Omnia Sunt Communia

The Socialist Party of Great Britain recognises the immense contribution made by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in developing a scientific understanding of capitalism as a distinct and transient society, one which was historically progressive in its time, but which is now outdated and needing to be replaced. This is not to say that we think Marx and Engels were correct on every subject then, still less now. The whole point of a scientific approach to politics and economics is that it is based on facts, evidence and objective testing and reassessment. Marxism itself has been defined as the distillation of all the lessons and understandings gained from working class struggles against capitalism, expressed in a scientific manner. Nonetheless, there is enormous value to be gained from studying the classical works of Marx and Engels. Writing during the earlier phases of capitalism’s development and working to get a handle on the whole phenomenon, their writings provide a clarity and a perspective on capitalism and the need for workers to replace it by socialism, rarely achieved since. In fact, some hold that the development of capitalism has accorded even more closely with their basic analysis than was perhaps the case at the time.

For over 110 years, the Labour Party has hoodwinked the workers, and endlessly led them down the blind alley of reformism, always mindful that its real allegiance was to the master class who own and control society. Make no mistake. A Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn would make no departure from the historical record. Its task would be primarily to try to make capitalism – a system based upon the exploitation of one class by another – work in the interests of the exploited. Labour, under Corbyn, would not really control the economy, it would control him. The historical record shows that if the dictates of capital demanded, the workers would have to be lied to, betrayed and made out to be villains of the piece and a threat to the economic interests of the country. No Labour leader to date has failed to be cast in a mould created by the capitalist class, no matter how noble their intentions. Bloody hilarious how people can see the Labour Party having ever been socialist. Nostalgic workers, who mourn the demise of Clause 4 in the 1990s, would do well to remind themselves of its authors and who they actually were – the Fabian Society – and what they actually thought about the working class. Perhaps the closest we come to a definition of the Fabians is Engels' description of them as 'a clique united only by their fear of the threatening rule of the workers and doing all in their power to avert the danger.' The Labour Party then, as now, was not so much interested in promoting ideas that threatened the hegemony of the capitalist class, but in securing the most votes. Even at its 'hardest Left' the Labour party can provide no solutions to the problems of capitalism. They all stand for a 'nicer' capitalism so are no socialists, but social reformers. Capitalism came into the world oozing blood from every pore and it continues likewise. We had two world wars last century and they are all doing war dances presently. You cannot have a nicer capitalism and there is no such thing for instance as "a fair days pay for a fair days work". Even at its most radical, Labour stands for the retention of capitalism, wage labour. Nationalisation is NOT Common Ownership socialism but state capitalism. Labour's Clause 4 was and is a nonsense. We don't need a means of exchange when 'all' is owned by us 'all', in common with each other as social equals. Removing class ownership and control of wealth production and distribution, means at last, we can have production for use 'and' be social equals, with free access, to the common product. The 'Left-capitalist parties don't tell you that as they want to be guvnors like the Fabians they consider you too stupid to comprehend the ideals of socialism. But it is incumbent upon the workers to make the post-capitalist revolution for and by themselves.

Western capitalism society is not an isolated separated system, from the events people are fleeing from, or the sweat shops of eastern capitalism, or the shanty towns amidst opulence. Global capitalism is interrelated. We workers have more in common with workers elsewhere, than with the global capitalist parasite class. All wealth springs from the workers. Capitalism has solved the production problem and created the knowledgeable workforce capable of running it from top to bottom but it is unable of solving the distribution one. It is obsolete and in the same predicament as feudalism was with warring kingly factions seeking domination over what spoils of war may bring. Employment in capitalism is, ‘only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the labourer.’ Such dehumanisation of those involved will only end when the terms buyer and seller become redundant with the establishment of socialism. We have a world of free access to win.

Marx and Engels, unlike vanguardist 'Lefties', insisted that the task of building and running the post-capitalist society was to be the workers prerogative and they would decide what forms the new society would organise in. They recognised too, that the idea of socialism was older than their own contribution to the critique of capitalism, favourably quoting Thomas Muntzer to this end 'omnia sunt communia', (‘all things held in common'.) Employment in capitalism is, ’only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the labourer.’ Such dehumanisation of those involved will only end when the terms buyer and seller become redundant with the establishment of socialism.

The division of the world’s population into distinct nations seems to be perfectly natural. The idea of nationalism is that "we" all have certain characteristics in common, and "we" should stick together. We are all assumed to belong to a national group but nationality is a product of social processes. The modern state is a product of bourgeois development. All this of course benefits the ruling class. It is usually a sign of desperation and of an incapacity to formulate a coherent argument when our masters resort to playing the nationalist card. It benefits them to see the workers placing meaning and identity in things that are irrelevant and mythical to the truth of class struggle.

Keeping the workers unable to see the true state of affairs in the world works to the ruling class advantage. Class existed before the nation-state. Throughout history one ruling class or another has attempted to impose its view on those they ruled over, manipulating their passions and pretending that its interests and their interests were the same. So, in another of life's ironies, the masses waste their energy fighting amongst themselves, believing their interests and the interests of their rulers are linked. Nationalism has always been one of the biggest poisons for the working class. It has served to divide workers into different nation-states not only literally but ideologically. If the workers were ever to put their misplaced passion for “their” nation into socialism, then it would be the end of the ruling class.

"We're A’ Jock Tamson's Bairns" is a saying in Scotland and the north of England used to mean "we're all the same under the skin". A “bairn” is a child; the A’ is an abbreviation for All. Jock Tamson (John Thompson) is a generic name, equivalent to such names as “John Doe” or “Joe Bloggs” It is a reminder that despite the fact we live in a capitalist society we are all equal.

We should unite to abolish the division of the world into so-called nation-states and to establish a World Cooperative Commonwealth of which we will all be free and equal members - citizens of the world, not subjects of nation-states. The goal of the socialist movement is not to assist in the creation of even more states but to establish a real world community without frontiers where all states as they currently exist will be destroyed. In a socialist society communities, towns and cities will have the opportunity to thrive – and people will no doubt feel an attachment to places that are real and tangible – but the nation states will be consigned to the history books where they belong.

"I have no country to fight for; my country is the Earth, and I am a citizen of the World." - Eugene V. Debs