This is how socialism will be (2/4)

Many believe socialism to be unattainable yet the world about us is falling to pieces. The need for revolution is being realised more and more. Who are the one class that no society can do without? Those who work. Capitalist society cannot exist without the working-class. It is the working-class which sets in motion its formidable technical and mechanical apparatus. The working-class, by seeing after the functioning of large-scale production, by work in huge factories and stores, brings into existence organised work on a collective basis. And this collective work ought to show more clearly the exploitation of the individual. Modern production is mass production. But without doubt, profit therefrom is individual; that is to say, the riches collectively produced are appropriated by individual capitalists. As soon as workers becomes conscious of this fact, of this permanent scandal of capitalist society, they will begin to revolt against a state of things which ensures for the capitalist class the lion’s share and will demand its rightful due. Capitalism is maintained by class power and will only be displaced by other class power. Society in order to live must produce. In order to produce, use is made of the means of production which everyone knows; the land, the mines and machines. These means of production turn into means of domination when they are not at the disposal of society as a whole but are the private property of one class. In this manner, the great landowners through possession of the first instrument of labour – which is the land – were in a position to exploit first the slaves and later on the serfs, The landlord said: “The land belongs to me and you will be my slave and work for me on my land,” The peasant thus comes under the sway of the landowner. Each class which owns the means of production seeks to obtain political power, control of the State and the armed forces in order to safeguard its exclusive property, and maintain its monopoly of ownership.

Socialism is rule by the working people. They will decide how socialism is to work and the task of socialists therefore is to help guide the transfer of political power from capitalists to working people. Socialism means for the first time people taking charge of their own destiny. Humanity has so far been incapable of taking charge because of the class divisions that make it impossible to take decisions for the development of mankind as a whole. The result has been what we see today. Present-day society, based on a mistaken and blind individualism, reaches the very highest pinnacle of absurdity. At the top, we have a small class of owners who have in their possession all the means of happiness but who are incapable of making use of it because they are condemned to live apart from the working people which hates them. They pass their lives fearful of their privileges, fighting all forward-looking progressive movements which threaten their reign. They are more and more obliged to live as it were in a fortress, or gated communities as the real estate agents describe them. Being condemned on account of their riches to a life of idleness which is repugnant to human nature, the majority of them enjoy neither physical nor moral health. On the other hand we have the immense majority of the producing class, the workers condemned to routine work which undermines their health – work without any distraction and with the concomitant of numerous accidents and illness. Enforced idleness is the lot of the working-class on the onset of each periodic economic crisis. Disease and illness, products of poverty, decimates the toilers. Alcoholism and drug addiction through which they seek forgetfulness of their miserable lives, poisons them and helps to bring about their physical and moral degeneration. The life of the worker is twice as short as that of the rich. On the one hand, badly spent and unhappy lives among the upper classes, and on the other, no possibility of leading a normal life among the oppressed toilers. Here indeed is the true picture of society based on an internecine conflict between different classes. It is not the producing class, the creators of life, who rule but the parasites who dominate and oppress it.

Modern technology has created all the conditions for well-being and even luxury. If applied rationally our society would become a heaven on earth but through the absurd profit system in which we live, we find ourselves in a veritable hell. Mankind, instead of co-operating in the building harmonious planet, finds itself occupied in a war of each against all. The result is a useless social waste.

The victory of socialism is desirable because only socialism can put an end to the exploitation of man by man and of women by men. Because only socialism can put an end to the struggle for the re-division of the world, for national possessions, which takes place between the different continents, nations and races. Only socialism can put an end to war and poverty and the innumerable injustices which are an everyday feature of our lives. Socialism by suppressing the cause of these rivalries and antagonism – the monopoly of the means of production – forms a new society based on the principles of human solidarity and reciprocity, and economic soundness. It will put an end to all waste and all unproductive work. It will abolish antagonism of interests and reduce authority to a minimum, making it function not in the interests of a class but in the interests of society as a whole. Socialism consists of a rationalisation of production, of all our activities and our very lives themselves. And that, not in the interests of some, but for the benefit of all. Socialism is possible now. It is possible because it corresponds to the interests of all; because it satisfies the goodwill, the well-being and the common interest of the immense majority. Socialism is possible because the forces of production, thanks to machinery and robotics, have reached an unheard of scale of development. They only need to be put in action for the benefit of everyone in order that all members of society may be assured of complete well-being. Socialism is possible because men and women are more and more brought into close co-operation in pooling their efforts. All sorts of associations and organisations, political and intellectual are accustoming mankind to regulate work and life. Socialism everyday becomes more possible through the social education of the working-class, organised as it is in political parties, trade unions, and co-operatives. Rational organisation of production becomes more urgent as a consciousness of solidarity develops among the producers. The immense army of organised producers can take over control of mass production; everything stands ready by their own very nature to be placed in the hands of the workers who produce them.