Capital versus Humanity

A new danger is threatening the domination of the bourgeoisie – workers are resolutely adopting the path of international class organisation. The down-trodden, submissive slaves humbly bowing before the omnipotence of the modern Moloch of capital are, under the reviving influence of socialist ideas, lifting their heads and raising their voices in defence of their common class interests. The capitalists once could breathe freely when they still had under their power an inexhaustible supply of compliant workers, always ready obediently and selflessly to enrich by their labour the happy owners of the instruments of production. The employing class availed itself of the advantage offered by this state of affairs to set one half of the proletariat against the other, shattering any unity, compelling the newcomer migrant workers to appear as the menacing rivals, sapping the class solidarity of the workers. With malicious smugness it, the bosses fostered a more ignorant working class to thwart the struggle waged by the organised elements of the working class. But now the owners of capital and property do have something to worry about: new successes are being achieved in the organisation of the working class. Yesterday's silent slave is now a courageous fighter for the liberation of the working class.

The advance of scientific knowledge and the use of scientific method are of primary importance to man because, through enlightenment, they free him from the blind forces of nature, and through labour and struggle enable him to master his environment. Technological progress in recent times has extended man’s control over nature, to the point where it is possible to provide for all normal material needs. This is the economic base on which the good life for all citizens can be built. Such a life involves the creation, in the broadest sense of a cultured community — a community providing the maximum opportunity for the development of the potential of all its members.

Socialists hold a lofty view of human powers — mental, moral, and physical: a view of mankind changing itself and the environment through the exercise of those powers in collective labour. The promotion of culture involves the all-round development of the whole community, including the care of physical health and welfare, and preparation for working life, as well as the things of the mind and spirit, the sciences and arts. Socialists seek their synthesis in the production of complete humanity, the all-sided personality, for whom all life and experience form a unity. Marx was concerned with education for life, for useful people, not education for a leisured class, and he saw the need for maintaining the organic connection between labour and culture. Socialism sees all labour, physical and mental, as a unity, and sets out to end the distinction that exists between them in a class society, by seeking the end-product of the worker-intellectual. Socialist men and women are all-round persons, at home in physical labour, with technical skills, and a scientific understanding of nature and man’s place in it. A cultured life in socialist society includes physical welfare and an interest in the world of spirit and mind as reflected in the arts and sciences. Under capitalism, both worker and intellectual tend to be one-sided, partially developed. Socialism sets out to achieve a synthesis in personality, to produce people for whom both productive labour and intellectual life are requirements for satisfactory living. With socialism, the distinction between mental and physical labour, essentially a class distinction, will have disappeared. The collective, co-operative spirit of living is part of the lifeblood of a socialist society.