Wars and Nations

Capitalism is synonymous with suffering and misery. However, the working class which does all the useful work in society has the power to organise for their own emancipation and put an end to sweat-shops and the other misery of the wages system once and for all. There is an alternative to permanent want and insecurity. As capitalism is a world system, however, we cannot end it solely by our own efforts. Rather than butcher one another, we must band together with our fellow members of the working class in other countries to organise for a system in which the resources of the earth would be owned and democratically controlled by society as a whole and used to produce the things that all human beings need. This is the only action we urge you to consider.

When we talk about free access to what you need in socialism, without the compulsion of the wages system or the restrictions of money, we mean a society capable of keeping up with the material demands of the population. Today we have such a society. The only thing that stands in the way of socialism is a lack of demand for it by a majority of workers across the globe. Socialism is often thought of as a distant prospect — “something we hope the human race will be like in the future" – but as class consciousness spreads so nothing can stand in its way. The achievement of that goal depends in no small way on you as workers to recognise your interests — and to work for them. Our task is not just to understand the world, but to change it. For as long as the world is divided into two classes and production geared to profit rather than human needs, then our task will always remain that of the achievement of socialism.

The so-called "British nation" of which many politicians seek to be the champion is a product of history. The "indigenous" population are all the descendants of one-time immigrants. If you go back only 2000 or so years most of the inhabitants of this island off the north-west coast of Europe were Celts, speaking a language akin to Welsh. They were eventually conquered by the Romans who came from Italy (but whose troops and settlers came from all round the Mediterranean and beyond). When the Romans left there was an "endless flood" of Angles and other Germanic-speakers into "Britain" (a word of Celtic origin) who eventually drove the Celtic-speakers to the Celtic fringe of Cornwall (Kernow), Wales (Cymru) and Cumbria. Then came the Danes from Norway and Denmark. Then England (or Angle-land, as it was now called) was conquered by the French-speaking Normans. And the English-language evolved, a basically Germanic language with a large French vocabulary. It didn't stop there, with later migrations of Flemings and Huguenots. The Socialist Party attitude is that all workers, irrespective of their language or where they were born, share a common interest in uniting, as long as capitalism lasts, to get the best terms they can for the sale of their working skills and, more importantly, in getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with a world community without frontiers based on the common ownership and democratic control of the Earth's resources so that these can be used for the benefit of the whole world population.

Very many people are economic migrants.  Millions around the world follow the dictates of the labour market and moved down to London. Socialists are clear that we hold no brief for national boundaries, and see no difference in principle between people like ourselves or migrants from France or Nigeria. We are all workers. We look forward to the day when there are no boundaries and we travel the world because it is ours and we want to share in it, not because of the dictates of an inhuman labour market.

The Socialist Party analyses social affairs in class terms. We approach problems in the field of economics and politics from a consideration of what we see as being the real interests of the world working class. For the Socialist Party capitalism and war are inseparable. There can be no capitalism without conflicts of economic interest. Within the Socialist Party, it is not questioned that its duty is to oppose the wars of the ruling class of one nation with the ruling class of another, and refuse to participate in them. This has been its consistent view. We in the Socialist Party are against all of capitalism’s wars. Nor do we single out one or two aspects of war – atomic weapons, or land mines, or poison gas, or the use of child soldiers – we oppose the system that gives rise to these things.

Anti-war campaigns, as such, is, from the working class standpoint, absurd. Just as the class struggle cannot be abolished save by abolishing classes, so it is impossible for capitalist nations to get rid of the grim spectre of war, for capitalism presupposes economic conflicts which must finally be fought out with the aid of the armed forces of the State. The way to prevent war is not by engaging in anti-war campaigns. These are quite useless because they leave the causes of war untouched. The only preventative is to take away the urge to war; take away the profit motive. While private ownership of the means of existence remains, the making of profit is the object of the private owners. Abolish private ownership and substitute for it common ownership in the means of production and the profit motive disappears, taking with it the seeds of war, both internal and external. Socialism is the only means to defeat the warmongers. What is needed is a clear analysis of why humans go to war. It is not because of our genes, our natures or our beliefs. It is because capitalists make themselves richer and more powerful by obtaining more and more markets and trade routes and exploitable populations and raw materials. And until capitalism is abolished, its ruthless, competitive drive for profits will condemn workers to die needlessly in wars. So long as the working class continue to support capitalism so long will its wars, and preparations for war, continue

Conflict over access to and control of vital resources by competing nations have for the past one hundred years been rendered respectable by the cloak of capitalist ideology. They are no longer capable of being so masked. The only solution to war and the myriad other problems that face the workers of the world is to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism. We do not call for people to love one another (though we are not opposed to that of course) rather we appeal to the workers of this and other countries to recognise their common class interest and to organise consciously and politically to gain the political power necessary to dispossess the owning class – to strip them of their right to own the means of life – and to put in its place a system of common ownership and democratic control of the means of wealth production – socialism.

The role of the Socialist Party in helping bring socialism about is one of agitation and education. We are an instrument to be used by a conscious working class once the need for a revolutionary social change is recognised. The World Socialist Movement has but one answer: Workers of the world unite far world socialism. You have the World to gain.