Support socialism for survival

“The monopoly of land drives him (the worker) from the farm into the factory, and the monopoly of machinery drives him from the factory into the street, and thus crucified between the two thieves of land and capital, the Christ of Labour hangs in silent agony.” Ernest Jones, Chartist leader

The supporters of socialism are few in number. This indifference of workers to socialist ideas is hardly surprising. We have all been brought up in a capitalist society where it is taken for granted that everyone is selfish, where people are continually told that our ‘betters’ should be the only  ones only a privileged to make the key decisions in society. We are brainwashed into accepting many capitalist ideas. As Marx put it, ‘The ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class,’ and vast numbers of workers accept them.

Whether they like it or not, whether they even know it or not, workers begin doing things that contradict all the capitalist ideas they have previously accepted. They begin to act in solidarity with one another, as a class, in opposition to the capitalist class. The ideas of socialism that were once rejected now begin to fit in with what they are doing. Some at least of the workers begin to take up those ideas socialist ideas seriously – providing those ideas are accessible. Their conflict with capitalist ideas obliges them to question these ideas. When they find that other workers are doing the same thing, they begin to make more and more connections with the idea of socialism. Once knowledge begins to be acquired, it can snowball at amazing speed. The basic premise of the Socialist Party is that the development of capitalism itself drives workers into revolt against the system and a transformation of working class consciousness takes place. Socialism can only come about when the working class itself takes political control to permit the economic control of the means of producing wealth to transform society

Increasing profit and shareholder dividends is the bottom line of capitalism. And it doesn’t matter how much devastation ensues or how unsustainable their business model is. The problems associated with the capitalist system cannot be dealt with on a single-issue basis. It’s not just about engaging in endless debates. Despite all the promises of the past and all the pledges for the future, hundreds of millions still go to bed with empty bellies hungry, hundreds of millions continue to die or are inflicted from unnecessary diseases and illnesses, hundreds of millions endure sweated labour if they can find employment, and hundreds of millions suffer from war and conflict. The problem is capitalism. The core cause of all the problems is capitalism.

Work is the source of all wealth and culture, and the entire returns thereof should accrue to those who do the work. In the present society, the tools of production are the monopoly of the capitalists. That the working class is kept dependent on these is the ultimate cause of misery and all forms of oppression. The goal of the Socialist Party is, therefore, to abolish the existing mode of production (the “wage system” or “price system”) and convert private property into the common property of society. The abolition of the wage system is our organisation’s expressed goal, to which we must cling with fanatical conviction. The struggle for the liberation of the working is not a fight for new class privileges and prerogatives but for the abolition of class rule. The class struggle is the ceaseless struggle which goes on from day to day in every country and between the same combatants – the master class and the working class. Society is like a huge market where the capitalist brings money, and the worker his only commodity – labour power. The worker sells his labour power in exchange for wages which is the commodity that will bring him the subsistence of life. The system is capitalism, and those who control it are capitalists.

The history of the working class has been a history of unremitting struggle against exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. Under the rule of the present capitalists, there can be no freedom for the workers – only freedom to be exploited as wage slaves. Today, the people of the world live under the dictatorship of the tiny capitalist class. The ruling class propagates many ideas about “democracy” and “freedom,” but in reality, the only freedom which exists is their freedom to oppress and exploit people around the world for profits.  Working people, get rid of your slavish idolatry. You set up such men as Bill Gates, Richard Branson as your idols. While you are worshipping your idols, their pals are forging ever stronger your chains.

Socialist organisation means getting together with a common understanding and a common end in view and working systematically for the attainment of that end. For the workers to organize effectively, they must have a correct understanding of their position in society and of the conditions under which they live and work. If they fail to understand these things, they will either not organize at all or will organize in an ineffective manner. The effectiveness of their organization depends on the correctness of their understanding. The better they understand conditions the more effectively they will organise. There can be no organisation without action, and it must be systematic, not haphazard action. Systematic action means each member doing what one is best fitted to do, in the best way he or she knows how, and in co-operation with every other member. It means each one doing his or her part, and all co-operating in the production of the whole. When a person understands the conditions in this class war as they really are, he or she is ready to join the Socialist Party.

The reward for our struggle will be a new and free happy system. Complete job control means possession of the source of all wealth and social power. When the workers control industry, they will own the earth. A system in which there are no more classes, no more wage workers and no more parasites, a system which will not be led by the privileged but carefully guarded by society’s useful producers, administrated by capable men and women.  Let our slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, your weapons the industrial and political organisation of the wage slaves to conquer our own emancipation.

For the thinking worker, the only way forward is to build the world movement for socialism. We live today in a world dominated by capital. Capitalism as a ruling system is far from being eternal. In Britain and Europe capitalist economic relations (those between the class of capitalist employers and the class of wage workers) grew up within feudalism and became dominant with the English Revolution of 1640 and the French Revolution of 1789.  Capitalism is a system of commodity production (that is, the production of goods for sale and not for direct use by the producer) which is distinguished by the fact that labour power itself becomes a commodity. The major means of production and exchange which make up the capital of society are owned privately by a small minority, the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie), while the great majority of the population consists of proletarians or semi-proletarians. Because of their economic position, this majority can only exist by permanently or periodically selling their labour power to the capitalists and thus creating through their work the incomes of the upper classes. Thus, fundamentally, capitalism is a system of exploitation of the working class (the proletariat) by the capitalist class. The development of exchange throughout history has led in the modern world to close ties being established between all the nations on earth. The emergence of capitalism as a social system greatly accelerated this process. It also brought forth two powerful, antagonistic classes, the decisive classes of the system: capitalists and workers. Its worldwide character meant that the struggle of the proletariat for its emancipation from class exploitation and oppression also became, and has remained, worldwide. Technological progress brings about a greater productivity of labour and increased social wealth, it cannot get rid of the evils of capitalism or solve the problems of the working class. Rather, it intensifies them. Only socialism, which results from the class struggle of workers against capitalists, can solve them. By replacing private ownership of the means of production by common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of production which is a feature of capitalism into planned production, organised for the well-being of all of society, the socialist revolution will end the division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms of exploitation of one section of society by another.