Workers in the Third World

Abstract

The process of what is called modernization in Europe was one of a comparatively rapid transition from an economy based on small-scale agriculture to one based on large-scale industry. Along with this went the creation of a majority wage-earning force in the population and a mass proletariat in mining, factory production, and transport—and often in agriculture itself. It was in this new mass, engaged in social production but deprived of social ownership, that socialists saw the potential for the overthrow of class-divided society and its replacement by one of abundance and equality.

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