How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organise itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class. (Section2.72)
Marx is saying that when the proletariat organizes itself as a class, instead of putting itself in power for its own interests, it will abolish class interests. To do this, the proletariat must run a temporary government or vanguard state. Marx seems to argue that this vanguard state will truly represent the interests of the people, but it actually tends to turn out that this new bureaucratic class will only further its own self-interest. Does this happen because capitalism has not yet collapsed? Or is the drive toward using position for self-gain an inherent aspect of human nature?