Together Workers Can Go Forward

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

Anti-capitalists - what are they fighting against? The horrors of capitalism are as old as capitalism itself and not simply a product of the last few decades. The reduction of people to commodities, sweat-shop labour, the long hours of work that destroy the lives of women, men and children, the land-grab and destruction of people’s livelihoods as poor farmers are driven from the land are characteristic effects of capitalism throughout its history.

Marx long ago pointed out that the way capitalism functions hides from people what is really happening. Those who buy and sell on markets see only the interplay of goods on those markets, not the human activity that lies behind this interplay. Those whose incomes come from dividends and interest, or playing on the money markets, believe money itself has a magical ability to grow which has nothing to do with the toil of people in factories, fields, mines and offices. Capitalists who live off the labour of workers believe they provide work for them. Unemployment is seen as resulting from some shortage of the total work that needs doing, rather than from the absurdity of a system driven by the blind competition between rival owners of the means of making a livelihood. Marx called this upside down view of the world encouraged by capitalism “the fetishism of commodities” – comparing it with the religious notion that god created humans, not humans god.

A capitalist can use and abuse his capital not as his whim dictates but in a certain well-defined manner, otherwise he is liable to an immediate penalty, namely, bankruptcy. He cannot use his profit as he likes. He must accumulate to improve his equipment and expand his enterprise. Otherwise he loses not only his profit but also his original capital. At a certain stage competition forces him even to abandon the individual ownership of his business and to enter into a corporation, and later into a cartel. Finally, he is compelled to wage war, to devote to that purpose an increasingly larger portion of his profits and to endure the haughty intervention of militarists and bureaucrats. All this proves that capitalist property is a contradictory phenomenon, self-devouring in character. And this we have known since the time of Marx.

The right to private property, the right to exploit, the right to rob, the right cause wars. These are the  basic rights of  of capitalism. Our answer to those rights is the abolition of the right of private property, and instead the common ownership of the means of production, so that all may enjoy the fruit of their labour, and consume it, thus eliminating economic crises, and the reason for wars. Socialists are not out to create a bloody revolution but work for a fundamental change in  the conditions of the people that can only be attained by transforming basic social relations, by a shift in ownership and control from the few to the many when the whole of society is changed by the elimination of the private ownership of the entire means of production, socialism. The Labour Party is a capitalist party. If so-called revolutionaries support Labour, even as a lesser evil or with all sorts of qualifications to their support, they are betraying the working class. To offer any support for Labour is to directly contradict the fundamental task of presenting the working class with a clear alternative to all capitalist parties and to the whole system of capitalism. A mass party must be created which presents a clear alternative to the capitalist parties, and which is able to prove in consistent struggle that it really represents working class interests.

The starting point for understanding politics is a knowledge of the real structure of society. That society is composed of different classes, ranging from wage workers in the factories, fields and offices to stockholders of the corporations which own and operate them. Which class rules and how do its agents secure their domination over our economic, political and cultural life?

The history of the working class has been a history of unremitting struggle against exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. The working class came into existence by the forcible driving of the peasants from the land. The landless peasants were then forced to work at starvation wages in the developing factories, under threat by Government legislation of branding, flogging and execution. The ruling class, while in the main using lies and deception to exploit and oppress the workers, has never shrunk from brutalising the people. The ruling class has revealed its true features time and time again. Up until now, the capitalists have had a fine time concocting lies against the working class and deceiving the people. Many workers have had the media misrepresent their case when they were faced with the capitalists’ “take-away” attacks such as on so-called occupational final salary pension cuts.

Some of the Left Communist nature accuse trade unions of being instruments for the administration of capitalism because of the pressing need for workers to organise themselves to fight for immediate economic demands. Bosses do not look kindly on workers who are unorganised then attempt to form unions that will fight in its class interests. If the bosses thought that unionisation was purely class collaborationist, why would they use all the power of the state against workers organising. Nor is it inevitable that participation in the immediate economic struggles of the workers in a trade union form will lead to sellout by capitalist ideology. We agree that trade unions are not revolutionary organisations and fight only for limited demands within the system. Furthermore, once workers force the boss to recognise the union, the next step for the bosses is to attempt to reverse that workers’ victory. Employers’ management do this because a strong, militant union will eat into their profits and because such a union will become a vehicle for still greater struggle by the workers. And it has to be conceded that the boss class have been quite successful in blunting union struggle. It is not true that the trade unions promotes class collaboration. If that were true the bosses would welcome union recruitment campaigns instead of opposing them. Rather it is the lack of understanding within the working class that permits union leaders to take control. Without a knowing the nature of capitalism, workers will be unable to withstand the onslaught of the bosses.

Ordinary workers are powerless to determine the decisions that most vitally shape their lives. They are not consulted beforehand and often do not even know what these decisions are until they are struck by their consequences. The major decisions are made for them by people in pivotal positions who have centralized the means of information and the policy-making powers in their hands. The elite in power, on the other hand, are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. Their failure to act, their failure to make decisions, is itself an act that is often of greater consequence than the decisions they do make. For they are in command of the major hierarchies and organisations of modern society. They rule the big corporations. They run the machinery of the state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the military establishment.

The very rich of 2010 are largely the descendants of the very rich of 1900 or 1950. These acquired their fortunes thanks to the right of private property, by corporate manipulations, by favorable tax legislation and through compliant political authorities. The very rich have used existing laws, they have circumvented and violated existing laws, and they have had laws created and enforced for their direct benefit. Their immense revenues are derived from their ownership of the giant corporations. They are closely tied up in a thousand ways with the CEOs of the immense transnationals . The corporate rich alone are really free, or at least enjoy incomparably more freedom of action and of inaction than anyone else. Their wealth affords them unrestricted command over society and its products and liberates them from the grim material necessities of the lower classes. Money provides power and power provides freedom. The corporate rich, the warlords and the big politicians jointly develop and administer domestic and foreign policies. Decisive power on decisive issues is concentrated exclusively in the top circles. The current monopolizers of power have no responsibility to the people or to anyone else. Within the existing setup they are uncontrolled and uncontrollable and they profit from this state of irresponsibility.

Every crisis sets in motion the forces which temporarily enable capitalism to get out of crisis. Only when the working people develop a political movement to seize state power does the capitalist system break down. On its own, simply given economic contradictions under capitalism, the system could continue forever, breeding greater destructive crises, and then prosperous booms.

 This is the natural order of the damnable and sordid economic system in which we live. This is the order which will remain until it is altered by one of these classes, and the class which will make the alteration will be the working-class. Why has the mighty force of the working class, so filled with the spirit of rebellion and international brotherhood, never overthrown their oppressors? It is impossible to hold the people down solely by violence – it can only be done by deception. The political platform of the capitalists has been presented by their parties in as confused a manner as possible so the people won’t grasp what they stand for. With the proper understanding of the economic system, the workers will soon find means to end that system and  have for its goal the benefit for the whole of the community.

A new storm against the capitalist class is now developing. A drive to break the unions is under way. Wage, benefits and working condition gains are being taken away. Our labour struggles are mostly defensive trying to maintain concessions won previously. The capitalist class is grinding the working class down, and where there is oppression, there is resistance and it is producing a response. Pessimists see only half the struggle, only the capitalist attack.

Working people are seeing through the treacheries of the  capitalist class. There is deep distrust and rejection of the official channels into which the capitalist class tries to divert politics. Parliaments are largely irrelevant to people’s needs and the actions people must carry out. Trade union officials are viewed as ineffective and regarded with suspicion. Politicians are heroes to no one. The percentage of people who vote at elections is at a historical low point. Newspapers and television are read and watched cynically. Social consciousness is deeper.

There is class struggle raging. True, resistance is still scattered over many issues, but struggles will merge into mighty currents tomorrow. There exists a sense of mutual support of each others’ struggles. We are not in a revolutionary period yet by any means. But old limits of struggle have been surpassed. The workers question capitalism on a much broader scope than before. No political party ever spoke before in the name of the working class and called for the overthrow of the capitalist class as the ruling class. Socialism has always considered labour as the foundation for the existence of society. Socialism always set before itself the task, not only to emancipate the industrious society from the capitalist which had seized the means of production and used them for the exploitation of the labour of others, but it was also the socialist aim to replace the chaotic organisation of labour as it exists under capitalism, by an organisation which shall fit the needs of society.

We in the Socialist Party curse – and try to remedy – the fact that our numbers are yet so small that we are unable to take greater responsibility in the class war. We must admit this failure and not become demoralised but analyse its roots and chart a new direction forward.