Probably the most common retort in the Socialist Party we hear is “We’re fucked.” No matter what we do, our best efforts are insufficient. We’re losing badly, on every front. Those in power are hell-bent on destroying the planet, and most people don’t care too much about that. We have the power to control our own destinies, yet how have we used this power? We permit capitalism to continue misery and destruction. We have conquered the gods and devils of our forefathers yet we created other idols and belief systems to kneel before and worship…patriotism, nationalism…racism. We fight for freedom and against totalitarianism yet we allow a terrible economic despotism to prevail. We no longer fight for industrial democracy. Capitalism, with its private ownership of the machinery of wealth production is the basic cause of our problems. There is no solution to be found in a system where these means of production are not owned by society as a whole.
The Socialist Party finds cause enough to complain that the working-class, who, in general, are either satisfied with things as they are or despair of any improvement in their lot. We find them too often caring little for the acquirement of knowledge about anything, and hedonistic in their enjoyments and squalid in their ideals. People fail to realise that the present system is based upon enslavement. The hooligan, the drunkard, the degenerate libertine and the rogue are all hideous products of an obsolete social system is what we contend; and when it is argued that the poor are poor because they “drink,” or because of their “ignorance,” we are easily able to show that they are created what they are by their environment. We are easily able to show that the evils of poverty tend to increase with the development of capitalism. The ignorance and apathy of the working-class exists but this does not prevent working people from understanding what every day it becomes easier for him to comprehend, - that the present system is based upon exploitation and enslavement, that our interests and those of the master-class are diametrically opposed, that therefore the master-class will always consciously or unconsciously try to keep us where we are – on our knees, and consequently that we must act wisely and get rid of a master-class at once and for ever. The function of the Socialist Party is to speedily and effectively increase the opportunities for this awakening. Socialists are not fabricated. They are people who have reached a state of understanding about the society they live in and all its attendant problems and iniquities. Out of understanding arises the desire to forge an alternative, a new society free society from poverty, oppression, war, apathy. What really makes a socialist can be attributed only to the utilisation of one of the most fundamental faculties of the human brain: the ability to reason—to ask "why?" Why do things have to be this way? And by simply asking the question, you have already partly answered it: things are the way they are not because it is unavoidable but because we, the dispossessed working class, allow them to be.
It is not part of the socialist ease against capitalism that it is objectionable because it is corrupt. Capitalism without corruption would be just as oppressive. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the present social system, with its emphasis on competition, profit and material wealth, provides a framework within which corruption and other misconduct can flourish. In fact, we can go further and say that bribery and corruption are completely in keeping with capitalist “values”. In a dog-eat-dog business world, there can be no complaint if some members of the pack try to bend the rules in their favour. In any case, it would be difficult to see any true difference between what capitalism regards as corrupt and what it regards as normal business practice. Greedy and avaricious men cause more damage to the community than 100 or more thieves with whom judges pack the prisons. Of course, greed and avarice are acceptable when the motives behind "honest" profit-making means taking from the workers the fruits of their unpaid labour. The thieves who rob by means of exploitation — the “respectable" capitalist class — are lauded and ennobled, not imprisoned.
No matter how much it has been lied about, ridiculed and twisted from its original form, socialism is now, more than ever, needed to solve the crisis humanity finds itself in. Socialism is common ownership. Socialism is production for need. Socialism is real democracy. Socialism is for the global working class, who can use the vast productive powers for the free development of all. We now have that potential. The productive powers have been increased to a vast degree, yet people are still idle, starving, poverty-stricken, and homeless, while the machinery of production is misused or neglected. This must change. This will change. It is possible to house everyone. It is possible to feed everyone. It is possible for everyone to live a decent and fulfilling life as real people, and not just as objects on the labour market. The only thing stopping this is the outdated profit system that constrains production to the will of private property and privilege. We must abandon the faith misplaced in the leaders and apologists of capitalism and move on, ourselves, to our new global society, where the free development of each will be the condition for the free development of all. The need for knowledge, lest we be duped, is constantly forced upon us. It has become a habit for workers, in their struggles for better conditions, to depend upon the expertise of individuals supposedly possessing an unusual degree of intelligence necessary for instructing and conducting the struggle in the best way.
This dependence generally consists of a blind trust in a "leader," and a faithful following of directions wheresoever they may lead. The disasters that constantly accompany this leadership worship eventually bring about the fall of one popular idol, only to leave room for another to step up. The position is further complicated by a rivalry among the idols for the favours attached to leadership. As long as the minds of the workers is occupied by this blind and unreasoning trust in another so-called savior to accomplish that which one can accomplish readily and satisfactorily oneself, the condition of the majority of the people will continue one of slavery and misery. Ideas that have been fixed in the mind by habit are difficult to remove. When such ideas serve the interests of a ruling class, their removal becomes still more difficult. The idea of "Leadership" is of the latter kind. Born of the delegation of function in early societies it has grown into the slavish habit of placing the hands of others the power to settle the affairs of large groups almost as he wishes. Times innumerable, these popular leaders have used this influence to put their followers at the mercy of the enemy.
The leadership idea has cursed the working class movement from the beginning. The great man view breeds arguments as to whether this man is a good leader, or that man a bad. The energy that should be given to a study of principles is wasted in endless arguments over idols and apathy and discouragement often follow the finding of the idol's feet of clay. They make stepping stones of their followers to reach comfort and security. In working out our emancipation, workers must study the conditions that surround and oppress us. We must look to "great principles." and not to "great men" in our struggles.
He who would enter the land of promise, must first pave a path to the door. Armed with knowledge workers can steer our movements ourselves and abandon the slavish worship of leaders.
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