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| END WAGE-SLAVERY |
Any system by which the buying and selling system is retained means the employment of vast sections of the population in unproductive work. It leaves the productive work to be done by one portion of the people whilst the other portion is spending its energies from shop cashiers to bank tellers. Given the money system, the wage system is inevitable. If things needed and desired are obtainable only by payment those who do the work must be paid in order that they may obtain the means of life. So long as the money system remains, each productive enterprise must be run on a paying basis. Therefore it will tend to aim at employing as few workers as possible, in order to spend less on wages. The existence of a wage system almost inevitably leads to unequal wages. “Buying and selling is the nursery of cheaters.” wrote the Leveller, Gerrald Winstanley.
Socialism is social production for social use; that is, the production of all the means of social existence – including all the necessaries and comforts of life – carried on by the organised community for its own use collectively and individually. To-day production is carried out purely in the interest and for the profit of the class which owns the instruments of production - the machinery and factories. Socialism does not mean government ownership or management. The State of to-day, nationally or locally, is only the agent of the possessing class; and State-owned businesses are run for profit just as other businesses are; and the government, as the agent of the possessing class, has, in the interests of its employers, to treat the employees just as other employees are treated. When society is organised socialistically, production will be carried on for the use of all and not for the profit of a few. The entire means of production thus being common property, there would no longer be a propertied class to make a profit. Under capitalism the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. This ownership enables the capitalists to control the product and keep the workers dependent upon them. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities. The economic interests of the capitalist class dominate our entire social system; the lives of the working class are recklessly sacrificed for profit
The social revolution can only be accomplished by men and women with a clear understanding of the economics of capitalism. The work of the socialist revolution depends in the last analysis upon the growth of class-consciousness amongst the working class, that therefore, makes the chief task of a Socialist Party to educate. Socialism will not make us angels upon Earth; it will help nurture our better qualities instead of fostering our baser faults, as is done by capitalism today. And that itself would be worth a revolution to realise.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain seeks to organise the workers, irrespective of creed or race, into one great party of labour. Our method will be political organisation at the ballot box to secure the election of delegates of socialist principles to all the elective governing public bodies of the country. We therefore appeal to all workers to pledge themselves to pursue, unfalteringly and undeviatingly the common ownership of the means of producing and distributing all wealth. We affirm that all land, factories and transport shall become the communal property of the people. We come to explain to our fellow workers to tell them of the principles for which we work and fight. We draw the attention of the trade unionists to the fact that the class struggle may result in lessening the exploitation of labour, it can never abolish that exploitation. The exploitation of labour will only come to an end when society takes possession of all the means of production for the benefit of all the people. We call upon every trade unionist to realise the necessity of independent political action on socialist lines, to join the Socialist Party and assist in building upon a strong political movement of the wage-working class.
These are the principles of the Socialist Party. Vote for their candidates, work alongside us to apply these principles. Vote and work for the building of the world anew. Let our slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, our weapon the vote.
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