Workers For A Classless World

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. We all know that in society there has been a division of society, and that today it consists mainly of two economic classes. The capitalist class upon the one hand and upon the other the working class; and these two classes, whether you admit it or not, are pitted against each other, not only in this country, but throughout the world, in an irrepressible struggle. The profits which sustain the wealth of the ruling class are all produced by the exploitation of labour; without the working class, there are no profits for the rich to accumulate. These two classes can never be permanently harmonised or reconciled. It is this that is called the class struggle, that is shaking the foundations of the whole world.

 It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before. To be a class-ridden society is to create conflict and great problems. To live in a classless society would be in all our interests.  So surely we agree that a classless society would be a basis for a true community of shared interests. Our understanding of class can help us to take charge of our destiny and enable us to create a better world. The way to end our class society and to reconcile our interests is through common ownership. By this we mean that all people should stand in equal relationship with each other about the means of producing wealth, about natural resources and our entire world. On this classless basis, without the market system, in all the important activities of life, citizens of a genuine community of interests will be able to co-operate to serve the needs of all people.

The creators of all wealth, workers, obtain in wages only the minimum necessary to live and raise children so that capitalism has a steady supply of labour-power. All means of production, whether factories, machines or mines, are owned by the capitalist class. Workers possess only their own labour-power which they must sell in order to live. Profit is derived from unpaid labour time. Workers’ labour power is purchased on the market by the owners of capital. The commodities produced by workers’ socialised labour are privately appropriated by monopoly capitalists. They will continue to be produced so long as they can be sold for profit on the market. The class interest of the proletariat is to eliminate capitalism entirely and to build a socialist society. The basis for transformation – into communism.’ the classless society free from exploitation and from racial, sexual and all other forms of inequality. The only viable way forward is revolutionary 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.

While the various groups calling themselves Marxists have widely different views on many vital problems, there still remain fundamentals upon which they all agree. Marxist philosophy holds that the material world – matter – is primary. Ideas – consciousness – are the reflection of this objective reality. Marxists maintain that our society is divided into classes based on groups of people standing in the same relationship to the means of production. Marxists hold that the interests of these classes are antagonistic and irreconcilable and that a constant struggle goes on between them over the division of the wealth that. society produces. Marxists hold that the ability of the present ruling class, the capitalists, to maintain their power is due to their using their economic strength to control the government and use it as “an instrument of oppression” against the rest of society. The owning class was the ruling class because it controlled the government. The government protects the Capitalist class by protecting the source of its economic strength private property. It is the will of the capitalist class that the rights of private property be protected. It uses its control of government to write down its will and call it law. It uses its control of government to enforce its will, the law. The law is the voice of the ruling class. Marxists say that the ability of the present ruling class, the capitalists, to maintain their power is due to their using their economic strength to control the government and use it as “an instrument of oppression” against the rest of society. Marxism is a guide to action, based on practice it recognises all things in nature and society as constantly coming into being and passing away. Marxism is as much of a broad science of society as we can expect today. It will become a more exact, a more “true” science, as we progress toward socialism and a society without class divisions.  It is inevitable that sooner or later these social conditions will impel people to organise to end the conflict between the socialised labour process and private ownership of the decisive means of production, the factories and farms by the establishment of socialism. With socialism, production takes place for people’s use. Socialism will see the full potential of all human beings being realised and the needs of all being met.

 Class democracy and “democracy” under a classless society are two different things, just as capitalist “democracy” and social democracy are the different expressions of different systems. Democracy literally means “rule of the people” but we live in a class society in which one class maintains its favorable economic position because it controls the rule by the people. The majority of people currently support the present system and therefore the capitalist class controls the government only as long as the majority of the voters permit them to.  Workers secured the right to vote after great agitation which threatened to educate the masses to an understanding of the class nature of the state that the ruling class thought it better to make concessions than to seek to maintain its power by force of arms and risk losing all. The right to vote to the worker was conceded during a period of an ascendant capitalism to assist in the overthrow of the remnants of the previous feudal society but which now can  frightened the ruling class. ‘Bourgeois’ democracy is the only exploitative system in which the expressions of political power (right to vote, to form political parties , right to assembly and protest) are not the monopoly of the ruling class. Theoretically, the working class have the legal right to use their majority of ballots in any way they choose. More importantly, the workers  could easily become conscious of their power. Therefore, it is even more essential for the capitalist class than it was for the ancient slave-owners or medieval nobility to convince the masses of people that the state rules in behalf of all citizens. The slave-owners and lords of the manor persuaded the slaves and serfs that class rule was right; but the modern capitalist tells the workers there are no classes! The old ruling classes justified their status; the new ruling class denies its own existence! The more potential political power the oppressed classes possess, the more urgent it is for the ruling class to insure that that potential power is not transformed into actual power.

  If  workers can prevent the capitalist from exercising its control of government, it has dealt them a terrible blow.  If our fellow workers find it necessary to unite upon the industrial field, to unite and strike together, how can they consistently fight each other at the ballot box? Politics is simply the expression in political terms of the economic interests of certain groups or classes. The masters and exploiters realise this fact and they are in politics for its power. They must rule corruptly for they are in the minority. They have not the votes of their own to put themselves in power, but they have the money with which to corrupt the electorate. They have the money with which to corrupt the courts. They have the power to do this because they have the money, and they have the money because they own the means of production and distribution. Any change in people’s lives is not due to the benevolence of the market, but rather to changes beyond the direct control of the bosses.

The tenet of modern capitalism is  reflected in its insistence that the government does not serve any economic system, but that it works in behalf of its citizens in general. If they are obliged to describe the system it is no longer “capitalism” but rather, a “mixed economy” or even called “people’s capitalism.” This theory of the “mixed economy” reinforces the myth of the impartial state. As more and more corporate executives become government officials (and vice versa through the revolving door of bureaucracy) , their scholarly defenders emphasise ever more insistently the non-capitalist character of the state re-defining it. They omit all reference to the question of the role and character of the State. Class relations are not referred to. New theories are seized upon, expounded by politicians and academics, then surreptitiously ditched. They claim class struggle has disappeared from our society but instead it is a moral issue of greed and envy. There is extensive manipulation of statistical data to exaggerate the number and social status of the so-called “white collar” and “middle class” but capitalism remains essentially what it has been from its birth: a system of exploitation of the many for the enrichment and aggrandizement of the few.

Life today compared with what it was 100 or 200 years ago may be better and no-one can deny it has improved. However, the truth of the matter is that most people do not compare their situation with that of their grandparents or great-grandparents and consequently feel relief and satisfaction. Ordinary people compare themselves and their lives to the rich, to what they know society can deliver for privileged few, and they question why it is not available for all. Even the expectation that things should get better can contribute towards the formation of class consciousness when that expectation is set back by the austerity of recession. Capitalism is a system which develops and changes. Yesterday’s  ‘miracle economy’ is no more. There is no room inside the system to concede improvements in living standards for the majority without it eating into the profits of the minority and leads inexorably to political crisis. Class war is not the exception but are an inevitable consequence of  the system.

 Socialism is a condition of world society in which the possible production of wealth exceeds need, where the organisation of production is planned consciously and not by the blind operation of the market. Socialism is also an idea, the product of a certain reading of history that leads us to suppose that all these things are possible. We do not create a classless society by waiting for it. The establishment of a socialist, planned economy, based on the needs of the people, will mean the end to the chaos of capitalist production with its lack of planning, repeated crises, unemployment, inflation and criminal waste.  The guiding principle will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” Socialism will not a “utopia” but there will no longer be the struggle between opposing classes. In a classless society there is nobody to suppress or keep in check. Men and women are in no need of the big stick of the State. They manage their affairs without the state coercion. Mankind is free, forever. Socialism which leaves the working class as a subject class is not socialism. The sooner this is grasped the better.

The time has come for the Socialist Party to look at itself. A time of no wishful thinking or high sounding phrases. A  socialist party is not by any means a merely “educational” enterprise or “debating club”. The party must become, in the full sense, in word and act, the conscious, fighting, party of the working class. This task, however, cannot be accomplished overnight nor by any organisational sleight-of-hand. It must be achieved step by step. We must have an active party yet we cannot have an active party merely by “being active.” “Activism” becomes dissipated and cancels out unless we understand the activity, its goal and purpose and direction. Such understanding is reached by the freest possible discussion of all views and tendencies. Discussion enables us to understand, draw conclusions from, and direct our activities; actions test, apply and extend the influence of the ideas formulated in discussion.  Political action does not mean simply carrying on a parliamentary campaign every four years, and going into hibernation between with sporadic “educational” work occasionally interrupting. The Socialist Party has a revolutionary position, a party line. There is no ambiguity or indecision about where it stands. It must aim to weaken the influence of every pro-capitalist or anti-socialist party and to establish its own influence.