Yes! labour would demand

an account from capital:

that impersonal god,

unknown to the worker,

crouching down somewhere

in his mysterious sanctuary,

where he sucked the life

out of the starvelings

who nourished him!

They would go down there;

they would at last succeed

in seeing his face

by the gleam of incendiary fires,

they would drown him in blood,

that filthy swine,

that monstrous idol,

gorged with human flesh!

(Germinal by Emile Zola)

(art by Calum Andrews)