ABSTRACT
Writing in 1854, Marx observed that, of all countries, Great Britain was the one in which ‘the despotism of capital and the slavery of labour’ had reached their most advanced stage. The disappearance of intermediate classes left only ‘the millionaire commanding whole industrial armies and the wage-slave living only from hand to mouth’ to face each other head-on. ‘In no other country the war between the two classes that constitute modern society has assumed so colossal dimensions and features so distinct and palpable.’ 1
