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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Social Progress or the Regression of Civilisation

The Socialist Party is concerned with the future of the whole working class. Indeed, we are concerned with the future of all humanity.

So-called "free” labour is a cornerstone of the capitalist economic system, without which capitalism as we know it could not survive. This follows because "free labour," which is only another way of saying wage labor, is the source of profit, and thereby the source of capital. Without a system of labor under which workers produce an excess of wealth over what they are paid there would be no source from which profits could be drawn, and without profit there would be no way to increase capital. What this system of wage labour amounts to for workers is that they are "free" to sell their ability to perform productive labor on the labor market to the capitalist who is willing to pay the highest wages. Furthermore, this wages system is a cornerstone of the capitalist social order. That is, the ability of the capitalist class to keep its place as the dominant and ruling class in society depends on its ability to restrain its greed for profit to the extent that the dominated and exploited working class can maintain an acceptable standard of living. Otherwise, workers may come to realize that the capitalist system promises only poverty, insecurity and degradation for themselves and future generations.

There are certain indications that the increased ferocity of capitalist competition involved in globalization is leading to conditions in which the ground is being eaten from under the system of free wage labour. As modern technology continues its relentless sweep through all industries, and as capitalism's requirement for human labour declines, the ability of workers to earn a decent living is declining precipitously. Signs of this erosion are becoming increasingly evident around the world. The spread of automation and robotics, the vast displacement of human labour, and the resulting competition for jobs that is driving wages down all over the world is setting the stage for a social catastrophe of enormous dimensions that holds the potential for destroying the capitalist system itself. Indeed, there are indications that apologists for the capitalist system are increasingly concerned that the working class -- as a class -- may come to recognize its situation, and that this could spell real trouble for the system. So they propose such things as the universal citizens income or unconditional basic income to mitigate the potential inequality threat.

 Emancipation from capitalist wage slavery will free the entire human race and put an end to classes and class divisions. The modern wage-slave cannot look to any outside Abolitionist movement for help. They cannot look to any "superior" class to assist them. We are on our own. Historic forces, economic crises,and intensified class antagonisms will arouse today's enslaved class to consciousness and we will resist and overcome our servitude. It is the duty of all socialists to denounce how the producing class is the slaves of the possessing class who perform no useful labour whatever but merely own.

It is increasingly urgent that workers become conscious of what they have in common as the victims of the capitalist system of exploitation and human degradation. More than that, it is urgent that they organise the political and economic power implicit in their vast numbers to abolish that system before it leads the world into a new Dark Age in which the vast majority of humanity is reduced to a hopeless level of enforced poverty and social bondage comparable to chattel slavery. The Socialist Party is the one way in which the working class can organise its potential power in a way to assure that it can resist capitalist greed and exploitation. It is one way that the working-class majority can gain control over the economy and to operate it in the interests of all society. Achieving that goal is indispensable if workers are to become the masters of their own destinies and thereby remove the yoke of economic despotism that is synonymous with the capitalist system. If the working class is ever to succeed in establishing a free and democratic society in which all will enjoy peace, abundance, and security, it must first have a proper understanding of its class status in capitalist society, a correct class perception of the opposing forces it must contend with on the road to its goal, and a precise knowledge of the meaning of the social, economic and political terms of the age.

It is correct to say that the capitalist system will destroy itself but it does not follow from that socialism will be the successor. If the working-class is not sufficiently educated to understand present events, the result will be a social catastrophe brought on by the political charlatans and economic quacks. They shed crocodile tears over the inequities of the present system, they display utmost piety for the most deprived and oppressed victims of capitalism's ruthless exploitation and pay lip-service to democracy. Whether the palliatives proposed by the reformers are direct aids to capitalists in exploiting the workers, or in perpetuating the capitalist system, or in deceiving the workers into believing that their fate can be improved under the capitalist system, the fact remains that their reforms and their "resistance" to ever more reactionary restrictions on workers are generally contrary to the interests of workers. It does not require any profound insight to realise that the hopes for a sane and decent society do not lie with the plutocracy; nor with its governments. Nor do they rest with men and women "of good will," no matter how sincere or commendable their philanthropy may be. Those hopes lie with the working class. They lie in the latent political and industrial might of that working class, the only might that can neutralise and defeat the oligarchy and provide the basis for a new democratic and affluent society.

The welfare state has nothing to do with socialism; yet, it may also be said that they are a result of socialism. The reason neither of social reforms such as social security and the free health service has anything to do with socialism, of course, is that socialism implies an end to the poverty and social insecurity that come from private ownership and control of the economy. Welfare, the benefits system, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, etc., are so many concessions to the socialist contention that capitalism is incapable of eliminating the social ills the system creates. They are so many confessions of wrong-doing by the ruling class, as are all examples of so-called social legislation. Socialism does not strive to lessen the effect of capitalism's evils on the working class: it strives to root out capitalism and the social evils it spawns. At the same time, it can be said that all reforms designed to ease the impact capitalism has on the working class result from socialism. They result from socialism in the same sense that defensive fortifications result from the advances of an aggressive army. They are in the nature of capitalist strategic maneuvers in the face of the socialist challenge. Incidentally, this is literally, not merely figuratively, true. Social security and workers' benefits were introduced by none other than Otto von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor" of Germany. In the 1870s, Bismarck established the infamous Anti-Socialist Laws aimed at destroying the socialist movement. When these failed of their objective, he, in the 1880s, introduced a number of so-called social insurance laws providing some compensation to victims of industrial accidents and old-age pensions. The purpose was not to ease the burden of the victims of the industrial system but to deflect the socialist movement and, if possible, to split it. It was a brilliant piece of political strategy that worked like a charm, as the difficulty the movement has had in overcoming the seductive lure of such reform schemes shows all too well.

The Socialist Party holds that involvement in daily struggles is not inherently reformist. Indeed, such involvement is indispensable to stop the grinding down of the working class. But we argue that such struggles are not the task of a socialist party but of trade unions and many other social organisations. The Socialist Party, nevertheless, does not hesitate to point to the inevitable limitations of any movement that fails to address the capitalist cause.

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