Unite For Workers Power

Are the social problems which we find a result of some fundamental wrong in our system or are they unrelated issues, each of which must be solved separately? Do insecurity, low wages, and industrial strife grow out of some basic maladjustment of the existing system of production or does each have a separate cause for which we must find a separate remedy? In a genuinely civilised society there would be no conflicting economic interests. There would be neither master nor servant, employer nor employee, rich nor poor. While these divisions remain civilisation is merely a name. A war of between  classes has raged throughout the ages. The present class struggle will end when the causes that give rise to it are removed. The economic structure of society must be remodeled and refashioned before the basis for a real civilisation can be laid. The capitalist is not his brothers keeper unless they keep him in fat dividends. When the employer cannot make profits out of his work-force he turns them out. The capitalists own the means by which we live and thus we are at their mercy in no less degree than were our ancestors in the days of slavery or serfdom.

The opposite of low wages are big profits and it is the  result of the capitalist system. The ruling class would like the workers to forget these things. The power to hire and fire the workers, to give carries with it the power to compel the workers to work for such wages as will leave the capitalists a profit from their labors. Society possesses a vast complex industrial organisation with ramifications in every nook and corner of the world  and tentacles that reach into every part of our lives. What is its purpose? Why does it exist? What motive drives it forward? The evils of the present social order are the product of a system in which the supreme purpose is the taking of profits. The business of making profits is shrouded in great mystery by the capitalists. They seek to make the workers believe that it is through some occult power that they make the processes of production yield them profits and build up great fortunes for them. There is no mystery about the source of profits. The capitalists do not create wealth out of the air in juggling with industry. They make profits because they purchase the labour-power of the workers for less than the value of the goods the workers produce; that is, they do not pay the workers the full value of their labour. There is no other way of making profits out of industry The lower the wages for which the capitalists can purchase the labour-power of the workers and the longer their hours of labour, the greater will be the capitalist’s profits. The ownership of industry is the source of the power of the profit-seeking class. It gives them control over the necessities of life and thereby control over people who are dependent upon the wages they earn for a living. The existing capitalist system is a huge profit-making machine.

The workers naturally seek to increase their wages and reduce their hours of labour. They endeavour to secure for themselves more of the wealth they produce and better working conditions. The capitalists resist. They see their profits menaced by the workers’ demands. The workers organise their power and refuse to work unless their demands are granted and we have a strike with all its accompaniments of stopping of production, misery and suffering for the workers, often rioting and bloodshed when the capitalists call upon the coercive force of the government to assist them in forcing the workers into submission.

The men of supposed “superior brains” at the head of great corporate organisations , as a rule, do
not contribute anything to the work of production carried on by these industries. At best their work consists of carrying on the competitive cheating of rivals and of devising shrewd schemes through which the workers can be deprived of more of what they produce. At worst, they are merely costly figureheads, drawing fortunes as salaries and rendering no service even from the standpoint of the profit system, lending little more than their reputation to offer respectability to businesses. The actual task of carrying on the work of production and distribution is in the hands of lesser managers, who are paid salaries for the work they perform, and not because they hold dominant financial positions.

The idea that Socialism would be established through a series of legislative acts extending gradually possibly over decades has been shown to be an illusion. Socialism will not be legislated into existence by reforms. The role of Parliament will is the stamp of approval to legitimise the will of the majority. The struggle of the working class will  be a political struggle for control of the state because it must gain control of the government before it can hope to establish industrial democracy. For the working-class to endeavor to take control of industry while all the repressive power of the class state remained in the hands of the capitalist class would be to invite destruction. The way for the workers to achieve economic freedom is through building a class conscious political movement which will carry on the work of educating the workers to an understanding of the system of exploitation which now exists and the class character of the government and to organize the workers for the struggle to wrest control of the government out of the hands of the capitalist class.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain can perhaps be the medium through which this work shall be done. The workers should give it their support. At the same time it is also a vital  part of the work of the workers to build up organisations in the industries themselves, having as their goal to supersede the capitalists in the control and running of industry.