It follows from an analysis of capitalism that the primary task of a socialist party is to wage an intensive campaign of agitation for change by a revolution to the power and wealth of society which is transferred from one class to another. In our time, there are two fundamental classes within society, the working class and the capitalist class. The minority class owns the wealth, profits from it, keeps down the standard of living of the majority class which has no wealth. The theory of socialists is that if the enormous wealthy of society, controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. To achieve its goal, this kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale. Many real socialists today rally to the Socialist Party, the bearer of the traditions of Marx and Engels. It stands for the abolition of the profit system, social ownership management of industry, the end of wars growing out of the profit system – peace and plenty for all. Hard times for us means good times for the rich. Capitalism is proving every day that it can offer the world’s workers nothing but endless horrors. The “triumph” of the legacy of the profit system is poverty war and disease. As has been shown many times, the bosses can survive any number of crises. What they cannot survive will be the socialist revolution. The widespread discontent with the existing social order which is manifesting itself in the many voices raised against the evils of this system. But without an understanding of what is wrong and the sources of these wrongs, it is impossible to formulate a reconstruction vision which will end the problems from which we suffer. It is necessary that we have a clear understanding of what is evil and whence its source if we are to take intelligent action to remedy the situation. Among the very first of the things that are wrong and must be righted, we will set down the great uncertainty in regard to securing the necessities of life. From this anxiety only the favoured few are free.
In the past when people went hungry it was because sufficient food was not produced. A harvest failure or blight brought scarcity. Today’s problem is of a different character. We have an elaborate transport system, we have wonderful technology and we have freed ourselves from the danger of lack of food, clothing, or houses to live in because of the inability to produce them. We have solved the problem of production. We can produce all that is needed to supply the necessities of life, as well as the comforts of life — education and the opportunity for recreation — to all the people. Yet around the globe people cry for food, for homes, for healthcare and for education for their children. The ruling class would like us to forget these things. We know that the business organisations do not exist primarily for the purpose of supplying human needs. Their purpose is to make profits for their shareholders. If they cannot make profits for their shareholders, they go out of business. They are interested in producing wealth as a means of securing wealth for the limited number who share in their profits. The motive which drives the vast industrial machine which has grown up under capitalism is the desire for profits. The work of supplying human needs has become mere incidental to the process of realising profits. The evils of the present social order — insecurity and misery - are the product of the capitalist system in which the supreme purpose is the making and taking of profits. Society divides the people into two classes. Anyone with common sense will have to admit that. There are people who work for wages and those who employ wage workers. There are the people who own the industries and those who must go to the owners of industry for the opportunity to earn a living. The ownership of the means of production is the source of the power of the profit-seeking class. It gives them control over people to secure the necessities of life. The millions of men and women who are dependent upon the wages they earn for a living are economic serfs or wage-slaves. The power to hire and fire the workers, to give and take away the opportunity to earn a living, carries with it the power to compel the workers to work for such wages as will leave the capitalists a profit from their labour. The business of making profits and the source of profits is no mystery. The capitalists’ source of profits and their great wealth was not created out of thin air. They make profits because they purchase the labour-power of the workers for less than the value of the goods the workers produce; that is, they do not pay the workers the full value of their labour. There is no other way of making profits out of industry. The lower the wages for which the capitalists can purchase the labour-power of the workers or longer they make employees work or by their increased productivity by new technology, the greater will be the capitalist’s profits. Naturally the capitalists will try to pay the lowest wages at which they can induce the workers to work. Since they are in a position to deny the workers employment if the workers do not accept their terms, they have been able to keep the wages at the point where they yield the workers a mere subsistence, or even less than a mere subsistence.
The workers naturally seek to increase their wages and reduce their working hours. They endeavour to secure for themselves better working conditions. The capitalists resist. They see their profits menaced by the workers’ demands. The workers organise their power and refuse to work unless their demands are granted, and we have a strike with all its accompaniments of stopping of production, misery and suffering for the workers.
If the goal is to build a better world, to bring them “life, liberty, and happiness”, the aim must be the abolition of the profit system. It must come hand in hand with industrial democracy and accompanied by the abolition of the rewards of private ownership — rent, interest, and profit. Together with the establishment of common ownership of industry there must be the democratic management of industry by the workers. The workers of the world will enjoy the wealth they produce. If, after supplying every family with good food, good clothing, a comfortable home, and the opportunity for culture and leisure, we find we have a surplus and an abundance, we will simply cut down the hours required to work. We can through the collective cooperative organisation and coordination of our powers of production, eliminate waste and increase in our productive capability. It will enable us to bring into existence more than enough wealth to give a high standard of living, which means good food, good clothing, good homes, well-being, peace and happiness, to every family in the world. We can eliminate all the social conflicts which are the constant accompaniment of production under the profit system. We can assure to the workers that joy which comes through creative effort when men and women are not drudges and slaves, but free. There is no hope for the working class if they continue to support the political parties representing the interest of the capitalist class. Socialism will not be established through a series of legislative acts but will be established by a mass movement of the working class. The task the workers have to do for freedom, is through building a class-conscious political movement which will carry on the work of educating the workers to an understanding of the system of exploitation which now exists. The struggle of the working class will henceforth be a political struggle for control of the State because it must gain control of the machinery of government to wrest control of the State out of the hands of the capitalist class before it can hope to establish economic democracy. The Socialist Party is the medium through which this work can be done. At the same time it is an essential workers build up organisations in the work-places themselves, having as their goal to supersede the capitalists in control of industry and to expand and grow until they have become a huge cooperative organisation of control and management of the work of production and of all matters pertaining to the communities common interest.
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