Again, though on the surface "him" is Decoud, in an odd sense I continue to hear "him" as Death. I.e., the ruling class thinks that by exploiting the People, the People will kill death for them, i.e., somehow create an ideal world into which mortality cannot reach. It is a fundamental psychological insight into human exploitation, and the ultimate denuniciation of the futility of the dream-ideal. See also the last sentence of the paragraph.