Capitalism: Artificially induced scarcity

The Socialist Party expresses the truth about today’s capitalist society from the standpoint of working class interest. The will of the working class, the vast majority, is supreme. Since the general concept of socialism is mired in falsehoods, it cannot be expected of workers to adopt genuine socialist ideas until they purge their minds of misconceptions about socialism. In order to remedy this situation, an educational process must be set in motion to replace falsehoods with the truth. In our education we endeavour to convey an understanding of these concepts:

l) the law of value,

2) the law of surplus value,

3) capital, wage labour and profit

4) the material conception of history

These concepts uncover the secret as to how labour is exploited and why capitalism periodically lurches from one economic crisis into another. The subject matter is not difficult. Any worker acquiring this knowledge is most likely to become class conscious to the delight of their fellow class conscious workers and to the dismay of the capitalist class and their political lackeys.

The working class produces all wealth (all goods and services). The working class has the capability to easily produce an abundance for everyone. With this potential, want in the midst of plenty, is an outrage. Raw materials are everywhere. Anytime labour is applied to them, useful products are created to provide the needs of people. But presently these needs do not drive production. When the markets are glutted and the surplus commodities cannot be sold, the owners of the industries are compelled to shut down production, not because everyone's needs are satisfied, but because of declining profits. Of all the species on earth, only humans, with advanced productive technology, can produce many times more than what is required for their subsistence. Since it is the labour of workers that convert raw materials into something useful, then it stands to reason that it is the workers who should decide on when, how and why to conduct production, the "why" being production for use instead of profit.

A sane socialist society built by workers means:

l) all the means of production such as raw materials, production equipment and facilities belong to society as a whole,

2) workers collectively receive the full value of the product of their labour,

3) production is conducted for everyone's needs instead of profit for the few as it is today under private ownership of the means of production, and

4) social management and operation of the means of production with a political stateless economic system based on social representation from the respective industries and services. Exploitation of wage labour becomes extinct.

The principles of real socialism have never been in practice at any time anywhere in the world. "Look at what happened in the Soviet Union," they say. Did Karl Marx err? Did socialism fail? The global conflict has never been between capitalism and socialism but between the contesting ideologies of free-market or state capitalism. Most emphatically, socialism has never been tried. The condemnation of socialism by claiming that socialism has failed is mistaken and misleading. Marx insisted that only an educated working class could successfully carry out a revolution of socialism in a country that has developed highly industrialised production to the point where the vast majority of people have become members of the working class. All the countries that attempted socialism had an undeveloped industry which presupposes mass illiteracy and the working class constituting a tiny minority. The truth of the matter is that the idea of socialism has been under constant assault by strange bedfellows. They are the left-wing leaders who pay homage to Marx. All of them, in one form or another, help uphold the crime of exploiting wage labour, the mainstay of capitalism. Whether bureaucratic state despots or free marketeers, all these members of the ruling class sit in the saddle of the wages system and ride the backs of the working class.

Billions are without decent health care and billions, who are the working poor, struggle to receive the bare necessities such as food, clothing and shelter. Prisons are overflowing, the environment is being despoiled, natural resources are being wastefully depleted and education, the foremost element needed to solve these problems, is deplorably inept. Supporters of the status quo tell people they should have nothing to be concerned about. Many of the working class, the so-called middle class, are lulled into complacency. In every case, the false sense of security is eventually devastated by an economic crash. It is true some survive but at an irrecoverable price.

Reforms and compromises only re-enforce and perpetuate that system and will only tighten the iron collar of wage-slavery around the necks of the workers of the world. The political scene abounded with liberals hawking their feeble reform sops to the working class in every country. The do-gooders prostitute themselves by doing the capitalist class bidding. Capitalism has reached the point when it can no longer contribute to social progress; when it actually hinders it. The oppressed and exploited of the world is looking for inspiration. Let us work towards the overthrow of capitalism rather than tinkering with reforms which only strengthens the ruling class. The capitalist class is class-conscious and will always act in its own material interest. It has the compulsion to pursue this to the point of destroying civilisation. The only remedy for this is for the working class, the vast majority, to become itself class consciously educated and organise to promote its own interest. Since mainstream educational institutions are a reflection of capitalism's status quo, to achieve class-consciousness, workers must set up and pursue their own educational process, dedicated to educating their fellow working men and women about the class struggle between the capitalist class and the working class. Its guiding authority is the truth and principles that serve to emancipate the working class from wage slavery by replacing capitalism with the cooperative commonwealth.

The productive capability that advanced society has achieved, enabling mankind to produce an abundance for everyone, is based upon social production on a highly industrialised level. The catch is that this wondrous technological potential is deliberately prevented from being implemented. How can everyone benefit from society's capability to produce an uninterrupted abundance? Capitalism has no answer for that question. The very existence of capitalism depends on the private ownership of the socially operated means of production. The motive for capitalist production is first and foremost to reap a profit with workers receiving the small portion that is left. Dispense with the everyday argument of who deserves what share of the products produced for a moment and a clear view comes into focus revealing how monstrous this crime is: Every day after huge profits are made, workers are barred from continuing production to satisfy their unmet needs. If they were able to punch the start button of production for even an extra half hour for their use an avalanche of products across the country would appear. Keep this up for a few days and all the run-down neighbourhoods could be replaced and all the children would be well-nourished. Many more examples of overcoming want with plenty could be cited but the criminal capitalist system will hear none of that. It is compelled to persist in having human deprivation by placing profits before people.  Marx observed the contradiction that the private ownership of the socially operated means of production translates into the countless ills that afflict society today. The more that the efficiency of production increases, the more predatory capitalism becomes. Internecine economic destruction devastates the world as superior capital displaces inferior capital (capital that can no longer compete). That, in turn, creates the condition of vast want in the midst of plenty around the world. Our forefathers were helpless victims of nature's capricious fits of scarcity. Today's victims suffer from artificially induced scarcity.