A Better World

The basis of socialist society must be the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. The factory floor and the fields on the farm must be under the control of society as a whole, and not as at present under the control of individual capitalists or corporations.  What do we mean by 'society as a whole'? We mean that ownership and control is not the privilege of a class but of all the persons who make up society. No longer will one enterprise compete with another. The organisation of production shall be a cooperative organisation of all the members of society. Nationalisation or state ownership is where a small group controls everything; production has been organised, so that capitalist no longer competes with capitalist; conjointly they extract surplus value from the workers, who have been practically reduced to slavery. There may exist planned production against the anarchy of competition but also retained is the exploitation of one class by another.  There is a joint ownership of the means of production, but it is joint ownership by one class, an exploiting class that is in control of the State. Socialist society does not merely organise production; in addition, it frees people from oppression by others.

In socialism it is no longer the individual manufacturer who produces; the work of production is effected by the gigantic cooperative as a whole. In consequence of this change, we no longer have commodities, but only products. These products are not exchanged one for another; they are neither bought nor sold. They are simply stored in the communal warehouses, and are subsequently delivered to those who need them. In such conditions, money will no longer be required. There will be an ample quantity of all products, our present wounds will long since have been healed, and everyone will be able to get just as much as he needs. A person will take from the communal storehouse precisely as much as he or she needs, no more. No one will have any interest in taking more than he or she wants in order to sell the surplus to others, since all these others can satisfy their needs whenever they please. Money will then have no value. Some socialists suggest because of the history of capitalism and the shortages it has imposed upon vast numbers of people in the first days of socialist society, products will probably be distributed (rationed) in accordance with the amount of work done by the applicant but as a short half-way measure until manufacturing levels are suffice that all can be supplied according to the needs.

In a socialist society there will be no classes and as there will be no classes, this implies there will likewise be no State. The State is a class organisation of the rulers. The State is always directed by one class against the other. A capitalist  State is directed against the workers, whereas a ‘Workers’ State is directed against the capitalist. In the socialist society there are neither l capitalists, nor wage workers; there are simply people. If there are no classes, then there is no class war, and there are no class organisations. Consequently the State has ceased to exist. Since there is no class war, the State has become superfluous. There is no one to be held in restraint, and there is no one to impose restraint.

Administration and planning of production will be entrusted to various kinds of appointed and accountable committees. There will be no need for special ministers of State, for police and prisons, for laws and decrees - nothing of the sort. Just as in an orchestra all the performers watch the conductor's baton and act accordingly, so here all will consult the reports and will direct their work accordingly, or as sailors follow the advice of shipping forecasts and farmers heed the frost warnings of the meteorological offices. The State, therefore,  ceases to exist. There are no groups and there is no class standing above all other classes.

Moreover,  those working in these specialised co-ordination centres  one person will not be a  the permanent bureaucracy.

Socialism is organised throughout cooperatively. There will not be permanent strata of managers, nor will there be persons who do one and the same kind of work throughout their lives. Under capitalism, if a man is an assembly worker, he spends his whole life tending a machine; if he is the manager of a department, he spends his days in issuing orders and in administrative work; if he is a mere labourer, his whole life is spent in obeying orders. Nothing of this sort happens in communist society. With socialism people will enjoy a many-sided culture, and find themselves at home in various branches of production: one day in an administrative capacity, another  working on the shop-floor, One year perhaps in a hospital, tending the needs of the sick, another year in the forests planting saplings and chopping down trees. This will be possible when all the members of society have been suitably educated.

The class war now swallows up vast quantities of resources. In the new system this will be liberated and people will no longer struggle one with another.  How much, again, is lost to society through the competitive struggle of sellers one with another, of buyers one with another, and of sellers with buyers. How much futile destruction results from commercial crises. How much needless outlay results from the disorganization and confusion that prevail in production. The energy and the materials which now are wasted in wars will be saved. If we consider how much is squandered upon armaments alone, we shall realise that this amounts to an enormous quantity.

All these energies, which now run to waste, will be saved in socialism. The organisation of industry on a purposive plan will not merely save us from needless waste, in so far as large scale production is always more economical. In addition, it will be possible to improve production from the technical side. Under capitalism, there are definite limits to the introduction of new machinery. The capitalist only introduces new machinery when he cannot procure a sufficiency of cheap labour. If he can hire an abundance of cheap labour, the capitalist will never instal new machinery, since he can secure ample profit without this trouble. The capitalist finds machinery requisite only when it reduces his expenses for highly paid labour. Under capitalism, however, labour is usually cheap. The bad conditions that prevail among the working class become a hindrance to the improvement of manufacturing technique. This causal sequence is peculiarly obvious in agriculture. Here labour power has always been cheap, and for that reason, the introduction of machinery in agricultural work has been extremely slow. In communist society, our concern will not be for profit but for the workers. There every technical advance will be immediately adopted. The chains which capitalism imposed will no longer exist. Technical advances will continue to take place under communism, for all will now enjoy a good education, and those who under capitalism perished from want - mentally gifted workers, for instance - will be able to turn their capacities to full account.

Socialist production signifies the enormous development of productive forces. As a result, no worker in a socialist society will have to do as much work as of old. The working day will be  shorter, and as soon as mankind is enabled to spend less time upon feeding and clothing, it will be able to devote more time to the work of mental development. Human culture will climb to heights never attained before. It will no longer be a class culture, but will become a genuinely human culture. with the disappearance of man's tyranny over man, the tyranny of man over nature will likewise vanish. Men and women will for the first time be able to lead a life worthy of thinking beings instead of a lives of unthinking robots. “The needy man, burdened with cares, has no appreciation of the most beautiful spectacle.” said Marx. Socialism brings the sense of wonder and marvel to the minds of individuals

Socialists must never weary in our proofs and explanations, in order to convince our fellow workers that their hopes for a better life under capitalism are the outcome of fraud by others or are due to their own self-deception. We must patiently and clearly demonstrate that they ought unhesitatingly to enter the socialist party and despite all difficulties fight shoulder to shoulder with all those who work, to make common cause against the bosses.  The position of the worker  under capitalism is quite hopeless. We must tell people that as long as capitalism lasts there will always be a businessman riding on his or her back.  The Socialist Party must draw into our ranks all those who labour, all those to whom the new life is dear, all those who have learned to think and to fight.

Marxism is sometimes described as “the science of the working class movement”. Marxism is the doctrine of the class struggle. Marxism cannot be regarded as a system of abstract theories unrelated to real life but as a developed science verified and enriched by the acid test of experience. Marxism holds that the leading force in transforming society from capitalism to socialism is that class which is itself a product of capitalism, the working class or, as Marx more precisely defined it, the proletariat, i.e., wage workers who earn their livelihood through the sale of their labor power and have no other means of existence, all toilers and all working people working people is meant all who work for a livelihood and do not exploit the labor of others; a category which includes a large section of the farming population and of the middle class of the cities. Marxism constitutes a “guide to action” for the working class to follow in the struggle to achieve political power and to build socialism. Marxism maintains that the interests of the working class (the proletariat) and the interests of the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) are irreconcilable and that therefore, the interests of the working class can not be served through collaboration or alliance with the capitalists but in opposition to them. From these conflicting interests of the two basic classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, capitalists and workers, arises an antagonism, a struggle, between the two classes: the class struggle. The class struggle is not an invention of the Marxists but something which has manifested its existence in all countries of the world without exception. What Marxism does do is recognize the class struggle as the motive force of history, as the means by which society moves forward and achieves higher forms of civilization. Consequently, the strategy and tactics of Marxism are also the strategy and tactics of the class struggle of the working class. To give direction and guidance to this struggle, which is essentially a political struggle, the working class must of necessity develop its own Marxist political party, apart from and independent of all other political parties. Without such a Party, free from opportunism, irreconcilable towards compromisers seeking conciliation, in opposition to the capitalist class and its state power, the interests of the working class under capitalism cannot be served nor socialism eventually realized.