No New Chains

 While the banks may be part of the problem it is the capitalist system as a whole  which is at fault. Socialism starts of with the basic  truism that our present system divides society into two classes, the “have all” and the “have nothing” class, and that it is the great mass of the people that do all the useful work who belong to the “have nothing” class. In this system we have one set called capitalists, and another set called workers; and they are at war with each other over a division of the product. Therefore socialism is class conscious. This does not mean that socialists must hate every capitalist individually, that some should be picked out as “scapegoats” while the economic power and political encroachment of all the others should be silently submitted to. It means that while we understand that every individual capitalist is the result of the present system as much as the wage worker, we still must fight the capitalists as a class, because the producers cannot reasonably expect anything but exploitation from the exploiters as a class. In short, socialism recognizes that the development of capitalist society substitutes tyrannical monopoly by a minority for individual property of the many.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain in common with all political parties, is a class party. The Socialist Party did not create class lines or class distinctions and regardless of whoever or whatever is to blame for the situation, there is no denying the fact that society is divided into these two well defined groups.  As a matter of fact, this condition was not brought about through the plans or cunningly devised schemes of any group in particular. The banker, industrialist and  property speculator are just as truly products of this system as the impoverished worker.  But we frankly admit that our own  political organisation is but an expression of class interest. The party therefore exists for the sole purpose of representing the producers of the world , that is to say, the working class. Seeing clearly the age-long struggle between the producers of the world’s necessities and the parasites upon their backs, the Marxian philosophy of the historic “class struggle” is the foundation of its propaganda and organisation work.

We in the Socialist Party do not advocate a policy of partial remedies such as minimum wage laws, or stringent banking and financial regulations plus all the kinds of legislation that has marked the attempts of the  ruling class to placate the workers. In the end, an enlightened and class-conscious proletariat will be satisfied with nothing less than the collective ownership and democratic management of the means and instruments of production and distribution.  There will be no material change in the condition of the people until we have a new social system based upon the mutual economic interests of the people: until you and I and all of us own in common those things that we collectively need and use.

The Socialist Party therefore calls upon all workers to unite under its banner so that we may be ready to conquer capitalism by making use of our political  power, so that we may put an end to the present barbaric system by the abolition of capitalism, the restoration of the land, and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribution, to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth for the present state of unplanned production and social disorder — a commonwealth which, although it will not make every person equal physically or mentally, will give to every worker the free exercise and the full benefit of their faculties.  We challenge those who are never tired of repeating that want, hunger, and necessity are imperative to make the bulk of people do any work at all, and declare that  “human nature being always essentially lazy”. Don’t tell us that some people are too lazy to work which we deny but even so, what do you think of a social system that produces people too lazy to work? If a person is too lazy to work don’t treat him with contempt. Don’t look down upon him with scorn as if you were a superior being. If there is a person too lazy to work there is something the matter with him or her and have been corrupted by this system. You could not, if you tried, keep a normal person inactive, and if you did he or she would go stark mad. Our conduct is determined largely by our economic relations. If you and I must fight each other to exist, we will not love each other very hard.  Business transactions are about  competition and what is more natural than that we should try to get the better of our fellows and cheat them if we can? And if you succeed that makes you as a success to be admired and emulated by others. When we have stopped clutching each others’ throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers and sisters, and we will establish the greatest civilization the human race has ever known.

The Socialist Party will fight open and above board everywhere against all capitalist parties alike. They cannot and will not assist capitalist politicians of one colour in one country and of the
other hue in another country. In short, the Socialist Party will be simply socialists and nothing else. Nature has laid out a bountiful spread for all to enjoy. There is little you can think of that cannot be produced in abundance. There is a plate and a place at the table with food for all, and any system of society that denies people the right and the opportunity to freely help themselves to Nature’s fruits ought to be abolished.

 What does the Socialist Party propose to do for the worker. Nothing! We simply want to awaken the workers to the fact that they are robbed every day in the week and if we can do that they will go to the polls on election day, and, instead of casting a vote to tighten the chains, they will vote for their emancipation. All the Socialist Party does is to show workers that they are victims of this system, that their interests are identical, that they constitute the millions and that the millions have the votes. The 1% have the money, but we, the 99%,  have the votes; and when we, have sense enough to know how to use the votes we will have not only the votes but will take the world’s wealth to be shared by all. If the working class keep on voting in the same old way, then the capitalists  will just  keep on getting what they produce. Some trust in governments to save them but Parliament is made up with few exceptions of opportunists and careerists. Now, in this competitive system the lackey sells him or herself to the highest bidder, the same as the worker does. Who is the highest bidder? The corporations, of course.

 From the narrow field of trade union struggle workers must enter the broad field of class struggle. But the workers themselves must take a wider view of the world. From their trade, from their work within the factory walls, their mind must widen to encompass society as a whole. They have to face the State; they enter the realm of politics. Effective unions will never exist till the workers are revolutionary socialists, just as effective political action can never come till the masses are thoroughly class-conscious and are fully determined to stop all thievery by the capitalist class and build instead  the co-operative commonwealth. If ever there was a time for workers to unite to fight their battle against capitalism and end wage-slavery, that time is now.