Our idea is Revolution

CLASS WAR

The Socialist Party of Great Britain often meets with the criticism that we are too small a political party and so of little consequence and significance. Numbers of itself is not sufficient justification to jettison an idea. You might have all the workers of the country embraced in some vast organisation and yet they would be very weak if they were not organised upon correct principles; if they did not understand, and understand clearly, what they were organised for, and what their organisation expected to accomplish. The Socialist Party has for its definite object not only the betterment of the condition of working people in the wage system, but the absolute overthrow of wage slavery that all men and women may be emancipated.

Society has been divided into two warring classes. The capitalist owns the machinery in modern industry, but he has nothing to do with its operation. He lives perhaps a thousand miles from where the factory is located and he owns all the product because he owns the machinery. By virtue of such ownership he has the economic power to appropriate to himself the wealth produced by the use of that equipment. What of the workers? In the first place they have to bitterly compete with each other for the privilege of being employed by the capitalist.  Every few years,, no matter what party is in power, no matter what our domestic policy is, how high the tariff or what the money standard, every few years the cry goes up about “overproduction” and the workers are  sacked by the thousands and thousands, and are idle. No work, no food, and after a while, no credit, and all this in the shadow of the abundance these very workers have created. Why should any worker surrender to anybody any part of what labour produces? If the person who produces wealth is not entitled to it, who is? The capitalist claims it. The capitalist has become a profit-taking parasite. Industry is now concentrated and operated on a very large scale. The capitalists hires executives, managers and overseers to operate their plants and produce wealth. The capitalists are absolutely unnecessary. They have no longer have a part in the process of production.

The most important thing for the worker is to recognise is the class struggle.  What is class-consciousness? It is simply a recognition of the fact on the part of the worker that his interest is identical with the interest of every other worker. Class-consciousness points out the necessity for working-class action, economic and political. What is it that keeps the working class in subjection? It can be stated in a single word - ignorance. The working class have not yet learned how to unite and act together. The capitalists have contrived during all these years to keep the working class divided, and as long as the working class is divided it will be helpless. It is only when the working class learn to unite and to act together, especially on election day, that there is any hope for emancipation.

 No-one can be for the worker without being against the capitalist. No man can be for the capitalist without being against the worker.  There is a quarrel between them over a division of the product. Each wants all they can get. If you increase the share of the capitalist don’t you decrease the share of the workers? Are their interest not diametrically opposite? If you support and vote for a party that opposes your interests it is because you don’t have intelligence enough to understand your interests. That is why the capitalists gets the better of you. They understand their vested interests and know how to .protect them. No-one can serve both capital and labour at the same time.

Workers may, at times, temporarily improve their conditions within certain limitations, but will still remain wage-slaves, and why wage-slaves? For just one reason and no other – they have got to work. To work they have got to have tools, and if they have no tools they have to beg for work, and if they have got to beg for work the boss who owns the tools will determine the conditions under which they shall work. As long as employers owns the tools they own your job, and if they own your job they are masters of your fate. You are in no sense free. You are subject to their interest and will. They  decide whether you shall work or not. Therefore, they decide whether you shall live or die. Any one who tries to persuade you that you are free  is guilty of insulting your intelligence. You will never be free until you are the master of the means of production. As long as  you live in capitalism, and you have nothing but your labour power you remain a wage-slave.

The socialist’s mission is to win the world. The reformists of  the Labour Party claim that a “promised land” can be brought about only if the capitalists and the working class are “reasonable”, if only we all “work together in the national interests”. With such slogans they paper over the class nature of the system. They cover up the inevitability of class conflict. Defence of capitalism lies beneath their every action. Labour Party politicians claim that they stand for improving the lot of the working class, but they will fight tooth and nail against any challenge to the system itself.

Presently, elements of the left-wing movement is attempting to build a new party. Various initiatives from left groups form part of this party building . Some indeed already identify themselves as “parties”. A new party” is proving to be a curious mixture and the may just simply turn out to be product of a disordered vision and confused mind. General agreement on the object by no means presupposes universal agreement on policy. There are wide differences between the groups involved in Left unity.

It will be time enough to forswear political action when the master class no longer strive to retain their mastery of the political machine. But for now, the Socialist Party determinedly engages in the battle of ideas and takes to the political field to contest the capitalist class at the ballot box.