Against nationalism and nationalisation

We the working class create the wealth of society. But we do so only for the profit of the bosses on terms dictated by them. As workers, we are forced to work long hours in conditions which endanger our physical and mental health. We have no control over what we produce, how it is produced or what it is used for. Every aspect of our lives is dominated by the need for money. The working class is the dispossessed class. We depend on selling our labour power to the bosses. But since labour power, as a commodity is bought and sold like any other commodity, the bosses can refuse to buy it when it is no longer required. Ever greater numbers of our class are denied even the "privilege" of wage labour and forced to rely on state handouts.

The idea that state capitalism is or could be beneficial to the working class is still a powerful force holding back the class struggle. Nationalisation of industry is a state capitalist measure which offers no benefits whatsoever either to the workers employed there or to the working class as a whole. In mixed economies, nationalisation - like privatisation - has been a common method of carrying out wholesale industrial restructuring. In 19th century Europe, nationalisation was used to help develop "infrastructure" (railways, post, credit....) Nationalisation played an important role in the reconstruction of economies devastated by the Second World War. It ensured that capital was invested where it was most needed. At the moment, however, the priority is to increase competition in the labour market, and privatisation is proving an efficient means to this end.

For the bosses who own and control the means of production, all production has a single aim: profit. Nothing is produced unless it can be sold profitably, however much it may be needed. For the sake of profit mountains of food are destroyed. Resources are denied for basic health care. The houses and cities we live in are allowed to decay. Instead, resources are devoted to arms and armies1 so that the bosses can send us into war against rival profiteers. None of this would happen in a rationally organised society. It is the outcome of a society propelled by the lust for profit. For all these reasons the working class has no interest in the continued existence of this society. Bosses throughout the world are united in their ferocious opposition to our struggles. The working class must unite against them.

Nationalism is only one of the many reactionary forces which at present divide and weaken the working class. The nation state is the political organisation of capitalism. With socialism, nation states will disappear. As socialists ,we oppose every attempt to rally the working class to the cause of nationalism whether in the name of "national liberation" or the "defence of freedom and democracy. We call on the working class to oppose all wars between rival capitalist states by taking up and intensifying the class war against capitalism in all its forms.' against all governments and bosses, black and white, "socialist" and conservative. National liberation is no solution. In the 19th century, some liberation struggles led to the creation of new nation states which played a dynamic role in the development of world capitalism. This is no longer possible. Today, the new rulers may achieve a measure of political independence from the great powers but they can never free their country from the grip of the world economic crisis. For the working class in these countries "liberation" simply means exchanging one set of bosses for another - the new ones as violently opposed to working class struggle as the old ones.

The organisation of socialist society will be based or the collective 'administration of things', not on the political power of a ruling minority over the majority. The State, which throughout history has been the organisation of ruling class power, will have been abolished. Socialism is fundamentally a struggle to replace competition by cooperation, production for profit by production for need. This will make it possible to redevelop the large areas of the world devastated by capitalism, and to institute a system of global planned production. A socialist society such as we envisage is only possible on the basis of material abundance. The potential for this has already been created by the development of capitalist industry and agriculture. Goods will be freely available and free of charge. Money will disappear. However, socialism will not be like a huge supermarket where passive individuals simply help themselves. Work will be done because we want it to be done and want to do it - not because we have to in order to survive. The focus of interest in our lives will shift away from passively consuming, to include the new form of productive activity. This does not mean that overnight all productive activities will become passionately interesting... but a free society will strive to make them so by continually transforming the aims and methods of production. There will no longer be a mad scramble to exploit resources without concern for the future, or a rush to buy the "latest model" for prestige status and conspicuous consumption which gives the illusion of prosperity. The separation between work and leisure will disappear. People will freely associate to creatively use and transform their lives, by creatively using and transforming goods, activities and the environment, in an attempt to satisfy all our developing needs and desires. Community and communication will emerge in this common project: people will no longer be mere objects in the production process. The essence of socialism is the passionate transformation of the world and of ourselves, in the creation of a world human community.

Our role in the Socialist Party is, through our propaganda, to agitate, to publicise, to support and encourage in today’s struggle all tendencies which help lead to the spread of revolutionary ideas and a revolutionary spirit within the working class.