24 SOCIAL SCIENTIST would necessarily be free of class-struggles. The point to emphasize, however, is, as the historical experience of the socialist regimes so clearly teaches us, that the straggle has to be conducted, from the side of the socialist forces, not by a blind (often hugely counter-productive) use of police methods, but essentially by ideological persuasion and popular mobilization. This does not, of course, mean that faced with what Marx called a 'Slave-owners' rebellion', the socialist state should forget how to use force. The march to the goal of a state of equality and abundance of goods is still the only possible goal for mankind, a vision shown to be realisable by the continuous expansion of production ever since the Industrial Revolution. Socialism is Humanity's first conscious step in 'the ascent from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom* of which both Marx and Engels spoke. The present collapse of socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe is an undoubted setback, a great ebb of the tide. What the collapse has exposed to the eye has removed several of our illusions, but also retold us several essential truths. This should be of help to us in the rallying of forces, once again, against world capitalism and in the global revival and reinforcement of the struggle for socialism—for 'the realm of freedom' beckons to us brighter than ever. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. It is important, however, to recognise that in his essay Lange carefully avoided any discussion in terms of the Labour theory of Valuer so that we should rather reframe the equation as C==V[=L] to suit his position in the essay in question.