Capitalism is hell on earth

IT'S HELL

Working men or women who tries to find a way clear through the hardships of present-day conditions are faced with a difficult task. On every side is distress and confusion. Rising bills, falling wages, the uncertainty of a job, or the deepening misery of months and even years of unemployment; wars and ever new threats of war; news of violent struggle and disturbances abroad—all these are the daily conditions of life now. The Labour Party has nothing to say. They are ready to make all kinds of promises for a beautiful future time when they shall be holding government office. New cults and idols are held out before the workers presenting sham solutions to conceal from the workers their growing enslavement and hide from them the issue of Revolution. The workers are beaten down, because they were divided and uncertain, of their path, because they are misled by leaders in coalition with the capitalists. Capitalism can only maintain itself by driving down the workers, by harder and harder exploitation. Longer hours, lower wages, misery and war—these are the offerings of capitalism in the present epoch.

Various left-wingers instead of the aim of socialism which inspired the pioneers of the workers movement’, have in the past put forward the aim of a “mixed economy” and of state capitalism which leaves the exploitation of the workers unchanged and has nothing to do with socialism. Nowhere in the world has socialism ever been established. The failure of the Left is not the failure of socialism. The Socialist Party’s electoral programme has never been a platform of election promises and palliatives. It is the working of the capitalist system itself which produces unemployment and crises, by piling up profits for the few while wages are kept down to the minimum. In their insatiable drive for profits, the bosses in every capitalist country keep down the wages and purchasing power of their own working class and are constantly driven to seek new markets abroad. This is the basic cause for the cut-throat competition, the sharp contradictions, and the increasing unemployment in the whole capitalist world. We must stand together against the employers. The only struggle for us is the struggle of the workers against our exploiters. If the workers do not awaken in time to the issue before us a terrible fate awaits all.

In the name of those millions of our class butchered in all of capitalism’s wars; in the name of the mental and physical wrecks left to homelessness on the streets of our villages and cities; in the name of the bereaved and desolate mothers and wives who mourn the vain sacrifice of their loved ones, we appeal to you to arouse yourselves before it is too late. “War is Hell” and Hell’s gate has once again been thrown wide open across many parts of the globe. Workers, you have nothing to do with the quarrels of your ruling class. Your task is to war against your exploiters as the only way of freeing your class from all war and the industrial slavery that is grinding us down into ever increasing poverty. Today governments tell us the old lie of the jingoists that “the best way to keep the peace is to prepare for war” Aircraft or troops in the Middle East are not a guarantee of peace but a provocation for further war. It is madness to say that displays of military force can help towards peace.

What is wrong with the way society is organised, the “system of society” which prevails?  It is divided into rich and poor—a tiny handful of rich (1 per cent of the population own more than half the nation’s wealth) who do no work, and the overwhelming majority who work their whole lives through. The aim of our Party is to establish socialism and abolish the right of one person to rob another of the fruits of his or her labour. This is what makes our Party different from all others.