The Comforts of Socialism

Socialism is a free society; a society without rulers and ruled, leaders and led, masters and slaves. Within the factory rigid dictatorship, where the dead machine rules living labour, where the man or  woman is transformed into a cog of the machine, where labour becomes wage-slavery. Outside the factory there exists economic chaos and the wild forces of the market of which we can be only the victim.

The present economic relations breed the capitalist class and the working class, with opposing interests. Inasmuch as our ideas rationalise our interests, the ideas of the ruling, capitalist class will be along the line of preserving their property and their right to exploit labourers, while the working class will follow their interests and go along the path of solving the contradictions by removing their causes. The capitalists and their agents in the seats of government are blinded by their self interest, by the profits which they make as beneficiaries of the present system. The workers, on the other hand, having nothing to lose, are free to see that the present society must evolve into a new one; they see that nothing can free society from its convulsions save the change in the mode of production from a capitalist one, of private ownership of the means of production, to a socialist one, where the means of production are socialised and classes are no more.

As the working class fights against its worsening position it comes to the realisation that the only way out is for labour to take what it has produced for itself. To take over the means of production, the mines, mills and factories and run them for their own benefit. Then we will have production for use and not for profit. Then we will end both despotism in the factory and anarchy in the market. Then society will allocate its resources and labour power according to a social plan that will benefit all. The interest of the workers is diametrically opposed to the interest of the capitalist exploiters who, controlling the government and it agencies, strive to keep the workers down. The capitalists, blinded by their interests, want to keep the old relations of exploitation.

 The working class has acquired a natural understanding of a cooperative economic system. Workers cooperate with other workers all day long in collective production. To the worker it presents no problem to see how the various industries and branches of production could work as a team for the most efficient production all around, and thereby pour out such a mass of products that there would be plenty for everyone concerned. That is the obvious thing to do with modern machinery and technology. This working class understanding of rational economics exists as a firm feeling that modern industry is suited to cooperative production at high efficiency with abundant output assured, and that there is no good reason why such efficient production could not start right now. The difficult thing to understand is the irrational fact that all production can be stopped, and that the millions of mankind can be taken away from their work and forced to halt production, merely because under capitalist ownership the whole of society has to stand still except when it can add to the accumulated riches of a tiny class of capitalists.

What is responsible for the disparity between the steady abundance the workers could produce, and the uncertain pittance that they get? Under capitalist ownership, the capitalists make profits by keeping as much as they can, and paying out as little in wages as they must. They pay the workers the smallest wage they can bargain them down to. On the average, that amounts to a wage which is just enough to get along on, the smallest amount a worker can afford to work for. Even, for a large part of the workers, it amounts to not enough to raise a family or maintain their own health. And this is the case even in the most prosperous capitalist country. Thus, it is the very system of capitalist ownership and wage labour which sets this ceiling on the standard of living. This same system prevents production of abundance. To force the workers to work for low wages the capitalists need a permanent group of unemployed workers as a threat. Every worker must know that there is a man out of a job that the boss can put in his place if he demands higher wages. This ever-existent unemployed group under capitalism Marx named the industrial reserve army.

Capitalist employers are in business and must be, to make money for themselves, and not to make goods for society. They can afford to start production only when they can sell their goods and end up richer than they started. If production will not increase their wealth they don’t permit any production. It is better to close down and keep what they have, rather than spend money producing what they cannot sell. For sales to increase their wealth they need a market; but they can’t get richer by passing out their own money to make the market for their own goods. They wouldn’t be ahead a penny. Therefore, they have nothing to gain by paying any wages above the least that they can bargain the workers down to. The more they have to pay the workers, the less is left for profits. As long as capitalism remains capitalism, surplus capital will never be used for the purpose of raising the standard of living of the masses, for this would mean a decrease in profits for the capitalists.

If the capitalists merely hoarded their profits, the system would run into a crisis at once because all this vast buying power would be withdrawn from the market. To keep the system running the capitalists must be able to keep their profits and spend them too. They do that by spending their increased money-capital for capital equipment, additional machines and factories. Thus their accumulation of wealth can really grow, and only such growth can avoid a crisis for the system. Yet capital investments through the building of new factories is possible only as new markets are found for the increased output. The growth of the home market is soon used up; and the capitalists must look outside, to yet undeveloped countries as fields for growth. Once there is no profitable use for capital at home, it will be used to increase profits by exporting the capital abroad, to backward countries.

The workers know what full production can accomplish, they know that the fetters on production must be removed, and they are searching for the program that will do it. The working class as a whole is voicing this demand, a demand which cannot be satisfied except by socialism, because only socialism can take the capitalist fetters off production.

 A capitalist owns a factory for making, let us say, clothing. He also owns, or can borrow from the bank, some funds to buy raw material, such as cloth and thread, and to hire workers. He owns the necessary machinery and money for production, therefore he gives the orders to run, or to shut down and lay off the workers. The capitalist estimates how much clothing he can sell at a good price and orders production of that much. His money is tied up in the commodities that have been produced until he sells them and gets his money back, plus a profit. The central point here is that profit comes from production and is collected in the sale of commodities. The connection with production may be hidden by one or many steps in between. For instance, if this manufacturer borrows some bank funds the bank seems to draw interest from “loaning money” rather than production, but in reality, the bank’s interest comes from the factory’s production and sales, just the same.

The capitalist ties up his money in production, and he must sell the commodities at a good price or suffer a loss. Therefore, if he sees no market for the commodities he is wiser to shut down the factory and keep his money instead of risking it. Of course if he shuts down the workers go without jobs and society goes without clothing, but that’s the system. Under capitalism clothing factories are run by capitalists for increase of capital, and not by society for clothes.

Thus any single capitalist can allow the wheels to turn in his factory only when production will increase his capital. This also is true for the capitalist class as a whole; production is possible only when it will increase the total capital wealth. Capitalism cannot run on an even level; it must expand or perish. If the clothing factory owner has made a profit, his money-capital has grown. But a mere growth of a hoard of idle money, without growth of the plant which it can serve, is not a growth of real wealth. Nothing irks a capitalist more than idle money, bringing no return. Moreover, if he and his fellow capitalists should try to pile up idle money, instead of buying commodities with it, their hoarding would discourage the production of commodities, since they could not be sold, and this would bring on a crisis in the economic system.

The solution, of course, is for the capitalists to invest their money-capital in real capital equipment, that is, buy more machinery and build more factories. Thus their real wealth would grow, their money would be invested to bring a profit, it would be buying commodities, machinery and building materials, and thus keeping the economic system in a healthy state. This solution has this catch to it. There has to be a growing market to buy the additional commodities that the additional factories would produce. Otherwise the new factories would prove a losing investment. To maintain capitalism this growth must go on forever. When the capitalists can’t find new markets they can’t invest by buying machines for new factories. Their failure to buy throws workers out of jobs, workers who were part of their old market, and the further drop in their old market thus builds up into a crisis. The capitalists must have the very special condition of always finding new markets or they can’t even keep their old markets. Again it becomes clear that capitalism must expand or perish.

The problem of the capitalists is to keep finding a steady supply of new investment opportunities for their capital. Not employment for workers, but “employment” for capital is their need. The aim is to stabilise capitalism, not to give jobs to workers. Still, one might say that if they want to save capitalism by providing plenty of good jobs, we don’t have to object just because the offer comes from the bosses. But when we dig into the economics of this program it turns out to be a plan for full “employment” of capital, not of workers. Under capitalism, this must necessarily be the case.

The working class has a long history of militant class struggle against the capitalist system. The courageous struggles of the workers have played a major role in the international workers’ movement. The working class has produced countless heroes of the world proletariat. The fight to build and defend the trade unions has been an essential part of the history of working class struggle. The trade unions are the broadest and most basic organisation of the working class and have served as centers for organizing the class as a whole. We build the unions and defend them from the capitalist assaults, for they are indispensable weapons of the class struggle. Workers have learned the necessity to unite against the capitalists. Employers have recognised the strength of the organised resistance of the working class and tries to destroy the trade unions.

 The bosses and the workers are locked in constant battle for their survival. Failing to bring out clearly that the capitalists are driven by the laws that govern their system, we contributed to the illusion that capitalists can re-order their priorities to meet the needs of the people. Capital chases after the highest rate of profit, as surely as iron is drawn to a magnet - this is a law beyond anyone’s will, even the capitalists’, and it will continue in force so long as society is ruled by capital.

 The capitalists have attacked with every weapon at their command. They have battered down our wages to destitution levels. They have cast many of us on to the scrap-heap of unemployment. They call upon us to agree to their power for another five years, in order that they may cover the further degradations they have in store with the appearance of our consent.We want an end of class tyranny so don’t vote for capitalism, despite the label on the particular political party. They all stand upon the backs of the workers, and differ on only over their share of the plunder. We must stand together against them. The only struggle for us is the struggle of the workers against their exploiters.

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” The two parts of this phrase are inseparable. “From each according to his abilities,” means: work has now ceased to be an obligation, and society has no further use for any compulsion. Only those unable to will refuse to work. Working “according to their ability” – that is, in accord with their physical and mental capability, without any harm to themselves – the members of the community will, thanks to highly developed technology and production methods can sufficiently fill up the stores of society so that society can generously endow each and all “according to their needs,” without humiliating control. This assumes abundance and equality.

The first task of socialism is to guarantee the comforts of life to all. A socialist society as Marx envisages it is a society beyond scarcity. There exists a perversion of Marx’s description of socialist society that says “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.” where workers are still paid wages for their labour power, and more particularly by piecework. Their labour is forced from them on penalty of deprivation, just as under capitalism. One of the most basic principles of Marxism is that the working class are the makers of history and that correct ideas arise from and in turn serve the struggle of the people.