ABSTRACT
Revolution is necessary not only to overthrow capital but also to transform human beings 'on a mass scale'. Both to transform the existing modes of distribution and production and also for 'the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness', the consciousness of the 'all-round dependence' of each upon each, this consciousness of the power of social labour, the communist revolution is essential. Marx envisioned a clear alternative to the rule of capital, a communist society, one in which social wealth, rather than accruing to the purchasers of labour-power, is employed by freely associated individuals. Although Marx is often described as opposed to political economy as such, it is important to remember that in the 'Inaugural Address' of the First International he called attention to the existence of not one political economy but two, the political economy of capital and the political economy of the working class.
