The SPGB Programme

SOCIALISM NOW 

People are aware that  political parties which claim their support have a programme which they put before them, explaining their point of view in relation to present-day questions. The Labour Party has one programme, the Conservative another and the LibDems possess one. At the back of all these programmes, there exists in the mind of those who are propagating them a particular point of view as to the nature of present-day society and of the tendencies of present-day society.  Conservative programme represents the interests of a different class from that of the worker he is trying to acquire a vote from.  It represents the programme of the capitalist class which looks at present-day society from a different point of view from that of the working class. The Socialist Party programme however is the simplest to understand. Our demand is solely for the establishment of socialism, not a wish-list of reforms we would like to see the ruling class implement. In order to understand that attitude it is necessary to understand the socialist  point of view in relation to present-day society.

If we look at the production of wealth in present-day society, we find that that production of wealth can only take place through the co-operation of many diverse trades and industries interlocked one with the other. Within a given workshop, the whole variety of workers, manual and mental, co-operate together in order to produce a common product. Within society as a whole all industries co-operate together in order to produce wealth, the raw material of one industry being the finished product of the other. Without this co-operation of all the useful elements of society in production, there can be no society as we understand it to-day. Wealth to-day can only be produced and industry maintained through this co-operation. The vast industries in which men co-operate to produce wealth to-day are not the creation of any particular class, but have only been created and can only be maintained by the co-operative labour of all useful elements in society. The technical knowledge, the science which is utilised by these industries is not the creation of any particular social class, but is the common product of men co-operating together in society.

This technical knowledge, this application of science to industry, is constantly increasing, and with it, the power to produce wealth quickly and efficiently. Within our own lifetime, we have seen tremendous progress in the application of science and technology to industry. The ability to produce wealth grows every year, and with it, in a rational system of society, the welfare of the mass of the people should grow also. In capitalist society the opposite process is taking place. Alongside growing power to produce wealth there is growing poverty. The wealth which is produced by the co-operative labour of all active workers in industry is divided in most hopelessly unequal fashion,  giving one class bountiful riches and power and condemning the majority of us to poverty and subjection. The cause of the rotten distribution of wealth lies in the nature of the capitalist order of society. While wealth is cooperatively produced these industries are not owned by the workers who operate them, but by a small idle class owning the land, the banks and the means of production. Because this class owns the means of life, it is able to dictate to the producers the terms on which they will work. These terms may vary for different classes of workers, in accordance with their scarcity, skill, or organisation, but they are always of such a character as to allow to the employing class the lion’s share of the wealth which is produced by the labour of others.

All this may seem the most elementary and unworthy of emphasis yet the very basics of socialism, however, are being forgotten by many people in the 'progressive’  movement to-day. At the moment the idea is being widely spread that by an improvement in the efficiency of capitalism the workers will be able to obtain a continuous improvement in their standard of life. The idea behinds this is that the more capitalism produces wealth the better off everyone will become. This is not the case. The more wealth capitalism produces the greater its difficulties as a functioning system; the more difficult it is to obtain markets, the more intensive international competition becomes; the greater becomes the danger of the antagonisms created by this competition ripening into war. Capitalism widens the gulf between  workers and the capitalists, increases the difficulties of capitalism to dispose of its product, and drives the capitalist states irresistibly towards war.

At the present moment the difficulties of capitalism are increasing in every country. Capitalism has by no means solved the crisis into which the world has plunged it. There exists a scramble all over the world for control of oil fields and sources of supply of all kinds. The result of this scramble has been wars. Countries which had formerly been in the very forefront of capitalist “progress” are now almost ruined. New countries which had formerly been dependent upon them have thrown off their dependence and entering upon a period of expansion.

Under capitalism this state of affairs naturally leads to intensification of competition. In such a situation, the capitalists have only one solution of the difficulty, i.e., the increased exploitation of the working class. There are two ways in which the capitalists can increase this exploitation: (1) to reduce the wages of the working class, normally by de-valuing the value of money by Keynsian inflation (2) to speed up the working class while continuing to pay them the same wages by intensifying the work-process with new technology. These methods are not mutually exclusive. Very often both of them are adopted by the same body of employers, one after the other. The reformists hold that the crisis is not in a “normal” condition. If wage reductions will help in getting capitalism back to “normal,” then the majority of those leaders insist wage reductions ought to be agreed to by the working class. They have pursued this policy, not merely in theory, but in action as agreeing cuts to pay and pensions.  No amount of concessions by the workers can do more than meet the immediate difficulties which the capitalist class are faced with. Sooner or later new difficulties will arise in the development of the system, and the capitalists will call upon the workers for even further sacrifice.  The Socialist Party would like to know how to restore businesses to prosperity without reducing wages and without the employers giving up any of their claims on the profits of that industry. The only way is to induce the workers to forgo their customs and practices, allow the capitalists a free hand in utilising the labour-power which is available to them in order that an increased product may result at less cost.

 Even if the workers were to agree to facilitate production by abandoning their safeguards, there is no guarantee that they would get a share of the increased production. The division of the increased product would be settled like the division of the product to-day, by the relative economic strength of the workers on the one hand and the employers on the other. Waiting for the trickle down effect offers little hope to workers.

We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humankind.  It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars to steal the resources of other countries and causes the growing devastation of our natural environment.  Either we get rid of this outmoded and increasingly decrepit system or it will devastate humanity. Urgent action is necessary. People know that capitalism has failed but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. There is nothing to fear from socialism but everything to gain. Socialists are not fighting for utopias or for a future ‘Workers State.' In a socialist society the capitalist with the whip disappears. Here all workers are free and on an equal footing, working for benefit and enjoyment, tolerating no waste of social wealth. The purpose of socialist propaganda intends to make it clear to all the working-classes that society  as it exists to-day, is founded on the robbery of the ‘lower’ class by the ‘upper’ class of the useful by the useless, of the many by the few; that so long as this privileged robbery goes on, those who do all the useful work that is done will be constantly deprived of the refinements of life.  Let it be clearly understood that only two systems of society are possible, wage-slavery and socialism.

The abolition of the rule of capitalism and the realisation of socialism – nothing less, this is the electoral policy of the Socialist Party. This is an huge work which can be born only of the conscious action of the mass of workers. The path of the revolution follows clearly from its ends, its method follows from its task. This is the guiding principle of all socialists. The familiar concept of revolution stems from that period which saw the transition from the feudal to the capitalist world. This concept will not be valid for the transition from capitalism to socialism. Our doctrine tells us that socialism can’t be built on the ruins of the existing society by a revolt of starving beggars in rags. It can only result from organised workers. The only viable way forward is  struggle to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment.  To create a socialist world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution.