Socialism or reformism

At some level, perhaps not always too well articulated, socialists have been around for a long time. A lot of us came to socialism by searching for a word/term/phrase which would begin to express all of our concerns, all of our principles. The trouble with taking a label is that it creates an instant accusation of sectarianism. How does a socialist look at the world? Every socialist knows that capitalist society is characterized by inequality and this inequality arises from processes which are intrinsic to capitalism as an economic system. A minority of people (the capitalist class) own all the factories and resources,  which everyone else depends on in order to live. The great majority (the working class) must work out of sheer necessity, under conditions set by the capitalists, for the wages the capitalists pay. Since the capitalists make their profits by paying less in wages than the value of what the workers actually produce, the relationship between the two classes is necessarily one of irreconcilable antagonism. The capitalist class owes its very existence to the continued exploitation of the working class. What maintains this system of class rule is, which in the last analysis, means force. The capitalist class controls (directly or indirectly) the means of organised violence represented by the state – police, the courts and jails. Only by waging a class struggle aimed at the seizure of state power can the working class free itself, and, ultimately, all people. Socialists expose the myths about “democracy” to reveal a system of class domination that rests on forcible exploitation.

Socialists understand that, in its search for markets, capitalism is driven to penetrate every nook and cranny of social existence. Especially in the phase of  capitalism, the realm of consumption is every bit as important, just from an economic point of view, as the realm of production. So we cannot understand class struggle as something confined to issues of wages and hours, or confined only to workplace issues. The class struggle occurs in every arena where the interests of classes conflict, and that includes education, health, the arts, etc. We aim to transform not only the ownership of the means of production but the totality of social existence. At present, the capitalist class controls mass culture. Instead of collectivity and self-reliance as a class, there is mutual isolation and collective dependency on the capitalist class.

We are Marxist socialists, not petty reformers; we are socialists, not progressive liberals. If we are socialists, what are we actually fighting for? On the most basic level, socialism is a society dedicated to the interests of the working people where the means by which society produces its wealth – factories, mines, and farms – are no longer privately owned but is transferred to common ownership, and exploitation is eliminated. Socialism unleashes the creativity of the people, who are capable of tremendous advances when not labouring under a system of wage-slavery. Socialism can only be built if the majority of the people support it and are actively involved in building it. Socialists believe that the working class will transform society because it is the most dehumanised and alienated class, but is potentially the most powerful since the functioning and the survival of society depends on it.

The class antagonisms of capitalist society give birth to socialists in the struggle of the working class to free themselves from their capitalist exploiters by wresting from them the tools and machinery with which modern work is done. Only he or she is a socialist who perceives clearly the nature of the struggle and takes a stand squarely and uncompromisingly with fellow-workers in the struggle which can end only with the end of the capitalist system and the total abolition of class rule. We count everyone who is not with us and opposed to the capitalist class, as against us, especially those chicken-hearted “reformers” who are for everybody (especially themselves,) and against nobody. They are “socialists” for no other purpose than to emasculate socialism who  dare not offend their capitalist masters, for their rich rewards depend upon their treason of the working class. We have no patience with the frauds who come up with their quack remedies for the social ills of capitalism. A socialist is someone who believes that the wage system is slavery and that commercial competition is wasteful.