habit, where a standalone state machine will render as an excess asset. (p. 30)
Centralism could be achieved by the organised proletarians and peasants by seizing the production tools and state power. (p. 32)
Chapter IV: Supplementary Explanations by Engels
The state, immediately after the proletariat revolution, should exist in order to carry out the function to suppress the bourgeoisie. (p. 36)
The state that controlled by the proletariat after the revolution, is not the same state that is commonly known and understood. The previous states exist in order to subjugate the majority to the minority whereas a proletariat state (which is not technically a state anymore) subordinate the minority to the majority. Therefore, the state apparatus exists purely in order to carry out the community’s social interests rather than suppressing it. Such form of organisation that truly represent the society should be called as commune, rather than as state. (p. 34-40)
The state should be a republic that is one and indivisible. Based on this Engels’s argument, Lenin justified democratic centralism. (p. 42)
The state should be centralised and deploy complete local self-governing where all local government officials should be elected by universal suffrage. (p. 43-44)
Lenin said that the proletariat party must struggle against the opium of religion. (p. 45)
Government post must be subject to recall at any time. (p. 45)
By making the official post non-lucrative, it eliminates the place-hunting and careerism. In addition, such post must not be a springboard to more lucrative posts outside the government. (p. 45-46)
A democracy must be about a subordination of the minority to the majority where the minority is the oppressive class and the majority is the oppressed class. (p. 48)
Abolishing a state means abolishes all organised and systemic violence. (p. 48)
Chapter V: The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State
Capitalist society will transition to communist society according to the theory of development by Marx. In between them, there will be a transitional stage, where the dictatorship of proletariat exists. It will brutally suppress the oppressed class in the process and simplify the state functionality where everyone could execute it. In this way, the oppressed class could not rule with obscurity in order to suppress the majority. And because of the simplicity of the administration, there is no need for a state, and it simply ceases to exist. (p. 48-53)
Bourgeois democracy put several restrictions on and keep exploiting the poor in order to exclude their participation on the state affairs. In such, only the oppressors can be chosen to be the representative. Therefore, bourgeois democracy is a democracy for the minority. (p. 50-51)
In the first phase of communism, the means of production will be converted from private property to common property, and converted from another way around will be considered vile. Although there will be an equal distribution of social consumption fund, which is deducted from community maintenance, according to the labour performance, inequality between the members of community still persists (strong vs weak, married vs single). Therefore, the inequality in wealth has not been eliminated during such phase. (p. 53-55)
The state still remained during the first phase of communism since it needs to safeguard the common ownership to the means of production which secure the equality in labour and in distribution of products. (p. 55)
In the higher phase of communism, as the community members becomes accustomed to the division of labour, where the distinction between mental and physical labour vanished, where working becomes a virtue not merely for the livelihood, where the wealth of the society increased dramatically, only then the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” could be realised. (p. 55-56)
Capitalism gives the emergence of socialism preconditions: universal literacy and the emergence of trained and disciplined workers from huge, complex and socialised apparatus. This allows that all members of the community could take part in the state administration with ease. (p. 58)
Chapter VI: The Vulgarisation of Marxism by Opportunists
Lenin criticised Plekhanov, a Russian Marxist, on evasion on two questions: Should the old machine to be smashed? And what should replace it?
Lenin then criticised Kautsky, a prominent German Marxist, vulgarised the relationship between the socialist revolution and the state. He objected the view that one could relinquish capitalism by seizing the old state machine, that is the bourgeois democracy, with the reason that state itself should not be abolished. Lenin repeatedly emphasised the role of armed workers in controlled of the new state that have put on after the revolution.