Right v Wrong

New conceptions of right and wrong must permeate the workers. We must look on conduct and actions that advance the social and economic position of the working class as right, ethically, legally, socially and by every other measurement. That conduct and those actions which aid, helps to maintain and gives comfort to the capitalist class, we must consider as wrong by every standard. The wage system implies the existence of two economic classes. Under it the workers suffer, it means no end of strife, therefore from the standpoint of the workers it is wrong and it is right to get together as a class and abolish the wage system, and in its place build socialism.

 When the warehouses are bulging with foodstuffs you and the like of you have produced while  the hungry are kept from them, how can you live if you do not resist? How can you defend your fundamental interests if you do not defy  restrictions? To resist the attacks of the enemy class is just as natural for the working class as it is for a red-blooded human being not to take punishment lying down. Those who live by our sweat and blood tell us it is not “right” to resist this robbery. Those who hold the big stick over you tell you to be meek as a lamb. Those who make the oppressive laws preach the sanctity of the law. This is boss law, boss justice, boss ideas of right and wrong. If the workers were to submit they would not be able to live; they would be reduced to something worse than chattel slavery.

Socialists say the workers cannot have respect for capitalist  law and morality directed against them by the bosses. The class interests of the working class — these are the supreme law for the workers. When you fight capitalism you are doing what is right

We are not socialists because we use socialistic phrases. We are socialists because we have a vision of the better tomorrow and want it to replace today’s nightmare of poverty, misery, and injustice. Socialism will ensure the workers’ free development, and through that development, their own liberation—the liberation of society, for the workers are society, in fact and numbers. The capitalists are a class, a useless, dangerous, parasitic minority that can be dispensed with.

The greatest enemy of capitalism is capitalism itself! Profit — the motive power which
had made capitalism so great a force in the development of the productive forces of mankind —
now threatens the safety of the old order. Did you ever notice how much work the boss wants you to do for that living? Every time there is the slightest excuse, he increases the hours of labour. One excuse seems to be as good as another. If there is a big demand for products, he wants you to work overtime to get the stuff out; while if there is a slack market, the employer suggests that you put in an extra hour or so to cheapen the cost of production. He claims that he can’t afford to pay you the wages you have been getting unless you make more profit for him. If a new process is installed, he wants you to work overtime in order to pay for putting it in; and if the process saves labor, he points out to you that you have to work longer now, because it wouldn’t do to waste the time of this machinery, as it only saves labour while it is in operation.

Your boss looks at this differently. He is not just interested in keeping you alive, he wants something for himself—which he has no intention of working for. He wants you to work for it. Every hour that you put in, over and above what provides for your living, is clear profit for the boss. One class works long hours under conditions generally and necessarily established by and suitable to the masters of industry, receives low wages, so that there may be high dividends and profits for the masters. For it must be borne in mind longer hours mean greater wealth produced, low wages mean greater profits for the capitalists. Shorter hours mean less production by each worker or group of workers, therefore the expense to the masters is greater to produce a certain amount of wealth. High wages, shorter hours, better shop conditions that will protect life and limb are objected to by the capitalist for a thousand and one “reasons” but really because it all means greater cost—thus less dividends—resulting in less palaces, less automobiles, less silk dresses for their wives and daughters. To the working class, shorter hours means less exertion of energy, longer lives, more workers employed, less competition for jobs, higher wages, more bread, better houses, happier lives.

Capitalists love to indulge in humanitarian phrases. History has proved, however, that they never grant anything to the working class unless forced to do so by the fight of the workers. When the media talk of a “labour dispute” it suggests a disagreement among people on an equal basis. It suggests a  bickering of parties to an agreement who happen to disagree on a certain point. It suggests an amicable settlement of mutual grievances. What a false and misleading notion! There are no labour disputes. There is the wish of the capitalist to press some more sweat and blood out of the workers, and there is the wish of the workers to fight their enemy, who feeds on them. Needless to say, the State is not “neutral”. At best the State only pretends to be a friend of the workers. When a union leader tries to persuade the workers that the State is equally fair to employer and employee, he is blinding the workers and undermining their resistance.  They have been preventing the workers from realizing their own strength. They have been putting every obstacle in the way of their fighting to secure better living. They have practically discarded the strike — that instrument of power by which the workers can force concessions from their exploiters. They call the strike an “expensive” method of struggle. They are so much concerned about the well being of the employers that they are afraid of some damage to their profits as a result of a successful strike. They have discouraged many a strike which broke out spontaneously because the workers could stand their conditions no longer. Wherever these leaders call a strike because they are forced to do so by the militant spirit of its members , that strike is often a sham, a subterfuge, a maneuver to avoid a real struggle. Instead of broadening the strike, calling out fo solidarity action and spreading the struggle over a wide area, instead of enthusing  the strikers with confidence,  the leaders smother the movement by underhand machinations with the bosses. The leaders are happy when they secure something like an arbitration to settle the dispute. Your employers try to prevent you from organising: organise! They will try to fire your organisers:  defend them!

The Socialist Party calls upon all the workers to join it in its struggle to reach this goal, and
thus bring into the world a new society in which peace, fraternity, and human fellowship will be the dominant ideals.  It is wrong to make a monopoly of any form of work to the exclusion of others who have as good a right to work as ourselves; if we do, we drive those people into the arms of capitalism, which uses them to crush us. As soon the State is no more needed we will be able to manage our own  affairs and Mankind will be free, forever.