Socialism Means Plenty for All

 “You are suffering from a dire disease, called money. The only known cure is a revolution.” – Peter Sellers (in the film The Millionairess)

The lives of the workers are made up of worry, anxiety, insecurity, and hardships. There is the monotonous drudgery of uninteresting work, the constant penny-pinching to make ends meet, and the continual necessity to learn to do without things.  As long as the wages system continues, part of the wealth which the workers create will be kept back from them. The things necessary for the production of wealth must be made the common property of the workers, and it must be controlled by them.

The capitalist media, that is, the mouth-piece of the ruling class and their flunkies—denounce strikers as “greedy,” “selfish” and frequently ”thuggish”. Trade unions exist to fight against the exploitation of those who toil by hand and brain. They struggle to improve the working and living conditions of working people and strengthen working-class organisation. The Socialist Party exists to further political understanding of the need of ending capitalism and establishing socialism.

The working class has always been compelled to earn its own living and to support capitalists and landlords who did not. It is the workers who represent the decisive force in our society. The capitalists, however, fail to recognise this elementary fact. They still hope to preserve the traditional position of class privilege. They think their class system is eternal. The struggle of workers is part of the world struggle of all workers against all forms of capitalist exploitation and oppression. What is labour solidarity if not the unity of the working class against the common enemy? It is the kind of unity that can only be built from below. It cannot be imposed ’from above’. When workers refuse to be divided they will be moving forward to the total overthrow of the whole system of social exploitation.

The challenge facing workers is essentially a simple one. It consists in recognising that existing ruling classes have hindered the development of a truly social production and distribution and to acknowledge the need to do away  with production and distribution for profit and to benefit the privileged elites in society who own and control the means of production. Workers require to learn that Production has to be shifted so that it can provide for the real needs of the people; it has to become a production for use. When this knowledge is acquired then the workers have to act upon them to realise their requirements and desires. Not a lot of philosophy, sociology, economics and political science are needed to understand those simple things and to act upon it. There is enough intelligence in the world to co-ordinate social production and distribution without the help or interference of leaders and vanguard parties.

Too often workers attempt to distinguish between “good” and “bad” political leaders, ignoring the fact that the difference between the two is mainly that one flatters us into the hope that we trust he can do something for us in office, while, the other, more harsh and adamant, makes no claim to either interest or sympathy with the working class. There exists the Labour Party, which is often considered a working-class party. The majority of its supporters are drawn from the workers, but its supporters have never understood the make-up of capitalist society. The Labour Party thought that all that was necessary was to get into power and administer the State. This party has been elected to power several times and no noticeable improvement has taken place in the condition of the workers. It has administered society very economically and efficiently in the interest of the class for whom government exists, serving the needs of the capitalist class, and by continuing to administer society in the interests of the owning class. The fact that workers should use its power and might to represent their employers' interests and not its own was certainly a triumph for the ruling class and its reformists.

Socialists, elected to any capitalist Parliament, will call attention to the fact that they do not intend to conform in any way with the present constitution of society; and that their only object in getting into the political machine is to clog up the works and stop the smooth running machinery on every possible occasion. The enter Parliament as rebels, not reformers.

Workers cannot emancipate themselves without making an end to all oppression and exploitation. So the class-conscious socialist, whenever he or she obtains power, becomes the advocate of all. Organised class-conscious workers must feel themselves as the champions of the rest. We cannot emancipate ourselves within the wage system. We require the abolition of the existing order of property and production. Out of the class-war grows a high social aim, a lofty end, where workers manage affairs in the interest of the whole community. As revolutionary socialists, the political fight is a fight for principles. Our fight concerns the whole social life and how we fight is dependent upon our goal.

The Socialist Party represents the future. We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We stand for the end of impoverishment and seek a World in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease when the evolution of human society to new and higher forms shall become possible to all mankind, when abundance and peace shall be enjoyed by all. It is the capitalist system which produces misery for all. We urge no pessimism. The future is ours. Production is social. All people, whoever they are or whatever they do, are equally important.