Individual Property

The form of property of means of production of individual producers. There are two forms of individual property: one is the producers’ private property in the means of production, such as property of individual peasants; the other is the “property of the associated, social individual”, i.e., the means of production in the scope of the whole society are appropriated in common by associated individuals, hence social property. Under such “property of the associated, social individual”, first, everyone appropriates the means of production, and everyone is equal before the means of production. Some people do not appropriate the means of production, while others lose the means of production. Second, the means of production are not privately owned by individuals, but appropriated in common by associated individuals. What Marx meant by the “re-establishment of individual property” is the establishment of “property of the associated, social individual”.

Since individual private property, as a form of individual property, was eliminated by capitalist economy in the course of capitalist development, the task of proletarian revolution is to establish “property of the associated, social individual” on the basis of eliminating capitalist private property. This is a negation of negation, not simply restoring the original individual private property, but establishing individual property on a higher level, so Marx called this process “re-establishment of individual property”.