Dov Ber Borochov Quotes
The proportion of mental workers increases with the cultural development of the people…. The capitalist, or entrepreneur contributes mental labor to his enterprise. His work is that of organizing and managing the business. The wage-earner’s contribution consists chiefly of physical labor.
This treatise was first published in a Yiddish Newspaper in New York City.
Dov Ber Borochov, 1881-1917, Russian Marxist & Zionist, The Economic Development of the Jewish People, 1916
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This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted. In this famous quote, he correctly anticipated the growth of small businesses, the transition possibilities between workers and employers. At the time, workers and employers were distinct social and economic classes with much hostility between them and relatively little class mobility. Conflicts—even bloody ones—between labor unions and employers were common. Very fascinating is his prediction regarding labor unions. At the time a minority of workers were members of unions and much of the labor strife was caused by companies trying to prevent unionization and unions trying to organize more workers. 60 years after this prediction Bellamy appeared to have been wrong in that the labor movement had grown tremendously and much larger percentage of the workforce were Union members. However, the percentage of unionized workers began to decline and by the year 2000—his target year of his prediction—a comparatively few workers were union members. While labor leaders of 2000 would argue that unions were needed as much as ever, the vast majority of the workforce tended to agree that they had become unnecessary.
This statement from an avowed Marxist illustrates the complexity of the Cold War. Marxists and Communists like Pannekoek felt that there had to be a workers’ movement to overcome the capitalist interest in a nuclear arms race. However, they also believed that Russia had botched communism so badly that there could be no workers’ movement in the Soviet Union because of the repression. Only in America they believed could the impetus for disarmament come.
The factory workers in Lynn, Massachusetts started their own newspaper: This was published four years before Marx and Engles published the Communist Manifesto
first for women
Dov Ber Borochov was a Marxist Zionist and one of the founders of the Labor Zionist movement. He was also a pioneer in the study of the Yiddish language.
