The problem with capitalism

Trade unions can only fight a rearguard action against the worst excesses of capitalism. They try to improve conditions for their members within capitalism in the form of higher wages, fewer hours, better overtime rates, sick pay, pension plans, safety legislation, etc., but can never be a means to establish socialism. Nor can it be argued that workers in unions can capture the tools of production within capitalism, thereby creating a new society within the womb of the old, which Industrial Workers of the World advocate. For a union to be effective, it must embrace workers of all political beliefs in its ranks, including reformers, liberal, conservatives, and fascists - hardly an organization that will change anything fundamentally. Benefits won by years of union activity and strife can be lost in the blink of an eye, as we see here. This doesn't mean there is no solution to the problem. In fact, the solution exists and can be implemented as soon as most people decide we need a complete change. It's called socialism - common ownership by all and free access for all to the products of society - and to establish it we need to work politically for its speedy arrival. One thing that Marx stressed that the unions these days no longer concern themselves with and it is the complete abolition of the wages system.

Socialism, the only viable alternative to capitalism will be a system based on the common ownership of the production and distribution of wealth and worldwide cooperation for the benefit of all. Of course, there will be disputes, solved by discussion, mediation, and majority vote that will heed the greater good for all the earth’s people, not just the interests of the tiny minority of owners, as our the present system. But socialism, being a truly democratic system will certainly put an end to borders. There is no answer within the competitive capitalist system where every country looks after its own welfare, or rather that of their capitalist class, doesn’t mean that there is no answer. In a socialist society of common ownership, where production is for the satisfaction of human needs, it naturally follows that there will be no need for money, the profit system, or the profit motive. Decisions, including ones concerning the environment, will be made by the majority of the world’s citizens in the interests of the majority. All due regard will be given to satisfying need without environmental murder. The problem is that time is running out. If there is any time left to establish a socialist system to solve this world problem, before environmental destruction is irreversible, then the time is now.

Socialism can only be established by a class-conscious majority of the world's people working together. It will mean an end to nation states, their central governments, and to competition and replace it with a cooperative, democratic system where producers meet as equals to produce goods for use, not profit, and to look for real solutions that benefit all mankind, based on science and common sense. Only in such a system can the revolutionary changes in our life-style be enacted that will put an end to the dirty production, indiscriminate resource extraction, and unchecked development that characterize capitalist production. It is common sense to end our dependency on fossil fuels and to develop green technology, to move to local production and self-sufficiency, and produce only what we need in an economy planned to meet the needs of all humans. This kind of common sense is impossible to contemplate, never mind implement, under our capitalist system because its only reason for being, and its driving force, is the production of profit. Capitalism that has brought the productive powers necessary to create abundance for everyone is incapable of making the revolutionary social and economic changes needed to nurture the earth and all its inhabitants. Only socialism can usher in the next greatest step in human progress - the era of mutual cooperation, the real beginning of our history on this planet.

Our employers are class-conscious and they practice the class struggle. The bosses picked their battles carefully and prepared for them thoroughly.  During a strike companies show their capitalist class solidarity, joining forces to fight against their workers. On the other hand, workers look for every opportunity to turn things around.

The employing class makes their profit by taking it out of the blood, sweat and tears of their workers. The boss tries to squeeze as much profit out of the worker as he possibly can. And if the workers stopped resisting, they’d just be squeezed even more. Of course, there are some nice bosses and plenty of nasty bosses. On the Southern cotton plantations, there WERE kind slave-masters and cruel ones. The working class wants NO slave-masters and NO bosses. The capitalist class and the profit system does not change their spots. This system is designed to run on profit, not philanthropy or idealism. That’s why it’s called the profit system. Wars are fought – for profit. And peace treaties are written – for profit ... to the victor.

Everything you use, everything you eat or wear, your car, your housing — you didn’t make any of these things. We don’t produce these things as individuals. We produce socially. We have a division of work in the United States, and in the whole world for that matter. People in one part of the world make things which people in another part of the world use. But, even though we produce socially, through co-operation, we don’t own the means of production socially. And this affects all the basic decisions made in this society about what we produce. These decisions are not made on the basis of what people need but on the basis of what makes a profit.

Take the question of hunger. There are people going hungry all over the world but farmers don’t make their decisions by saying: “We need a lot of corn to feed those folk, so I’m going to plant a lot of corn.” Instead, the question is: “How much profit am I going to make if I plant corn?”

Take the question of housing. We could build beautiful homes for every family. The potential exists to clear out every slum and shanty-town. We have the factories, machinery and the materials for building. Yet, these houses are not going to be built to solve the housing question because it’s not profitable for the construction companies.

Did you know that because of the way the system is structured a large percentage of the people do not do any productive work at all? You have the unemployed who are not hired because it’s not profitable to hire them. Then you have the people who consume a great deal but don’t produce anything such as those in the army and the police. Then you have things like the people in the advertising industry. They don’t do anything really useful or necessary. In addition, you have a mammoth, organised effort to create waste. For instance, if you designed a car that would last 50 years, they wouldn’t build it. Because that would destroy the purpose of making cars, which is to produce profits by bringing out newer models each year – built-in obsolescence.

In the developing world — in Asia, Africa, and Latin America consider this: When a worker finishes working a full eight-hour day, he or she produces as much as an average American or European worker does in an hour. In order to raise this figure, you have to industrialise, you have to mechanise, you have to invest new technology and automation. Instead of getting real assistance from the industrialised sections of the world, developing countries are looted and drained of their wealth. Tariff barriers and protectionism blocked them from industrialising simply because the advanced capitalist countries will not permit the competition which would result from it. In fact, they impose trade treaties that permit them to out-compete and under-cut developing countries in their own domestic market.  In terms of the effect such exploitation is having on the developing world, in terms of people actually dying, starving and suffering, and their whole lives being destroyed by poverty, this is one of capitalism’s greatest crimes.

The conflict between capitalism’s drive for profits and human needs inevitably leads to social explosions. Capitalism cannot resolve its basic contradiction by becoming more responsive to social needs except for short temporary periods of time, and then only in a limited manner. Human needs always comes up against capitalism’s reason for existence - profits and this opens up the road towards revolution.

The Socialist Party believe we can win a majority of the people to support a fundamental change in the system. The right to vote, the right to representation, is deeply ingrained in our culture and traditions and can become a powerful weapon against the ruling class. We have to present our conception of a future society in which there would be no rich or poor, where society would be run democratically both politically and economically, where the economy would be rationally planned and production would be based on human needs not profits for individuals, until it become accepted by millions throughout the world. That future society is socialism. The Socialist Party’s goal is to help mobilize the whole working class, to unite the class in action.