The Choice is Ours

In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels write “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles….a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes” The Marxist scholar Hal Draper explains this as “either a revolution that remakes society or the collapse of the old order to a lower level.” Engels restated this in his Anti-Duhring. He writes that the modern working class must make the socialist revolution or else face “…sinking to the level of a Chinese coolie,” while the bourgeoisie is “a class under whose leadership society is racing to ruin like a locomotive [with a] jammed safety-valve…” For the capitalist class, “…its own productive forces have grown beyond its control, and…are driving the whole of bourgeois society toward ruin, or revolution”. When the capitalist system turns most people into proletarians, “…it creates the power which, under penalty of its own destruction, is forced to accomplish this revolution.” Socialist revolution is not inevitable. But if it is not made, society faces ruin and destruction, with the working class reduced to the level of the starving, super-exploited, Chinese workers of that time. Therefore the working class and its allies should consciously and deliberately decide to make the revolution. Rosa Luxemburg, said the alternatives were “socialism or barbarism.” Luxemburg wrote, “In relation to capitalism as a whole, that society’s objective development merely gives us the preconditions of a higher order of development, but that without our conscious interference, without the political struggle of the working class for a socialist transformation… [socialism will never] come about.” If capitalism is left to itself, continuing to operate blindly by its own laws, it will eventually collapse into barbarism. To prevent capitalist collapse and barbarism requires that the working class make a conscious decision to overthrow it and create a new society. Socialism is not a gift to be given to the working class. It must be fought for and won by the working class itself. There are many possible forms of catastrophe in which capitalism may end, and there are many different ways in which a revolution may happen. There are many possible concrete ways in which “socialism or barbarism” may become realised. Ruin or revolution!

As a system, capitalism creates the possibility of socialism. This includes a high level of productivity, higher than ever before in the history of humanity; the proletariat, a collective working class, trained in cooperation and joint action by the system itself, living in the centers of capital production, and international in scope. In many ways capitalism pushes the workers to move toward a new, cooperative, world order. It also has mechanisms for holding back the struggle, for dividing the workers into a million distinct groupings. The better-off workers may feel satisfied and conservative. The worse-off workers may become demoralized. But capitalism finally threatens the workers, and all who live under its sway, with catastrophe, mass destruction, and barbarism, and this also pushes the workers to overthrow it, to end it, and to build a better society. This will not happen inevitably. It is a matter of struggle, of consciousness, and of making a collective decision—of breaking with fatalism and mechanism. It requires the efforts of the big majority of workers and oppressed.

James Connolly once said "The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system, it must go." He also said “Our demands most moderate are – We only want the earth!” The danger of reformism is clear for all to see, with any social democratic or labour party that has ever been in existence being dragged always to the right by the flawed idea that by creating a catch-all broad front based on reforming capitalism, with socialism as some 'abstract' distant goal. Trying to create a mass movement of people united against austerity attacks is one that must be supported, however not providing a clear and detailed path towards a socialist society to that mass movement, and trying to convince them of socialism as a "long term aim" is a mistake. We don't need to wait until sometime in the future, the time has arrived. A party without a clear programme towards socialism will be mired in long term reformism. Socialists must have trust in the working class. In reality, it shows a lack of confidence in the socialist case.

Each day life itself is more and more forcefully presenting people with the question: capitalism or socialism? The Socialist Party says that socialism is the solution. The necessity for socialism arises, in the first place, from the struggle of the working class for emancipation from capitalist wage-slavery. In addition, it is only through socialism that society can overcome the chaos and crises of capitalism and bring the social relations between human beings in harmony with the productive forces and the level of social development. The change from capitalism to socialism is absolutely necessary in order to open the way for the all-around progress of humanity. From its very emergence, the working class has been locked in a struggle against capitalist exploitation and the capitalist class. Workers have won some victories in their economic and political battles but still the fundamental problem remains unresolved and the same issues come up again and again. The vast majority of the workers still live in a state of insecurity. Workers’ gains are again under attack as the capitalist government keeps stripping away vital welfare safety-nets. The root of the problem is precisely the capitalist system which, at its very foundation, is based on the exploitation of wage-labour. Under capitalism, society's means of production (the tools used to transform nature and satisfy the needs of human beings) are owned by a tiny percentage of the population. Thus the working class – the class whose labour produces all new values – is separated from the implements of labour and the workers have no way to secure a livelihood except by selling their labour-power, day in and day out, to the capitalist owners. The capitalists in turn exploit the labour of the workers, returning in wages only a small fraction of the new values created by the workers. Under capitalism, the living human labour of the workers is looked upon solely as a means for enriching the capitalist owners. Capitalism recognises the worker only as a beast to be exploited.

Anyone who thinks even for a minute about the enormous productive capacity of our planet cannot but ask: why with such modern means of production unable to guarantee the economic rights and well-being of the masses of people? Why is the curse of unemployment and the plague of falling wages and living standards undermining the lives of millions? Why, in a world with such modern medical facilities, do millions of people go without needed medical care?  The answer comes almost as soon as the questions are posed. It is the capitalist system which is holding back the vast productive forces at the disposal of our planet. Capitalism has failed the entire world.