Overthrow the System

“From each according to ability: to each according to needs” is our  goal, and we must understand that it can only be reached through struggle against those who are interested in protecting the status quo, because it gives them power and privilege at the cost of other people’s labour and poverty.

 Socialism will mean an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for people. The ending of the exploitation, the cruelty and injustice caused by class society in its various forms, has long been the dream of mankind. It found expression in men like John Ball, Robert Owen, the Chartists and many of the pioneers of the British labour movement.

 Under capitalism the workers are wage slaves, slaves of the employers. Socialism counts among the world’s workers all those who labour with hand or brain in the production of life’s necessities and luxuries. The bosses run the factories in order to maximize profits. This means that they pay workers as little as possible, that they do not hesitate to maintain unsafe working conditions to save costs, and that poor quality products are purposely produced in order to increase profits. History has shown that these conditions are always present under capitalism, and cannot be eliminated as long as there is capitalism. A capitalist has to exploit his workers in order to survive as a capitalist. The government must necessarily be run by and for the capitalists. Each ruling class maintains its power through an apparatus known as the state. While there is class society, the state will continue to exist and exercise its control over society which enable it to impregnate elements of all classes with the ideas which legitimises its power.

The world could be a paradise. Why it is not is because of the way society is organised, the system of society which prevails. Some of the main features of this society are. It is divided into rich and poor—a tiny handful of rich  who do not need to work, and the overwhelming majority who do require to work their whole lives through. This tiny handful of people own the means of production. But they do not work them. The immense majority of the people own nothing (in the sense that they can live on what they own) but their power to work. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages.

By exploitation we mean living off the labour of other people. There have been previous forms of exploitation. In slave society, the slave-owners lived off the labour of the slaves who were their property. In feudal society, the feudal lords lived off the forced labour of the serfs. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor yet a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs. The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists in this — that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in values than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages. In short, they produce a surplus which is taken by the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. The capitalists are united in their battle against the workers, despite internal differences regarding strategy and tactics. They have their goal clearly in mind -- the pursuit of ever-greater profits through the continued and ever-intensified exploitation of the workers.

The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers must own and control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. By its victory at the ballot box, and its consequent political domination, the capitalists are able to enslave the working class.

As we have said, capitalism is a system in which there are exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. The interests of these two classes are clearly opposed. The exploiters try to increase the exploitation of the workers as much as possible in order to increase their profits. The exploited try to limit this exploitation, and to get back as much of the wealth as possible of which they have been robbed. This is one aspect of the class struggle which arises inevitably out of the whole character of capitalism as a class system based on exploitation. But for a lasting solution of all these problems, it is necessary to end capitalism altogether and to replace it by a new system of society in which the working people rule.

All workers realise the capitalist system fails to supply the needs of the vast majority and that it must be overthrown before the workers can have freedom. But there is considerable difference of opinions as to the means by which this can be accomplished. The Socialist Party advocates using the ballot, or parliamentary action; some others agitate for armed insurrection, and others still suggest industrial action, such as a general strike. Capitalism means production is carried on for profit. This necessitates control of industry by capitalists. The state is only an effect of capitalism. Overthrow of the state would only mean a political revolution which could be of no lasting benefit to the workers. Overthrow of capitalism would mean a social revolution, a complete change in the methods by which production and distribution are carried on. It would mean production for use instead of for profit. This can only be accomplished by the workers taking control of industry out of the hands of capitalists and running it for themselves.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain stand for a democratic and revolutionary vision of real socialism.