We Won't Be Fooled Again

Today, despite all the promises that the likes of the Depression of the 1930’s would never happen again, the world is in the grips of economic and political crisis. Mass unemployment is already a reality. Workers rights and a whole range of health and social services are under fierce attack. Never have we stood in greater need of fundamental solutions. As a result of this recession workers in the country are in fear of losing their jobs. Every self-employed sub-contractor is in fear of bankruptcy looming ahead. The way to win workers away from Tory, Labour and Liberal is to tell them the truth.  And the plain fact is that the continued existence of capitalism will bring unemployment, wage cuts, poverty and insecurity to most people. The productive capacity of the country, which could produce an decent  standard of living for all, is not being utilised. Industry is being run not for use, but for the profit of the big banks, financial tycoons, multi-national corporations and the big land and property owners.

In fact, from the point of view of some Big Businesses the economic recession such as this was not at all unwelcome, provided it did not turn into a political revolution. A crisis furnishes an excellent challenge in the game of competition in which Big Business can emerge the winner by an overwhelming margin through bull-dozing Little Business into the ground. These far-flung business empires, of a scope and size unimaginable to previous generations, treat the entire planet as their domain. They are a law unto themselves, free to roam the globe in search of cheaper labour, more exploitable resources, more pliant governments and greater profits.  Governments have put themselves at the service of these giant corporations. They now hold the power of life and death over every region and industry. Workers are their pawns in a global game of mergers, shutdowns, and relocations. Simply look at the examples of INEOS and BAE. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, extentions of machines—as long as they provide dividends. Employers use their power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers through layoffs, shutdowns and purposeful neglect of health and safety. Unions, despite their brave efforts, have difficulty eliminating even the worst abuses of management power.

The recession and slump in company profits mean the capitalists can no longer make the old concessions and the fate of us all is now at stake, as the government continue to add their austerity cuts to our woes. The Conservatives and Labour offer nothing but wait-and-see-and-hope platitudes with policies that punish the population for the crimes of an economic system.

It is a law of capitalism that capital moves to wherever the profit is highest. Capitalism is a system of production for profit: for the accumulation of more capital. Companies therefore produce only the products that give them the greatest profit, and they try to set up their enterprises whenever the most favorable conditions for making maximum profits are to be found. The welfare of the people is simply trampled on by the profit-hungry monopolies: their search for profits is a ruthless rampage that leaves a trail of misery, ruin, hardship and poverty. This is how capitalism works. There is no way to preserve security of employment (let alone full employment) or decent living standards for the people under capitalism. The only way out is socialism. There can be no peace in the class war until the workers organise as a class, take possession of the resources of the earth and the machinery of production and distribution and abolish the wage system. The needs of people, not profit, are the motivating force of a socialist society. We believe in the ability of working people to manage and control their own productive institutions democratically.

Socialism promises more than an ideal. It promises to be the only answer to the pressing challenges before us. The Socialist Party is dedicated to a cooperative commonwealth. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social system from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede the anarchy of the capitalist market and its wasteful competition. Our goal is a socialist world, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. A world where along with our friends and neighbours we work to create all that men and women may need. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. Only socialism is capable of turning technology and globalisation to the needs of people. Socialism is the only option. The flaws of capitalism are too basic, the power of the corporations too great, the chasm separating the compulsions of profit and the needs of people too wide, for anything less to succeed. The half-measures of the reformists cannot meet the challenge. Government intervention—tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate investment and spending—has proven as bankrupt as the failed companies they have strived to protect. Regulatory reforms, aimed at the most blatant abuses of corporate power, have proved impotent. The Welfare State, won by hard struggles, is dismantled and emasculated.  Governments have passed vicious legislation, slashing social services and trampling the basic rights of workers.

Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts the campaign for the socialism once again on the immediate agenda.